sailing and handball; friends and family; sought normality, within an exceptional situation. The second full day of King Juan Carlos in Spain began at sea, aboard the Bribón and together with his regatta partners, and ended at the municipal pavilion of Pontevedra, where a handball match was played between Club Cisne and Barça B. in which his grandson Pablo Urdangarin played.
Those attending the match hardly noticed the presence of King Juan Carlos who arrived at the sports pavilion coinciding with the departure of his grandson to the field of play. The presence of the emeritus was reported over the loudspeaker, and then discreet applause was heard, which was repeated with greater intensity when he left the pavilion. King Juan Carlos sat on a stand next to the track, from which he slipped when he got up, in the company of Pedro Campos and his nephew Pedro de Borbón-Dos Sicilias. Grandfather and grandson hugged each other at the end of the game, adding a family image to the album these days. It is not the first time that Juan Carlos applauds the plays of his grandson; In March 2019 with Queen Sofia, the infantas Cristina and Elena and the mother of Iñaki Urdangarin, he was in Hannover, where the boy played. Pablo Urdangarin, his mother, his brothers, Pablo, Miguel and Irene, his aunt Elena and his cousin Victoria de Marichalar, were in Abu Dhabi during Holy Week. Together they posed in a photograph that, due to a chroma effect, erased Pablo Urdangarin's legs from the image. Yesterday, those attending the match between Cisne and Barça were able to verify that the King's nephew has good footwork.
After the game, King Juan Carlos returned to the house of Pedro Campos in Sanxenxo, where a dinner was held, attended by some friends who had traveled to the Galician town for the occasion. Not all of them were there, since Juan Carlos himself made many who wanted to visit him in Sanxenxo give up to prevent what was a meeting of friends from being seen as a tribute and much less as an act of atonement.
The expectation aroused on Friday by the arrival of the King's father at the Sanxenxo Yacht Club, dropped a few integers yesterday. Less public and less press, which gave a certain air of normality to the royal presence. The second regatta of the InterRías trophy was suspended due to lack of wind, which frustrated the king's wishes to compete for the first time since 2019. After remaining on the jetty, already sitting in his position as skipper of the sailboat, waiting for the conditions to compete, finally the crew opted to go sailing on their own. King Juan Carlos wanted to recognize the silhouette of the estuary and see the Galician landscapes again. Shortly after 4 in the afternoon, the day of regatta was definitively canceled and the twenty-four participating boats returned to port.
Upon returning to the club and before leaving the venue, King Juan Carlos, sitting in the passenger seat of the car, waved to the waiting media; Asked how his stay in Spain was going, he commented: "Very good, very good, you see." He insisted on obtaining statements from the King's father collides every day with his evident desire not to go beyond a few courtesy responses. He always appreciates the shows of support and attention from the media but avoids direct contact following his intention not to add, for better or worse, new elements that cloud his stay in Spain in the least.
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