Our time in Madrid is coming to an end, and soon most of us will be on our way back to the United States. Here in Madrid we have seen many exciting things, but yesterday we had a very interesting Easter Sunday. In the morning we went to Retiro, a huge and beautiful public park. At noontime we headed to the Plaza Mayor, where we witnessed a huge procession of purple-clad drummers march into the square and perform a traditional drum celebration commemmorating Christ's heartbeat. After this, we had lunch and took a typical Spanish siesta before heading to Madrid's famous Plaza de Toros Las Ventas bullring, where we watched a six-round bullfight. In the first round, the matador was hurt by the bull, but recovered quickly and finished the fight. In the third round, a different matador performed exceptionally well and recieved a standing ovation.
Today, we enjoyed our last day in Spain and, for the most part, wandered around Madrid shopping and taking in the sights. Now we are resting at home and packing for our journey home. Adios!
Kerri, Gitaine, and Chris




Drum band marching to Plaza Mayor



Man vs. Bull, round 5



Bullfight, round 6



Gitaine, Chris, Eli, and Kerri outside the bull ring



Observing the bullfight - Mike is stupefied while everyone else watches with enthusiasm

First Day in Madrid

Yesterday was our travelling day! We woke up early, finished packing, and said good-bye to our Jerez apartment. We rode a bullet train to Madrid, which only took four hours to get to our destination instead of the nine hours it would take on a traditional train. We found our Madrid apartment rather quickly, thanks to the expertise of our map gurus, and quickly fell into bed.
Today was our first full day in Madrid. We went "museum hopping" and visited some very famous sights. After grabbing a quick croissant at the bakery down the road, we made our way towards Royal Palace of Spain. It has 2,000 royal rooms, and only 24 of them were open to us. We all agree the best part was the Royal Armory. The exhibition was packed with full body armor, for both men and horses. Afterwards, we walked to the Reina Sofia art museum, which contained both old and modern art. Soon it was lunch time, and we went to a restaurant and ate and relaxed for the museum we had ahead of us, the Prado. We spent two hours walking around this museum, looking at the famous art pieces; one of the most famous being The Garden of Earthly Delights by Bosch. It was difficult just to get though the crowds of people eyeing the art piece. Finally, when we finished seeing most of the artworks, and our eyes started to hurt, we took a quick trip to the market and found our way to our temporary home. Now we are resting up after our long day.
Gitaine

Sevilla

Our plans for today were originally to go to Ronda, but when we woke up it was pouring rain. We slept in a little longer and finally the rain let up around 10. So with our late start, we decided to take a train over to Sevilla, which is about an hour train ride from Jerez. When we arrived, we got taxis and headed over to the Cathedral de Sevilla, the third largest cathedral and the largest gothic cathedral in Europe. We walked around the cathedral for a little over an hour. The altar was made of gold and the treasure room was filled with valuble pieces. Christopher Columbus' tomb is located here as well.
The cathedral was built over a Muslim mosque and the bell tower and outdoors area still show Muslim influence in the architecture. One of the best things about this cathedral was the bell tower, in my opinion. Instead of thirty-four cases of stairs, there were ramps--because back when the bell tower was used by the Muslims, the man that calls the people to prayer would ride a horse all the way up to the top of the bell tower and then call out to the masses to come and pray. He did this 5 times a day. When you reach the top of the tower you can see all of Sevilla.
After our visit to the cathedral, our "monkey with the map" helped us find a restaurant for lunch. It was decorated with stuffed bull heads. The heads were from famous bulls that had fought and died in the local arena.
When we finished our lunch, we strolled around Sevilla shopping a little bit and, not too long after, we made our way back to the train station and back to our apartment.


