Wow, it has been a long
time since our last update. We have been
busy with lots of adventures! I’ll get
started with last weekend, when we went on a school excursion to Segovia for
Civilization and Culture, the class that Amanda and I have together.
Friday morning, we
departed from Alcala at 9am and arrived two hours later at the Palacio Real de
la Granja, a beautiful palace built to resemble a miniature Versailles for el
Rey Felipe de Burbon, the first French king of Spain. Inside, we toured an impressive collection of
tapestries and saw room after room lit by these incredible crystal chandeliers. My favorite part, however, was the garden
outside. Late October is a beautiful
time of year here in central Spain, and the trees that day were every hue of
fall. The fountains were not running,
but the ponds made for great mirrors of the yellow-gold trees all around.
Next we hopped back on
the bus for the remaining distance to Segovia.
The Roman aqueducts in Segovia are an impressive structure. I knew they were tall, but I was not
expecting it to be that tall. It was hard to believe they had been standing
for not just centuries, but for about two millennia.
After a few minutes of
photo-taking, we made our way on foot to the other side of the city to el Alcazar,
one of the homes of Isabel la Católica. This
15th century castle is said to be one of the inspirations behind the
design of Walt Disney’s Cinderella castle, so Amanda and I felt like we were back in Orlando! Well, not really. Instead of people in costumes, this castle
was full of suits of armor. Despite some
rain on the way back to the bus, it was a fun trip.
The following day, my
mom arrived in Spain for a visit! We had
a great time on Sunday showing her around Madrid. We stopped by el Palacio, Plaza Mayor, El
Rastro, and the Egyptian temple that’s up in Parque Oeste. We also had a few unexpected experiences: the
first was a parade of Spanish horses along Puerto del Sol, and the other was a
Gangnam Style flash mob near the Cervantes monument! Those were random and fun to see.
No comments:
Post a Comment