Something MADRID!!!

That's right, we are a superbly lucky group of people.  Every three weeks we get to take a planned excursion to some of the bigger, more well-known places in Spain.  This past weekend was...Madrid, and Toledo, and Segovia!
We began our journey at 8am on Thursday morning and drove for 5 hours to Toledo.  We arrived around 2pm and went to a lookout across the river Tajo to get a view of the city and take lots of pictures.  From there we drove to the edge of the city and then walked to the Cathedral de Toledo.  Now, I don't know if any of you have ever been in a city that has been around since before 192 b.C. but just so you know, they are not built like cities in the USA.  First of all the streets: you could get lost because they wind around and around and around.

 This is just an example of what we had to walk through.  It was kinda fun though, all the buildings are very old.  If you are looking for it you can see influences of the Romans, Jews and Muslims in the architecture and artistry of the city.  The Catedral de Toledo is a very impressive building!  The building has 5 naves kinda like sections... with huge pillars dividing the sections.  They began construction on this building in 1227 and finished in 1493.  It has a lot of different styles incorporated in it because of the long time in construction.  Several kings of Spain are burried there.  I think my favorite part of this Cathedral was the room with pictures of the life of Christ and all the popes.  I think that this Cathedral is one of my favorites.    We next went to the Church of Santo Tome.  This is a teeny tiny church but it contains "El entierro del Conde Orgaz" by El Greco.  Next we went to the Church of El Salvador which used to be an antique mosque.  You could see the old pillars and the ruins under the floor of the church and the bell tower used to be what the arabs call a minaret.  Then we went to the Museo Sefardi which was a mosque, Synagogue and Christian temple.  It had a very cool mixture of the three cultures.  Finally we had a little free time so we just wandered around and took pictures because Toledo is SWEET!!!  Then we headed off to our hotel (which was very nice!) and just kinda hung out all night.

Friday we got up early and left around 8am.  We were going in the direction of Segovia!  Our first stop was El Valle de Los Caidos (The Valley of the Fallen)  This was an interesting stop.  The valley was created by Francisco Franco after the Civil War as a tribute to those who had died during the Civil War.  There is a monastery and a Basilica built into the hillside.  It is a very impressive place, but over all it held a shadow for me.  Those who built it were political prisoners of Franco and although it is a very grand place it is hard to focus on Christ because of the knowledge of all those who died and all the terrible things that Franco did.  Also Franco and the founder of the Falange are buried on either side of the altar, which takes away from the focus on Christ for me.  It was really cool, but a heavy place as well. 

Then we went to El Escorial, which was built by Felipe II and is currently a monestary and was where several kings lived.  We got to tour the library!!! and the rooms of the kings and finally the tombs underneath.  This is where all of the Kings and Queens of Spain are buried since Felipe II.  An interesting fact is that after the death of a king or queen they are placed in the pudreria (rotting room) for approximatly 25 years before they are entumbed!!  YUCK!!  After this we got back in the bus and drove for a little while longer until we reached Segovia!!  This is another ancient city and is most known for it's Roman Aqueduct.

It is approx. 10 miles long and is huge!!  They used this aqueduct up until the late 1800s!!  After looking like tourists at the aqueduct, we wandered around the streets a bit and took more pictures and then ended up at al Alcazar.  This is a fortress/castle in Segovia and it contains armour and really cool painted ceilings and more fun stuff.  It was a good trip.  After this we walked back to the bus and drove to our hotel in Madrid....Hotel Mediodia, it was perfect and really close to just about everything!!!  That night we went to a restaurante called Canas y Tapas (beers and appetizers) where we drank sangria and at wonderful food!!!  It was great!!
Sorry this is getting so long!!
Saturday was a restful day.  I got up early and walked to the Parque de Buen Retiro (Park of Good Retreat) and walked around for about an hour looking at statues and buildings in the park.  We left the hotel around 10:30 and went to the Palacio Real!!!

It was fantastic, big and exciting.  We weren't allowed to take pictures, but it was cool to see all of the rooms!  They were really ornate (some even had the walls embroidered...don't ask how they did that).  Then we had free time for most of the afternoon.  I went with a group of people to the Puerta del Sol and then back to the Parque for lunch and then we went to Museo Reina Sofia to look at the Guernica by Picasso.  It was huge...much bigger than I expected!  After that we walked around for a bit and then met at el Prado for our next visit.  Now, I am not one for art, but I was excited that we were going into the Prado!   So I went, and Hallie and I spent about 40 min looking for all the artists that our professor said we needed to look at and then left for the more exciting tourist traps!  :)  It was a good 40 min...much longer and I probably would have started mocking the art, so it was probably good that I left before I made someone mad. :P  That afternoon we shopped for a bit, had dinner and then headed back to our hotel.  We rested up our feet and legs, which were in a lot of pain from allll the walking and then headed out to a discoteca for a couple hours.  Over all it was a good and relaxing day.

On Sunday we left the hotel around 11am and drove to Segobriga which contains some ancient roman ruins...after wandering around that for an hour we headed home!  It was a great, superb and fantastic trip!!!  I apologize for making you read all of this, but I just couldn't leave anything out!!!  It was all so great!