Madrid, Spain

Today was finals. The art class was slide recognition, which wasn’t too terrible, although the professor did throw in a few sneaky ones, like slides that he never showed in class. It was of a place we did visit, yes, but in the daylight and from the ground level, not from a night-time aerial perspective like the slide. (Tricksy he is.)

I later zipped over to the Corte Ingles to get the receipt form for Customs–not sure how that whole tax-back thing works yet, but it seems like something to investigate.

That evening, we got dressed up and went to Casa Botín, the oldest restaurant in the world. (Also in the Guinness Book of World Records). We had a couple pitchers of Sangria, really tasty meals, and then we each ordered a different dessert off the menu, so that we could pass them around counter-clockwise and try everything. I’m glad we did–the desserts were awesome!

Tags: food, random facts & history, travel tips

Madrid, Spain

I made it back to Madrid’s Atocha train station, caught the bus to the Metro and the Metro to the campus and raced into class without a minute to spare. Today was the final lecture, followed by the review for the final. Not knowing what the week in Paris would bring, I spent most of the day working.

Tags: road trip

El Escorial, Spain

This morning after breakfast I boarded the bus for El Escorial. I saw the oldest theater in Spain and the Monasterio de San Lorenzo. Here’s the quick and dirty regarding the monastery. Felipe II married his cousin, his aunt, his son’s girlfriend, and then his niece. (Sequentially, not all at once.) When the last of these died, he decided to build a monastery – a “palace for god and a cottage for me.” It took 21 years to build, which is lightning fast. How did he accomplish such a feat? It’s all about the money. Pay increased or decreased depending on how quickly or how slow construction progressed, and nobody got any money at all until the whole thing was completed. (Talk about your incentive program!)

The monastery has statues of the kings of the Old Testament. It also has a statue of Christ on the cross, which they had to “dress” with a piece of cloth, because he was sculpted naked and apparently women flocked to stare, rather than attend service.

Felipe II had a traveling chair because of his gout. A traveling chair is a contraption where he gets carried by inserting two poles through a set of holes and then hefted up on (someone else’s) shoulders. He could also put up the top and sides if it were cold or sunny.

His son died at age 31 with a record 16 girlfriends. He was the first playboy of Spain, and on whom the infamous Don Juan is probably based. (In case you didn’t know, it was social suicide for a woman to be with don Juan or any man, because the second you were no longer a virgin, you were “ruined” and would never marry.)

The mausoleum is called the Royal Pantheon and has kings on one side and queens on the other, except for one queen on the man side because she was very kingly, and one king on the female side because he was very… queenly.

There are large paintings of bible stories on the walls because most text was written in Latin and the average person could not read.

Next, we visited the Valley of the Fallen, which was very impressive. It is a huge monument carved out of rock by Franco’s prisoners to commemorate all those who died in the fierce, bloody – and recent – civil war.

Tonight I went to the train station and hopped aboard the night train with service to Portugal! Tomorrow is a free day from school, and I thought it would be a perfect opportunity to visit Lisbon.

The night train had four bunks, two on each side. I roomed with a grandmother, mother, and daughter from Portugal, all of whom were very nice and full of useful tips.

Tags: cathedrals, random facts & history, theatre & shows, trains

Madrid, Spain

Today, my class visited the Reina Sofia Museum of Modern Art. Danielle met Kristin and I there after class so we could wander around even more. This particular building was built in the 1700s to group all the hospitals together, and is only a quarter of the size it was intended to be. In the 1980s, it was converted into a modern art museum. 1881, the year of Picasso’s birth, was (arbitrarily) chosen as the start date for what constitutes modern art.

At first, the museum was not getting much traffic. So, against the death wishes of the painter himself, they removed Picasso’s Guernica from El Prado and put it in the Reina Sofia. That did the trick, and now the museum has a steady flow of visitors.

If you ever get a chance to see Guernica in person, you absolutely must do so. It is a huge painting – very loud, noisy, emotional. You won’t go away untouched.

The preceding room holds the sketches and paintings created while Picasso was brainstorming for Guernica. He was supposed to have painted directly on the wall of an exhibition and it’s a good thing he didn’t, because that building was destroyed. Had his canvas not been somewhat portable, we wouldn’t still have it today.

