Madrid
Trip Start
Apr 08, 2009
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2
10
Trip End
Apr 19, 2009
Madrid, Spain
Friday, April 10, 2009
Took train to Segovia, 100 miles northwest of Madrid, elevation 3000 ft. Madrid folks go there in the summer for relief from the heat. It being only April!, "relief from the heat" translated to snow! Scenery was beautiful but we were COLD! Oops, we discovered we were on the slow train with a 1.5 hour layover in the little town of Villalba. Made the best of it by trying to find a place to eat where we recognized some fruit, vegetable or meat as a part of the recipe. (Food is generally high on flour, sugar and grease, with smoking in all restaurants at all times-the effort at designated smoking areas didn't pass here in Spain.)
Finally found a juice place and the fresh orange juice was a treat
01 Snow
! The operator was 22 yrs. old, a colle student of I.T.(information technology). The oranges are fed whole into the top of this clever machine. Outside the juice bar a Semana Santa procession arrived. (Holy week, before Easter, every town has processions and you never know when you might stumble upon one.) This procession seemed very humble and reverent with loving modal songs sung as they walked. We joined in, walking beside them, humming along and listening to the passion of Christ story in Spanish from the priests at each stop. (I'm wondering if this is where Mel Gibson got his inspiration for the movie, The Passion of Christ-?)Back on the train from Villalba to Segovia, arriving about 4 hours after we first started on what we thought was a 30 minute ride. But, I wouldn't trade that encounter with the humble procession for anything-love those serendipitous moments J
At Villalba, snow turned to rain-thank heavens for these 'titanium' Columbia moisture-sealed jackets with hoods-you'll get tired of seeing them in every picture.....but our missionary friend from Greece who recommended them was absolutely right-on-point!
Outside train station saw folks waiting in cold for a bus up to where the aqueduct was
02 Juice Maker Villalba
. Met a couple who spoke English! She was studying in Madrid(from New Jersey), he from Germany. We took a cab together(as bus wasn't showing up!) to aqueduct-which was constructed 2000 years ago without any mortar-it's amazing! .....to think that Christ was on the earth at possibly the same time this was built!Photo in front of cathedral-you can see it started snowing again....took refuge with others in a 'tapas bar'. You stand at a counter and order little dishes of a variety of food from waiters/waitresses in tuxedos. It's normal routine to drop your paper trash on the ground! (Larry ate a miniature Sub-typle sandwich. He later discovered it was sardines-his tummy did not thank him.)
(re: cathedral.....We would later see the beginnings of a processional, with the News anchor ready to report and do a live feed here, on our way out of town.)
This castle was sooo incredible, almost unbelievable, beginning with the 150' now-dry moat. Constructed completely out of stone, with flawless symmetry. How did they do that out of stone?! What's especially impressive are the rounded and sharply angled(120 degree) pieces-out of solid stone!
They let you get right up, close and personal, to the artifacts, touching and photographing them
03 Procession Villalba
. Notice the size of the suit of armor! Spanish people are shorter in general than what we're accustomed to, and, it would seem, were shorter and smaller still centuries ago when the knights were up and about.This stunning mural appears almost 3-dimensional. Colors are much more naturalistic than those of the very formal and ornate artwork in the palace in Madrid. It's exquisite, completely awe-inspiring.
Talk about a "room with a view"!
O.K.....If I had to get up and stroll with my coffee in this garden and amongst my fruit trees, looking out at the surrounding countryside, and call it my own.....I supposed I could get used to it!
Wouldn't want to spend much time here, pleading my case through 10-foot thick cold rock walls, with no-one listening.....knowing what fate probably awaited me.
Here's some of the stone-work I referred to.
04 Aquaduct Segovia
"A couple of loose canons"
We called this 6-year-old a 'diplomatico'. He approached and chatted with us in Spanish. I looked up at his Mama and Papa across the room. Dad threw his arms up and exclaimed, "No es mio!" He was a delight, as was the 4-year-old we chatted and sang with on the train earlier. Always a treat to listen to the young ones ramble on in their simpler use of language, with us understanding a great deal of what they're saying. (especially because little ones repeat themselves over and over and over.....and think nothing of it-it's a good fit with our comprehension level.)
This tidy design was painstakingly applied to the entire outside surface of the castle, and many of the buildings in the town.
Ponche segoviana(exquisitely yummy dessert) at Limon y Menta, as recommended by Rick Steve's SPAIN. Hey, what can I say?.....we do as we're told!
O.K., this time we're getting on the fast train, the AVE, back to Madrid
05 Segovia
.Outside El Corte Ingles(huge dept. store, covering several blocks), this man was playing Janna's all-time favorite piece, one of Bach's Unaccompanied Cello Sonatas. After a few tears of joy, I had Larry take my picture with the artist. You can pretty well count on live, well-performed music any night of the week around here. This was the first player of baroque/classical we've heard..
Back at the hostal, we discovered they had found a room away from the street balcony for us. (Janna had requested a balcony, not realizing that this truly is 'the town that never sleeps'-not much sleep that first night with our street-side room) We love our new room. As you can see from the stylish bathroom fixtures, hostals are not always that humble!
Saturday we move to another hostal in Madrid, as this one wasn't available. Pretty much all the rooms are taken this Semana Santa, as people are here from all over Spain, and, in fact, all over the world. We will plan to either take a side trip to Toledo by train or tour the Prado museum here in Madrid. I'm recalling Kathleen's advice not to overplan....but to leave room for spontaneity. This is our first time out of our continent, best to get some in-depth appreciation of a couple of aspects, rather than to try and take it all in.
Comments
How amazingly fun!
Glad you guys are there. The pictures are so awe-inspiring -- especially of the cathedral, and that aquaduct! I can't wait to get out there myself and will have to find out all the good spots from you two. Take the time to soak it all in -- we don't have ancient things like that over here in the States. Love you and hope you really enjoy the coming days in your trip! ~Ben
Fun!
Your adventure sounds so fun and I love all of the pics!
Radical
Dang. Everything looks SO rad there! It must be SO different than here!
ps. Mom- loved how you saved some room by keeping the 'ge' out of 'colle'! haha.jk