-Kerri
(yes Mom, I miss you)

Jerez de la Frontera

On our first day in Jerez, we oriented ourselves with the city and looked around the local shops. We found our new favorite bakery and a great new gelato hotspot. In the afternoon, we toured a world famous winery that has a branch that has been open since the 1600's.
Today, we took a train to Italica (an ancient Roman city). We explored the third biggest amphitheatre ever built by the Romans, where Gitaine gave her presentation on the history and uses of it. Following that, we ventured through the location of where the city once stood. The city's buildings were down to their foundations, but many of the mosaics were still intact. After the tour of Italica, we took a bus back to Sevilla, where we walked around the city, in the rain I might add. We ended our walk at the bus station, where we took a taxi to the train station and rode a train back to Jerez.
After returning back to Jerez, we walked into a Semana Santa (Easter) procession for Palm Sunday. During the procession we saw floats with the Virgin Mary and Jesus Christ that weighed thousands of pounds, which were carried on the necks of men. After enjoying the procession, we bought some dessert and headed back to the apartments, where we will savor some well-deserved rest.
Eli, Kerri, and Gitaine

Andalucia

If there's one new Spanish word we've learned on this trip, it's huelga: strike. After leaving Barcelona, we arrived in Granada to find that a major labor strike had been planned. It turned out to be worse than expected, and although peaceful, the streets were completely filled with people, blocking most taxis and buses, and the sound of police helicopters overhead was not infrequent.
Unfortunately, this prevented us from seeing the two main attractions in Granada, the huge Moorish castle of Alhambra and the giant cathedral in the center of town.
The good news is that we got some cool pictures and good stories to tell.
Our trip from Granada to Jerez de la Frontera was certainly not uneventful; after finding out that our train was full, we took a three hour bus ride to Seville and a subsequent bus ride to the comfortable little city of Jerez. Though we got into town late, we had a wonderful dinner and are now preparing to get a good night's sleep. More updates to follow!
Gitaine, Chris, and Eli

Barcelona, Spain

After our long plane ride, we got to our apartment with few complications. We spent the evening getting settled in and then went to sleep. The next day we got ready and ate at our soon-to-be daily bakery. After breakfast we headed off on the Metro to Las Rambles, where we entertained ourselves with people watching and shopping at the La Boqueria. At the end of the Las Rambles was Port Vell where we walked around a little bit. After a filling lunch of Paella, we ventured into the Columbus Monument where you could take the elevator up to the top and look at the entire city. Following the Columbus Monument, we walked back through Las Rambles and ended back at our apartment. + The next day we took the short walk to Sagrada Familia, it was one of the most amazing Cathedrals any of us had ever seen. After Sagrada Familia, we enjoyed a nice lunch, where we had our first Spanish Flan. After our delicious lunch, we took the long Metro ride to Park Guell, where we saw many great street performers and multiple works of Gaudi. We ended our day with the long walk back to the apartment. + The next day we set out to the Barcelonian Cathedral. The Cathedral had beautiful architecture and thirteen snow-white geese. After enjoying the Cathedral, we watched the native Catalonians do their Sardana dance to display their solidarity. We then took the short walk to the Picasso Museum, it had many great works of art but none of us were necessarily art majors. Then we left the area to take a break back at the apartment and waited to see Sagrada Familia at night. It seemed even more beautiful at night. + The following day, we took a day trip out to Montserrat, which is a monastery, high in the Catalonian Mountains. After a short five minute cable car ride, we were up at the monastery, where we enjoyed a fantastic view and savored our picnic-like lunch. After lunch we had to wait in line to see the Black Virgin Mary, which is said to dish out miracles. The line took at least forty-five minutes to get to Mary, where we got to touch a ball she was holding in her right hand. After that, we stopped at the souvenir shop and then headed down the mountain and set out to return to Barcelona where we participated in a dessert walk and got to try all sorts of sweets.+ The next day, we spent the morning visiting multiple Roman ruins and went through the City History Museum and got to see the actual base of the Roman city of Barcino. For the afternoon, we traveled to the beach, where we enjoyed some well deserved down time. After a relaxing time at the beach, we headed back to the apartment, where we packed up our stuff in preparation for our departure to Granada.+ This morning, we cleaned the apartment and said our last goodbyes to our newfound friends. Then we took a plane out of Barcelona to Granada. After landing in Granada, we found our hotel pretty quickly. We settled in and headed out to Plaza Nueva for exploration and dinner. After a variety of different foods we returned to our hotel, where we into to sleep through the street music. More to follow…+