Day 13- Saturday, April 30, 2011

Today we went to La Granja which is a town about 6 kilometers from Segovia.

In La Granja we visited a glassblowing museum that has been blowing class for hundreds of years. We got to see how the original glassblowers made items and the different materials and machines they used. We also go to watch some modern day glassblowers make different items!

We then went to the Royal Palace of La Granja which was so beautiful! This palace was far more ornate than El Escorial. It was so beautiful on the inside, again no pictures were allowed. Frescos covered the ceilings, painting were everywhere. It was very colorful inside, with amazing woodwork and curtains. The cathedral was absolutely beautiful and spectacular!

The gardens were absolutely breathtaking! There were fountains everywhere and the king and queen's bed, Phillip V actually preferred to share a room with his wife, overlooked the gardens! I would not mind waking up to that view at all!

The Palace was built by Phillip V in the 18th century. This palace was used in the fall while El Escorial was used in the winter by kings.

La Granja is my favorite palace we have seen so far!

Day12- Friday, April 29, 2011

Today we went to El Escorial.

El Escorial is a historical residence of the king of Spain in the town of San Lorenzo de El Escorial, which is a bout 20 minutes northwest of Madrid. It is one of Spain's royal sites and functions as a monastery, royal palace, museum, and school.

Phillip II commissioned Juan Bautista de Toledo to design El Escorial with him in the 16th century. Phillip II ended up spending a good deal of his time here, although unfortunately his wide died before she was ever able to live in the palace. His daughter ended up residing in the "queen's quarters" of the house. In these times kings and queens did not sleep in the same room or bed at night. In fact, they had their own complete living quarters!

El Escorial is not only a palace, but is also a school and monastery. Additionally there is an AMAZING basilica/cathedral inside the palace with the most amazing altar. The central part of the palace is the living quarters and cathedral, to the left is the school (which still functions today) and to the right is the monastery (which likewise still operates at present).






My favorite thing at El Escorial however, and in all of Spain so far, is the Pantheon. This is below the the altar in the basillica/cathedral and is were all but two of Spain's rulers since Phillip II and their wive's and in one case a queen and her husband, are buried. There are these giant like decorative caskets/tombs that line the walls and inside are the bones and ashes of the rulers and their wives/husbands. There are two "Rotting Rooms" downstairs as well. When a king dies, the body is kept in the rotting room for about 60 years until all that is left is ash and bone. Then the ash and bone is placed in a box that is placed inside of the decorative casket/tomb. There are currently 3 bodies in the rotting room. The wife of a ruler who is already buried, and Spain's last king, or who would have been king and his wife, has Franco not come along. You can't smell anything though! One body has been in there for over 30 years! The other two for 15 and 10 years!

Unfortunately you were not allowed to take pictures inside El Escorial, but I do have outside pictures and one shot of the basilica/cathedral that I got before they told us no cameras!

Day 11- Thursday, April 28, 2011

I have been so bad about updating the blog this weekend! ¡Lo siento! We had a very busy and tiring, but also fabulous weekend!

Today we visited the Jewish sector of town, la Judería de Segovia. We went to the Jewish cemetery as well. They use to bury them in caves and dig out graves in the rocks. They have only unexcavated a tiny bit of the area, but I did get some photos of the exposed caves and rocks where bodies were buried.

Then it was home to study for our big test on Friday!

A puppet festival is coming to Segovia in a couple of weeks as it does every year. They put up this carousel along with a bunch of stands for art shops in preparation of the festival. The carousel is soooo crazy! Totally different than the kind we have in the states! Enjoy the photos!

The cemetery is up on this big hill that is covered in pine trees!

This is an example of a grave...

The view of Segovia from the cemetery

There were a TON of caves in the Jewish cemetery. They have only excavated a small portion of the hill, so it is unknown how many graves and hills there may actually be!

Great view of The Alcazar from the cemetery!

The AMAZING carousel, check out the creatures/things that the children ride on! It's not just horses, in fact there aren't any horses at all!

Day 10- Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Today was a beautiful day in Segovia! It was warm and sunny!

We had a free afternoon. So of course, as usual Megan and I went to "our" café, I have included a photo of the outside of the café today! We tried the hot chocolate today! It is literally pure melted chocolate, it is so thick and rich it is UNBELIEVABLE! I have also attached photos of the hot chocolate. We sat next to a lovely English couple at the café and chatted with them for awhile, they were in Spain visiting an adult child who lives here.

