Fiesta Nacional de España. Or better yet, a royal goat.

Here come's the royal family! Is that Juan Carlos I?? Oh wait no...it's a goat.

Don't let me lead you astray with this opening line. It really was a parade for the royal family coming to Madrid. They've come to celebrate the National Day of Spain (I know, creative name.)

When we heard about a parade Sunday morning with the royal family participating, we jumped at the chance. Then we realized it was even more perfect when its purpose was to celebrate a day that we've commemorated since elementary school: Columbus Day.

So today instead of making Christopher Columbus hats out of paper, we saw our own very-intresting variety of Spanish military hats and uniforms. And we replaced singing songs about how "In fourteen hundred ninety-two Columbus sailed the ocean blue" with trumpets and drums of a royal procession.

But back to the royal goat. Okay he's not royal, but he's military and he wears a hat and cape. While waiting for the King and Queen to walk by, this oh-so-casual goat trotted right past us (do goats trot?) So when I got back home I had to research...this isn't just any goat. It's the mascot of La Legion, an elite unit of the Spanish army.

The goat was accompanied by what must have been 20 different arms of the Spanish army, one of which was literally an Alpine Battallion (they carried skis on their backs!)

To end on a rather dissapointing note, we didn't ever see the royal family :( Supossedley you had to be at a very specific location in order to catch a glimpse.

But how many people can say they've seen a goat in a littly tiny army hat and a cape?

#culture #holiday