Pamplona The Running Of The Bulls

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Early last month, we took a road trip from the bottom of Spain to the top, to Pamplona, and then onward to San Sebastian, and then into France. The first day we drove north from Malaga, stopping over night outside of Madrid. The next day we proceeded on for 6 more hours to Pamplona, arriving the afternoon before the opening ceremony of the San Fermin Festival. (which Ernest Hemingway helped make famous in the 1920s) The Festival which runs continuously for over a week features The Running of the Bulls each morning at 8.
We were happy to watch the first Running of the Bulls from our seats in the Bullring. We had been advised to go to the Bullring since we would be able to watch the entire street running craziness on the large screen TV from our seats in the ring. We had been told that watching the action from the street is usually disappointing, since from even the best vantage points, the bulls come charging by and out of sight in a matter of 10 seconds.
After watching the 5 minutes of street action, the runners and the bulls on the big screen suddenly burst into the ring before us. There we watched as the big street running bulls narrowly miss a few hapless runners and then exit out the other side of the ring.
Then one by one smaller, younger bulls came charging one by one into the ring to play cat and mouse game with the runners. This went on for a morbidly fascinating hour. As far as we could tell, no one was seriously hurt, even though a number of the runners must have been extremely sore from their close encounters in the ring.
(to enlarge the pictures below, click on each individual image)

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Photos

Russ And Zack
Opening Day

Russ
"When In Pamplona"

Wendy At The Opening Ceremony
San Fermin Festival, Pamplona

Ernest The Great
An Icon In Pamplona

Bull Gymnastics
Not sure if this one turned out too well for the gymnast

Believe It Or Not
As far as we know, no one got "seriously hurt"

The Queen
Larger Than Life