The rain held off as Real Madrid celebrated a record 32nd Spanish league title at its traditional Plaza Cibeles gathering spot on Thursday.
The sun came out after a cloudy day of intermittent showers, with Madrid's players and coaching staff descending on downtown Madrid a day after beating Athletic Bilbao 3-0 to clinch its first league title since 2008.
Tens of thousands of fans cheered coach Jose Mourinho and the team as they jumped around waving Madrid flags. Queen's ''We Are the Champions'' played over loudspeakers as captain Iker Casillas wrapped a Madrid flag and scarf around the statue of the Roman goddess.
''Our fans deserve this, this is for them,'' Casillas said. ''It was a tough season filled with a lot of hard moments but we managed to win it.''
Madrid started out on an open top bus from Santiago Bernabeu Stadium down the grand Castellana Boulevard to the Cibeles fountain where local police said approximately 25,000 fans welcomed the team.
The festivities were much tamer to the Copa del Rey celebrations last year when the cup trophy slipped from the grasp of Sergio Ramos atop the open-top bus and fell to the pavement, with the team bus rolling over it.
''I'm very happy about winning my third Liga, with the years going by you enjoy the victories and each is appreciated in a different way,'' Ramos said.
The remains of that mangled cup sit in the Spanish federation's museum.
Madrid ended Barcelona's hegemony on the domestic crown as it had won the last three.