As usual, I can yammer on for pages regarding this painting… but I won’t (unless you special request it)

Tags: museums

Madrid, Spain

Today the second bombing attempt took place in London. This is getting crazy. I keep thinking about the Londoners and how awful it would be to be scared in – and of – your own home town.

“Madrid” is from the Arab word “Maharid” meaning “where water comes together”. This is because of the river and the lake, both of which today are very small.

Random Idiom: In Spanish, “un huevo” (an egg) means “a lot”. So, when they say “te quiero un huevo”, they mean “I love you bunches.”

Tags: random facts & history

Aranjuez, Spain

I boarded the bus to Aranjuez with my class. Aranjuez is 30 miles south of Madrid. There are six royal palaces within 60 miles of Madrid, of which the biggest is the Royal Palace in Madrid, which is also the winter palace. Aranjuez has the spring palace.

There is also an even smaller palace, created by Felipe II in the 1500s, which is where the prince has his rooms before he becomes king.

The small, princely palace is two miles away from the main palace, and the entire distance between is covered with gardens. Spain in this area is hot and dry, and the gardens flourish because of the proximity to the river. There’s lots of dams and wells – a whole complicated mechanism keeps the gardens alive.

The cemetary was intriguing because it was crowded with headstones, and had niches for ashes.

Tags: castles & palaces, random facts & history

Córdoba, Spain & Puerto Lápice, Spain

This morning, we piled back into the bus and headed to Córdoba. The Mezquita de Córdoba (mosque) is wicked cool, and if you ever get a chance, you should definitely see it. (This, the Alhambra, and the Alcazaba in Málaga are my favorite old buildings thus far.) There’s a huge tower like the giralda in Seville, and a man would climb all the way up five times a day. On a horse. He sounded the trumpet, which was the cue to the people that it was time for minarcle (prayers).

All the doors to the Mezquita are open, but out of respect, people enter only through the main door. Inside is beautiful. The Jardin del Espiritu patio is there, too. The important thing in their religion is that beauty should always be on the inside. The outside can be walls.

Naturally, this beautiful mosque was converted into… you guessed it, a Catholic church. But in a way, I’m glad, since otherwise they would have destroyed it, and that would have been a terrible loss. Going into all these amazing places makes me think about all the places the Catholics did destroy – that’s a lot of history and beauty that we no longer have, but at least we still have some places like this where we can visit, learn about the past, and wonder at the beauty.

Next we went to Puerto Lápice, which has lots of Quixote paraphernalia, but no windmills. So we trekked up to the tops of the tallest hills to see the “giants” made immortal in Cervantes’ famous novel.

That night, both excursions made it back to the dorm, and the girls (and Bryan) all congregated in my room so we could exchange Barcelona/Andalucía stories. Oh, and we sampled some Absinthe from Barcelona. Apparently, the word on the street is that Vincent van Gogh, a little whack already and having downed a tad too much absinthe, cut off his ear in a fit of passion and sent it to his cousin to prove how much he loved her. I was of the opinion that this particular move might have been just a bit too much, but one of my classmates said that any man who would go to such lengths for her really deserved her.

Tags: castles & palaces, cathedrals, hiking

Seville, Spain

This morning, we piled in the bus and trekked to Sevilla. Seville has a population of 700,000, with another million if you count the suburbs. The only larger cities are Madrid and Barcelona. Out of Seville’s 700,000 city inhabitants: 50,000 are college students.

Two Roman emporers were born here in Seville. Amerigo Vespucci also lived here, as did Magellan.

The walls around the city were built by the Arabs, and the gate is called the Macarena. (And you thought it was just a song!) One week every spring, Seville has a flemenco festival.

Cartuja is the new section, with an island and bridges. There’s an amusement park open from 11 am until midnight. It has a section that’s a copy of the Seville harbor during the 16th century.

Valenque is a tent-covered square that actually has air conditioning. Concerts and the like are held here.

A mudéjar style Cathusian monestary here was converted into a ceramic factory by an Englishman. It has since been reconverted back into a church. St James is the patron saint of Spain and his festival is next week.

