My "Tour de España"...Part 1

Since I found some internet and was dreading the ridiculously long update I would have to do at the end of this trip, here is part 1 of what we have done so far in our "Tour de España!"

Our entire group headed off to Madrid in a bus on Saturday morning. It´s about a 5 hour drive, so we checked into our hotel in the early afternoon and then headed straight to the Prado Museum. The museum was great...it was so interesting to see all the pieces I have learned about in school and the ones that Josè taught us about last week.

After the museum, we had some free time which we spent walking the streets and snapping pictures. We also stopped for a stroll in the beautiful Jardines del Buen Retiro, a HUGE park near the Prado.

Sunday we had an excursion planned for the morning to visit a nearby town, but since it was SNOWING, we had to cancel it and entertain ourselves for the day. We ended up taking the metro to the see Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales and doing some shopping. The weather was pretty much miserable for the rest of the weekend, but we did our best to find fun things to do.

We met back at the hotel that night to go see a play as a group. It was a comedy with a very strange storyline...I was able to follow most of it though, so that´s a plus!! After the play we went out for the best chocolate and churros I´ve ever had. I can´t wait to post pictures of how thick they drink their hot chocolate here! It´s basically a melted chocolate bar...yum!!

Monday was another miserably rainy day for walking around in Madrid, but we did it anyway! Our group excursion for the day was to the Royal Palace, which was amazing! The palace has over 2400 rooms and is absolutely beautiful. We had a guided tour of the rooms open to the public, so we learned a lot.

After the palace, we went to the best flamenco shop in all of Spain, El Flamenco Vive. It is the best place to go for everything from performance shoes and dresses to guitars and recordings. (No, Dad, I didn´t buy you a new guitar for your birthday!!) It was a lot of fun to look around though.

A few friends and I also went and searched our Petra´s International Used Bookshop, a shop recommended in my travel book. Good thing we knew what we were looking for, because it was a tiny hole in the wall treasure trove of cheap used books. I found some great picture books of Spain, and my roommate Kristin found Harry Potter in Spanish!

The rest of the afternoon was spent trudging through the rain looking for some dry shoes to buy and a hostel to stay at for the night. Happily, we found both. :) Our hostel was actually really nice, and it was close to the restaurant we had reservations at for supper. A group of friends and I went to dinner and a show, which was a great end to our trip in Madrid.

Tuesday began the next leg of our trip, Segovia. Segovia is a beautiful little city with so many sights and landmarks to visit. We found another really nice hostel to drop our stuff at, and began exploring the city. Our hostel was right off the Plaza Mayor, so we began there. Right on the plaza is an AMAZING cathedral that we toured, it was really gorgeous.

We also saw the Roman Aquaduct, which was also amazing. It looks like a giant comb of rocks pushed into the ground...how the Romans built it, I have no idea, but I´ll have to show you all pictures soon. :)

We spent the rest of the evening wandering the city and admiring the old buildings and museums. We were also very proud of our discovery of a great 4 course dinner for only 12€...we were stuffed afterward, but it was great because it was pretty much the only thing we had eaten all day.

This morning we headed to Alcazar, a beautiful fortress on the edge of town. The sun FINALLY peeked out for a little while just in time for us to see some beautiful views of the city from the top of the Tower of Juan II. The castle was beautiful and I´m so glad we went to Segovia.

Also, a funny story from the castle...we met a friendly old man who worked at the castle. He realized that we were Americans and asked us if we had any U.S. quarters because he is collecting all the state quarters. We didn´t have any with us at the time, but he found us later as we were walking through the castle to give us his address and the list of states he was missing. :) He was very sweet, and I hope I can find his missing quarters to send him!

Anyway, we left Segovia, and are now in Toledo!! It is raining...again...but we found an amazing hostel that my tour book recommended. We are staying in a renovated Arabic fortress on the edge of the city. It is so cool with nice rooms and lounge areas for us to hang out in.

Hopefully the rain will stop soon, because we want to go explore. Stayed tuned in a few days for Part II of my "Tour de España"!! Miss you all....