With applause and waving flags of Spain. This is how Sanxenxo received the King Emeritus this Thursday afternoon. Dozens of neighbors joined the hundred media professionals who had been waiting for hours at the doors of the house of their friend Pedro Campos where he is staying during his stay, in a gesture with which they wanted to show their affection for the Monarch and encouraged, likewise, by the curiosity of the long-awaited moment, and by the mediatic expectation, unprecedented in the municipality. “We have never seen anything like it, the interest is enormous,” explain residents of the area in relation to the interest aroused by this first stop of the Monarch in Spain.
As a tourist town accustomed to multiplying its population every summer, receiving sailors from all over the world at its nautical events and welcoming authorities and personalities of great projection, they believed that they had already seen everything in terms of media pressure, but these days they confess overflowing A hundred media have traveled to the municipality on the occasion of the visit of the King Emeritus, hotel beds are scarce and even at times there are telephone coverage problems due to excess data demand.
Life continues the same in the municipality except in two points where the media are concentrated, in front of the Nanín house owned by Pedro Campos where the Monarch is staying and in the surroundings of the Real Club Náutico and the marina that It bears his name, Juan Carlos I. Here, moreover, the movement of sailors and sailing enthusiasts has increased. In Nanín, residents could even be seen climbing the walls, with their flag, eager to give him a standing ovation upon his arrival.
And in the midst of so much curiosity, the “maximum” emotion to receive him again. They were used to seeing him before the pandemic at least once a month, but this visit is not only the first in two years, but also has the incentive of being the first stop on her return to Spain.
The emotion is shared by the Monarch himself, as revealed by his friend Pedro Campos, host in the house where he stayed during his stay in Galicia and president of the Real Club Náutico de Sanxenxo since 1999. He was able to speak with him on Wednesday and told him that want “a lot” to return. He is “very excited to return to Spain”, he assures, and also to meet again with the crew of the Bribón, the ship in which he usually sails and possibly will do so this weekend and return “to Sanxenxo and the sea”.
They are “delighted” in this tourist village. Campos acknowledges that they are “a little overwhelmed” by this expectation, but considers that it is a “normal” reaction and that “it has more good things than bad.” They also insist that, for them, it is “a normal regatta that has come so many times and with some rivals that this time are a little more”, since it is the last trophy before the world championship that will be held in June and of which the Bribón was champion in its last edition, in 2019. Juan Carlos I is also expected in June, although with a slightly different visit, two weeks.
In Sanxenxo the hope of being able to see him during the weekend is also growing. In addition to the members of the Náutico and sailors, who will be able to meet him during the InterRías trophy regattas of the 6mR class 2022 Spain Cup circuit, in which the Monarch used to participate, the population maintains the illusion that he has a social agenda and they can see you. As they remember from the City Council and the Náutico, he is a “very loved” person in the town.
The question remains as to whether or not he will participate in the regatta, because “he has not sailed for three years and although he says that he is in very good physical shape, it will depend a little on what day it is tomorrow”, recalls the president of the Náutico . The final decision will be made by himself just before the regatta and will depend, fundamentally, on the wind in the Ría de Pontevedra during the three days of competition.
During your stay you can also socialize with your friends. At the moment, he does not have a closed agenda beyond the Nautical and the regattas, but there may be social outings, since “he has a lot of energy and he still feels like it”.
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