Seville has the famous bridge you may have read about in the Guinness book of world records. It’s long, flat, and with zero suspension. Oh yeah, and it’s not just foot traffic, either – our bus rolled right across it, and I amazingly lived to tell the tale.

The new bridge in Seville has a funny history. The bridge came first, and the water came second! Once the construction finished, they released the dams and put the river underneath the bridge.

I also saw the cacharro – a statue of Jesus on the cross. The sculptor witnessed a gypsy getting caught and killed on the street and captured the gypsy’s expression for the one on the face of christ.

The Plaza de Toros in Seville is one of the oldest in Spain. (But not *the* oldest – do you remember where that one was?) It is the bullring featured in the opera Carmen.

Seville also has two towers – the tower of silver and the tower of gold. Also, you may have seen the square on film – Lawrence of Arabia was filmed here, as were parts of Star Wars Episode II.

Seville has a monument dedicated to El Cid Campeador in front of the university, magnolia trees with big whilte flowers, and five remaining arches of a Roman aqueduct.

Kansas City, Missouri is the the sister city to Seville, and the name of the avenue to enter Seville for the airport. (That bit of info is for you Missourians, you know who you are.)

The Holy Cross square used to be a synangogue that (of course) was converted into a Catholic church. But then it caught fire and was destroyed and now a monument stands in its place.

Seville also boasts the largest gothic cathedral in the world. It has the mummified “el lagarto” (which is like a crocodile, but more about the size of a large iguana.) Interestingly, “el lagarto” sounds suspiciously like “alligator”. (Things that make you go hmmm…)

The tomb of Cristobal Colón (Christopher Columbus to us) is also in this cathedral. Next year marks the 500th year of his death. He died in Spain and his remains were in the church that became the old ceramic factory that later re-became a church. (You followed that, right?) When his son died in Seville, his widow took the remains of both father and son to the island of Santo Domingo. 200 years ago, Spain lost this island and moved the remains to Cuba for safe keeping. This turned out to be a bad plan, and in 1898, the remains (in terrible condition by this time) were brought back to Spain. Seville recently decided to DNA test everything that was left, so actually, Columbus is in a laboratory somewhere in Houston right now.

In this cathedral, there were lots of glass cases featuring the bones and other visible remains of various saints. As mentioned recently, this is the first time I ever knew people kept this sort of thing in churches for general viewing, and I am getting used to the idea, since in old European Catholic churches, it seems to be the norm. I also learned that the Catholics like to pray to the saints when they can see part of them. I’m guessing this is to feel a connection with the person. (If you’re Catholic and you have some insight on this, please confirm or deny).

This Church has a huge baptism chapel, which is still in use. Just two days ago, some kids were baptised. The walls are adorned with paintings by Murillo. On one, someone cut out the saint and stole it. This was back in the 19th century. years later, someone came across it in the black market. (What they were doing perusing the black market and how they recognized a piece of this random painting, hard to say.) So, it found its way back to Spain. I can clearly see the marks where a big rectangle was cut apart and put back together.

I also climbed 35 floors to the top of the Giralda tower, which has a magnificent view. Afterwards, I ate some ice cream at Rayas, which was delish. Europe not only has a sweet tooth, but very specifically has tons of ice cream.

Tonight we went to a (choreographed) flamenco show, and although it was well-executed and entertaining, I enjoyed the gypsy flamenco much better. Also, the theater we were at tonight had us sitting thigh-to-thigh with the person next to us. People were smoking and ordering drinks, even during the performance. (The girl to my right got a vodka and fanta. Ew.)

I won’t name any names since this is the Internet and all, but there was one girl on the trip who cracked me up continuously because she was always saying the zaniest things. First of all, she said she disliked Spanish cuisine because there weren’t any twizzlers, and she likes to eat a pound a week. (???) She was going to pack five pounds of twizzlers in her carry-on, but she knew she’d eat them all the first week she was here. (!!!) Also, when I asked her if she knew what we were doing tomorrow, she said “Yep – we’re going to see Dante’s windmills.” I blinked, and when I realized what she meant, I cracked up laughing until I got the hiccups (which didn’t faze her in the least, so she must get that a lot.) “Actually,” I mention casually when I finally catch my breath. “I believe Dante is known more for his Inferno. Maybe we’re going to see Don Quixote’s windmills.” (To which she said, “Whatever. All I really want to do is go to the movies, because I’m a big fan of the Fabulous Four.”)

