Madrid & Segovia

I know what you’re thinking; it has been way too long since my last update...¡Lo siento! I have been SUPER DUPER busy with school and traveling lately. I’ll try and pick up where I left off. About a month ago I went on a week excursion with the “Grupo de Kansas”, which includes the 7 of us American students, our program coordinator, and my “Historia del Arte” professor. We left the day after I got back from London, Tues. Oct. 14, and were in Madrid from Tuesday through Saturday, spending one day in Segovia (A city about an hour outside of Madrid).
We got to Madrid, checked into our hotel and had a little “tiempo libre” so just about all of us took a siesta. You’d be surprised at how jet lagged you get on even a short flight, I think it was only about an hour and a half. When we woke up we took a stroll through “Madrid de los Austrias”, one of the neighborhoods in Madrid. We walked through the “Plaza Mayor” which was pretty neat because it is such a famous place that you see in a lot of movies filmed in Spain. It was a very relaxed first night, which was great because sometimes the hustle and bustle of traveling can be overwhelming because there is usually so much to see and only a limited amount of time so it’s always hurry, hurry, hurry. The following day was un día lleno de arte. Because we get school credit for the trip, we actually had to learn...yuck, I know! Haha :)
We ate breakfast and then headed to el Museo del Prado. For those of you who don’t know what that is, it is a VERY famous museum with works of art from phenomenal artists like...Velazquez, El Greco, Goya, Murillo, and Rembrandt. I am not a huge museum artsy person, but it was pretty incredible to see the original works from these people. I was especially appreciative of the religious art by El Greco. His earlier paintings were mostly biblical and absolutely gorgeous. We spent about 2 hours in the museum before we had a break for lunch. After lunch we headed to the Museo Reina Sofia, a contemporary art museum that is very famous as well. The art in general was very abstract and very different from the classic art at the Prado. The themes were less religious and much more political. Although I am more of a fan of classic art, I enjoyed seeing the “Guernica” by Picasso. It is a representation of the Nazi German bombing of Guernica, Spain during the Spanish Civil War. Seeing it up close was pretty powerful because although it was meant to represent the Spanish Civil War, it does a good job of representing war in general. It evoked emotion and in my opinion, that is what art is all about so Pablo Picasso gets 2 thumbs up from me! :)
We ended our day of art with a nice group dinner and then headed back to the hotel relatively early because the next morning we were off to Segovia, which brings me to my next topic...SEGOVIA, one of my favorite Spanish cities thus far! It was absolutely beautiful. I slept for about 45 minutes on the bus and when I woke up, I was pleasantly surprised by the sight of the hills of Segovia. As you can see in the pictures I posted on Shutterfly, the hills were so simple, yet so beautiful. From the bus station, we walked through the city center passing by quite a few old churches that had a lot of character. From a distance, we saw the Acueducto de Segovia, but it wasn’t until we were standing directly in front of it that I was in awe. I had learned a lot about aqueducts and functional architecture in my art history class and had seen projector slides of various ones, but seeing this one in particular was pretty amazing. It was very neat to be viewing something that was constructed in the 1st Century AD.
Next, we went to the Cathedral of Segovia, which was architecturally phenomenal. I am sure you agree if you’ve viewed my pictures online. The outside of the cathedral was beautiful yes, but the inside was absolutely breathtaking. It was by far my favorite cathedral in Europe, and I’ve seen A LOT since I’ve been here. Yes I am catholic and yes I am strong in my faith, but even if that weren’t true, I still would have appreciated the cathedral. I feel like anyone, religious or not, would appreciate it, that is just how amazing it was. As I was walking through it, I kept thinking to myself, I wish both of my grandmothers could be here right now. I just know that both my grandma and my abuela would adore the sight of something so old and religiously beautiful.
As if I wasn’t already in love with Segovia, after the cathedral, we visited the castle of Alcázar. It was awesome! It was a castle meant to protect the city so it was constructed on top of a hill on the edge of town. The inside was extremely elaborate, ceilings and all, but the best part was the tower. I can’t even remember how many stairs it took to make it to the top, but however many...it was SO worth it! (Although at the time if you asked me I don’t know what my response would have been considering I was panting, sweating, and trying to catch my breath...sad I know!) The top of the tower provided an awesome view of the landscape and of the city. To say the very least, I absolutely loved Segovia. It wasn’t a very small city, but it had a quaint feeling like one. Everything about it was very charming and the people I encountered were especially friendly! Unfortunately, Segovia was only a day trip so we returned to the bus station around 7 in the evening and I can honestly say that I didn’t want to leave, but I didn’t really have a choice so I got on the bus and headed back to Madrid.
Friday was another relaxing day in Madrid, we went to the Palacio Real in the morning and then had the entire afternoon free. The Royal Palace was pretty neat. The building itself was amazing and the furnishings and decorations inside were even better. It is pretty crazy to think that at one point in time, Spanish Kings and Queens actually lived inside this place! I can’t imagine calling a palace my home...¡Que Guay! During our free afternoon, some of my friends and I went to “Puerto del Sol” which is a commercial area of Madrid with insane shopping opportunities! Let me tell ya...Any girl would LOVE this area. It has every type of store possible, with numerous shoe stores, and when I say numerous, I mean like a shoe store on every corner! (I am pretty sure Spain in general is like the shoe capital of the world...I LOVE IT!) We did a little shopping and then returned to the hotel. Alison and I then joined Ben and Kyle and headed to the Real Madrid Futbol Stadium. If you haven’t already checked out the pictures, please do because even if you’re not a huge sports fan, it was pretty darn cool! We toured the field, the VIP section, the bench and locker-room of the players, the Press Room and the “museum” section which displayed multiple trophies won by Real Madrid, as well as the first uniforms worn by the players and other things that explained the history of the club team. The entire tour was pretty awesome and I’m glad I got a chance to experience a little part of “futbol” considering it is like a religion in this country!
We ended Friday night and our trip in general with a nice dinner and a little Spanish Rock Concert! We were in the Puerto del Sol area for dinner and there just happened to be a concert going on so we stayed a rocked out a little bit, lol! Overall, our Madrid/Segovia excursion went very well, with the exception that I lost the 4 rings I always wear in the Madrid-Barajas Airport. I was pretty upset at first, but then I realized that worse things could’ve happened so I didn’t dwell on it too much. Saturday morning was breakfast at the hotel and then back to Santiago...“Casa Dulce Casa”, until the following weekend of course!
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