Blue Hoopoe?

Hi. My partner and I have just returned from a trip around Europe in a camper van. While in north east Spain (Roses) we saw a fabulous crested bird feeding from the grassy ground of the camp site. As I had failed to take my bird ID book, I quickly sketched the bird to enable me to identify it on our return. While in Pompeii we spotted what appeared to be the same bird but it was a very different colour. This time I had my camera and managed to photograph and film it.

On our return to the UK (29/8/10) I started looking in books, followed by searching the world wide web. I was clearly able to identify the bird I had photographed as a Hoopoe but the bright blue version we saw in Spain appears not to exist. If it weren't for the fact that I was not the only person to see it, I would believe I was mistaken/have lost my mind. We both agree that the bird we saw was not a crested pigeon as the one we saw was smaller with a long curved beak and the only difference to the photographed bird appeared to be the colouration. Where the 'normal' Hoopoe has beige/light brown feathers, the one in Spain had vivid blue colouration. The 'blue Hoopoe' we saw was behaving in exactly the same way as the 'normal' Hoopoe.

'Normal Hoopoe'

Please can anyone help reassure me of my sanity? I know what we saw and my sketch verifies my memory. What did we see?