Tags: cathedrals, festivals & fiestas, music & concerts, random facts & history, theme parks

Granada, Spain

Today I finally got to see La Alhambra. (Which, side note, is technically redundant. All Spanish words beginning with “al” are Arabic, and “al” is Arabic for “el” and “la”, so saying La Alhambra is saying “the” twice. OK I’m done.) The Alhambra is absolutely amazing.

Carlos I of Spain (But V of Austria, if you’re keeping track. He’s also son of Felipe and Juana la loca, and grandson of Fernando and Isabel). Anyway, Carlos I began its construction, and Felipe II had a second level put on. No one lives here because to this day, it isn’t “finished”, although plays and concerts are held in its auditorium. It was created in an italian rennaissance style with wide staircases, as opposed to the narrow ones typical of the middle ages.

The Alhambra is more of a city than a palace. It is that huge. The water in the fountains is natural water, flowing from the Sierra Nevada. To have running water (as opposed to having to take a pail and go get some from a river) was a sure sign of richness.

The entranceway has two doors. One from the outside leading to a waiting room, the other from the waiting room to the real inside. Uninvited or unwelcome guests never made it past the waiting room into the palace.

The designwork frequently utilized octagons, symbolizing the seven levels of heaven (with the eighth side being god himself). The hand sign Americans use to say OK is the same sign they used to symbolize Allah. Incidentally, I also learned that it’s very American to say “oh”. The Spanish say “ah”. I wonder how many other signs we throw off that we’re not even aware of!

Next I got to visit the beautiful Generalife gardens (Not “General Life” – say it like a Spaniard: hen er ah LEE fay). These are right next to the Alhambra and absolutely gorgeous.

Tags: castles & palaces, random facts & history

Grenada, Andalucía, Spain

This morning, I packed up and headed out for my four day Andalucia excursion (through the school). I had the choice of Andalucia or Barcelona, and since I plan to hit Barcelona later, I chose Andalucia.

The first stop was Grenada. We checked into our hotel rooms and I went walking around the city. I hopeed on a bus and got out at the Science Museum. It was pretty cool. There was an entire exhibit on Velociraptor. (For those of you aware of my dinophilia, you can imagine the gravitational pull that flung me into this room.)

Velociraptor is in the Dromaesaundae family. So what, you say? Well. This family includes dromaeosaurus and deinonychus, and in 1999, a dromaeosaurus was unearthed with *feathers*. This was probably to regulate body temperature and means that it is extremely likely that Deinonychus and Velociraptor also had feathers. (Kind of changes the whole Jurassic Park imagery a bit, doesn’t it.)

Scientists have long suspected that birds are descendents of dinosaurs, and this is just another nod in that direction.

In the hands-on section of the museum, I did an experiment with a beach ball hovering over an air jet, and was surprised to verify that I could not easily knock it off course.

I also learned about hermetism, introduced to Europe by the Arabs. In the middle ages, doctors looked to the stars to determine the most auspicious times for treatments. (I also learned the Spanish words for several types of trees and unusual animals, but I won’t bore you with all that here.)

The Sierra Nevada is the mountain range you see in Granada. Usually there is snow at the peaks, but this summer has been so hot that it all melted.

Tonight I got to go to the caves and experience gypsy flamenco. It was incredible, and I am forever ruined for all future choreographed flamenco shows by having seen how much soul the gypsies infuse into every movement.

This was also the day I realized all the photos I was taking with my digital camera were blurry – the autofocus stopped working. (I was later to find out that most of the photos I had taken for the past week or so were also blurry, so I only have about 20% usable, if that, of the pictures I had thought I’d taken. I do still have my video camera which does take digital pictures, but very few and of smaller size and poorer quality. I’m not even sure they’d make a 4×6 print.)

Those who know me well can just imagine how devestating this was for me – no camera and no clear photos. No sir, I didn’t like it.

Tags: museums, music & concerts, random facts & history