Adventures in the North

Well, I have just returned from our amazing trip to Madrid/Toledo/Avila/Segovia.  One thing to say...SO MUCH FUN.  Actually, I have many more things to say and they are to follow shortly.  Before I get into the weekend of wind, I´d like to share a little story.

Well, everyone here has a media naranja, a better half so to speak...everywhere you turn there are couples holding hands, kissing on the metro, on the street, or really anywhere they can.  It´s very different from the USA, where I feel it´s a little taboo to show PDA (public displays of affection), and mind you, I´m not too keen on it myself, but the Spanish certainly don´t feel this way.  But back to my story...since there are so many couples, it makes sense that there are a lot of babies.  Ummm...Spanish babies are sooooo cute!!!  Becky, Cee, Kelli and I got to talking about motherhood etc, and Caroline says, "Lauren, that is the one thing you are not allowed to bring back from Spain with you."  Needless to say, it is now an ongoing joke.  No babies for us on this trip!

A couple days after this conversation, Becky, Kelli, and I were on the Metro and next to me was Celia, SUCH a precious 1.5 year old.  As soon as Celia and her mom left the Metro, Becky pats me on the shoulder and says, "I think we can make an exception for that one."  --Another addition to the continuous joke!  But not to worry family and friends, I will NOT be returning home with a baby.

Changing topics....

We left Thursday morning on the train for Madrid, might I add that I absolutely love trains?  We arrived in Toledo around 12:30, dropped our backpacks off at the hotel (we were upgraded from the hostel for free!)  We began the climb up the hill to Toledo--which is one of the most hilly cities I think I´ve ever been to.  We began the tour at the museum there, they boasted to having 10 El Greco paintings...we only found about 5, but it was still pretty cool.  From there, we stopped to get some of their world famous Marzipan, which I loved (true to form) but no one else liked.  What else is new?  The cathedral in Toledo came next.  It was breathtaking.  It boasted 14 El Greco paintings and definitely lived up and exceeded any and all of my expectations.  I have never really been moved by paintings, but looking at The Disrobing of Christ by El Greco made me cry.  It was so vivid, and when you look at Christ´s eyes, it looked like the canvas was wet with His tears.  Absolutely fantastic.  From there we went to a smaller church that holds El Greco´s most famous work, The Burial of the Count of Orgaz, which is exactly where he painted it to be.  Which in and of itself is amazing!

In Madrid, we of course went to the Royal Palace and then the Prado, but we went later in the day and didn´t have the time to give that it deserved, so we hit the main points like Las Meninas(The Maids of Honor) by Velazquaz which some people say is quite possibly the best painting in the world and Saturn Devouring his Son by Goya.  A museum we went to earlier that day was the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, which covered so many works and a huge span of time.  It was very cool, quite possibly one of my favorite museums!

As I´m writing this, I´m realizing that we saw a LOT of art on this trip! 

Madrid wasn´t nearly as cosmopolitan and like NYC as I´d heard.  You definitely feel the effect of globalization, but I thought it very clean and pleasant!  And to top it off, I got to see Katie, one of my friends from camp this summer, which was so much fun--we all went out to tapas!

We went to Avila the next day, which we could have gone without.  The most well preserved walled city in Europe had a very cool wall, but timing was not in our favor.  We tried to go see Saint Teresa´s finger, strange, yes, but the museum was closed.  To top off that day, it was raining and more windy than I´ve ever experienced.  We lost some good men that day (umbrellas) and were very wet.  From Avila, where we ate yemas too, basically sugared egg yolks--interesting, we took the train to El Escorial/Valley of the Fallen.  When we got there, the sun had poked it´s head out and was attempting to dry up three weeks of rain.  Well, the taxi man said the Valley was closed for renovations and by the time we got to El Escorial (head of the Spanish Inquisition), it was closed.

However, while standing behind the rope, staring at the grandeur we could have enjoyed, we watched a couple sneak under the rope and nonchantly head to the entrance.  Amazed that someone wasn´t chasing after them, we saw another couple people sneak up there.  Kelli and Becky were next and determined not to be left behind, I checked the guards, who were busy chatting, and ducked under to follow.  We got to the main basilica and my stomach was clenched in knots.  I´m not a daring person, I follow the rules, so I was starting to panic.  Just when I was about to drag them out with me, we turned around to find Cara, Maddie, and Christina standing nonchantly behind us admiring the view.  They told us that they´d just asked to come in...as it turns out, the Basilica was open until mass later that night...my stomach immediately unclenched.  But hey, I did do something daring...until I found out it was completely within my rights to go in there!  When leaving, it was raining again...true to form.

Before heading to Segovia on Sunday, we stopped by the Museum Reuna Sofia to see the Guernica by Pablo Picasso, a gruesome story, but a fantastic painting.  It is also one of the most documented paintings in history, Picasso had all his sketches and drafts saved.  I also didn´t realize how huge it is...it´s like a mural!

We took the bus to Segovia, soaking in the sun on the way.  First, we saw the aquaduct, still intact since Roman times, and it has absolutely no mortar holding it together.  We marveled at that for awhile, bought a 10euro disposable camera (mine had a near-fatal accident with OJ in Avila), and heard our stomachs rumbling.  We weren´t planning on anything special, but we ended up having a three course lunch.  So delicious and very filling!

Also in Segovia was Spain´s last Gothic Cathedral, we passed by it though because we were trying to get to the Disney-like castle at the other end of the city.  I think I´ve found my new home.  Of course, I´ll have to install central heating and add a lot of furniture and carpets, but I think it´ll do the job nicely.  There´s even a tower.  152 of the steepest steps I´ve ever climbed took us to the top and a beautiful 360 degree view of the city and surrounding countryside.  It was still quite windy, and up there, even more so, but the cold air felt great after that horrible climb with 30lbs on our backs!  I could definitely get used to it! 

I think I can easily say that this is one of my favorite places in the world.  After our lake and Brunnen, Switzerland.

Getting home to Sevilla was a little more difficult than we had anticipated, to say the least.  We returned to the bus station in Madrid to buy our tickets home and were told all the buses were sold out until 10am Monday morning.  Not good...we had homework!  We ran, and I mean literally ran through metro stops to the train station across town and found a 75 person line to buy tickets for a train that left in 30 minutes.  Not cool...so we unhappily headed back to where some friends were to pick up my cell phone I had lent them, it was dead, and then off to the bus stop to buy tickets for the 10 am bus.  From the station, we trudged outside to find it was raining.  But some good news!  The hostel was 5 minutes up the road!  LIES.  We walked 10 minutes, soaked at this point, even with an umbrella, stopped at a 4 star hotel (yeah right) to ask where the hostel was.  He said another 10 minutes up the hill there were 5 or so to choose from.  Goody.  We headed out back into the rain, which was coming down at a very steady pace at this point, and finally found a suitable priced place...25 minutes and another broken umbrella later.  Guess where we ended up?  Hint: we had come full circle in our travels.  Yep, that´s right, we were right across the plaza from the Museum Sofia Reina we had visited that morning.  Funny?  Wasn´t then, but I can´t help but to smile now!

But the thing is, we ended up with a roof over our head and got back to Sevilla safely, which is all that matters.

Wow, I have vented quite a bit today, lo siento lectores (I´m sorry readers).

I miss you oodles! Infinite hugs and kisses from Sevilla,

Lauren