After out café we went to the pastry store and indulged in these strawberry/whipped cream/chocolate mini tarts, one for each of us (they were bite size!) and then shared and apple pastry and another pastry with a lemon flavor. I forgot to take pictures of these and by the time I remembered there was hardly anything left to attempt to take a picture of, but I did get Megan mid bite! We treated ourselves to quite a bit of treats today because the next 4 days we have excursions and will likely not have time to visit our favorite spots.

We ended our afternoon with a glass of wine. Dr. Shaw walked by and ended up joining us for a bit. It was so fabulous to sit in the sun and chat while soaking up the beautiful weather. Sadly, it looks like the weather will be getting a bit colder and rainy again as the weekend nears... I hope the weather reports are wrong!

We have a test on Friday so there was also a good bit of studying tonight... I definitely think the pastries and wine helped :)

Day 9- Tuesday, April 26, 2011

In class today we learned about the Inquisition and Catholic Kings. We have a test on Friday which I am VERY nervous for because there is sooo much to know!

We had a free afternoon today so Megan, Caitlin, and I spent a good deal of it at our favorite café at la colonial plaza. We also sampled some tasty treats at a bakery right by the plaza mayor. We split a strawberry tart and chocolate croissant, both of which were delicious! I have attached some photos of the café we visit nearly everyday as well as a picture of us there today!

Megan and I also had a post office adventure today! We each mailed 16 post cards! It all went very smoothly though. We stopped by the bookstore to get an envelope for some paperwork I needed to mail in for a job back home, that also went very well. It is so strange, you can buy a single envelope at the copy store here! Later in the day we had to go and buy index cards with Caitlin, at the same copy store I had went to earlier, now that was more of an adventure! FYI the word for index card is "ficha." :)

Day 8- Monday April 24, 2011

Today we learned about Arab-Muslim art in class. We discussed the different types of materials they used and what their architecture looked like.

For our excursion though, we went and looked at Iglesia Románicas, Romanesque churches. So although todays coursework did not match up with our excursion- we will be covering la arte Románica in the next day or so. Romanesque churches have "arcos medios puntos" which are rounded arches which you can see in the photos below. They also have alters that face the east, so it is like parishioners are coming from the darkness (the west) towards the light of God (the east). In the first church we saw, la iglesia de San Millan, there were only windows on the south side of the building, not the north. This is apparently because the north is the side of death and the south the side of life. The churches are made out of stone and have wood ceilings. The walls are extremely thick because people did not know how else to build sturdy walls to hold up such heavy ceilings at the time. Their are also pillars and columns that creates "naves" which are like aisles. Fresco painting also covered much of the Romanesque church's walls. A lot of it has been destroyed or lost by now, but you can see some of it in photos from both of the churches we went to. Both churches also had towers and atriums. This is about all I can remember about la iglesias Románicas from out tour, like I said we have not taken notes on them yet in class. But we will be going to see one or two more of these types of churches a different day, so if I forgot anything I will add it then!

La iglesia de San Millan

Columns at San Millan

The altar at San Millan

The AMAZING organ at San Millan

Some fresco artwork at San Millan

The type of carving is typical of Romanesque churches about the doorways

The altar

Fresco paintings covered the entire ceilings and all of the walls of the altar in San Justo's

This figure is typically carried during San Justo's church's procession, but it was not this year due to the rain.

La iglesia de San Justo

Day 7- Sunday, April 24, 2011

Well it has been one week since we all met at JFK to begin this trip! Time is flying!

The lifestyle over here in Spain is so different than the U.S. For me this is a whole new experience, it is my first time anywhere in Europe. The architecture and buildings are different, the daily schedule is different, the clothing is different, and just the general lifestyle is different, much more slow paced and calm. Overall it has been an adjustment, especially with the 6 hour time difference, but very cool at the same time.

Today was a pretty calm day. We all had breakfast at Ricardo's house. He is our teacher here and Spain. His wife cooked us an "American" breakfast, which is funny because she is not American, she is Spanish! The meal was complete with eggs, french toast, bacon, fruit salad, some pastries, and American style coffee. It was delicious! We then hung out at his house for awhile and chatted. His home is beautiful!

Today for lunch my family had rice with seafood and meat, I think it was paella because it had a yellow sauce/color to it, but there were no veggies in it. It was very good!

After lunch Megan, Caitlin and I went to our favorite café at la colonial plaza to study, although we ended up chatting a lot more than studying. We had té and café con leche. And then we shared a croissant, a crepe con leche dulce y un crepe con chocolate! It was all very yummy! After a couple of hours at the café we all came back to my house for a little and hung out. This evening for dinner my family had a lasagna, which we had once before and I like it. I am very tired tonight!

Off to bed soon... ¡Hasta mañana!