One part travel blog. One part nerdy history lesson.

Month: June 2017 (Page 2 of 2)

Day 1- Madrid, Spain

Hola from España! We had a great first day in Madrid. We arrived Wednesday night late enough to just get our car and head to the hotel so we were up and at ’em early today to get a full day of sightseeing in by 2pm (still working today and tomorrow- then true vacation for the rest of the trip.)

Found this nice statue of my likeness outside of the airport. The artist is Botero, known for his fat round characters and representations. He’s from Columbia, but he has a lot of art in Spain. 5 sculptures alone in Madrid.

We arrived to our hotel too late for the restaurant but not for room service, so we really kicked off vacation the right way with Spanish specialties brought straight to our room. The central area around Madrid is known for Jamon Iberico… salty cured ham from Iberico black pigs who are fed acorns, cured long and sliced paper thin. So good.

This morning we started out towards El Retiro Park, “the lungs of Madrid”… and I have to say, I underestimated the scale of Madrid…it was over a mile just to the “start” of our day, so we covered a lot of ground.

This statue in the park is said to be the only known public monument to Satan in the world. haha The Fallen Angel represents Lucifer in Milton’s Paradise Lost where he fell from the heavens.

We found what appeared to be an outdoor library that ran the length of this street. How COOL is that??

El Retiro is also the home of the Crystal Palace. Built by the royal family in the 1800s to house all of the plants from exotic locales, it is now empty and used for art exhibits. After seeing this, I’m thinking Kegan better get to building because my polytunnel just isn’t seeming so cool anymore. 🙂

After that, we found a play park..so we had to let Norah play a little. Even if it was cutting into my “itinerary”. ha

We continued on through the park seeing various statues and gardens.

We walked past the Prado Museum, but didn’t have time to go inside and tour. Especially with a 4 year old. ha just not in the cards….

We were hot and thirsty by this point. It was almost 100 degrees today…and coming from Ireland for the year were it hasn’t broken 75…it was a shocker. I’m now “Karen” according to Starbucks. We’ve been having fun with that all day calling Norah “Karen”. It’s really getting her worked up. ha

 

Found a status of Cervantes (Don Quixote author) along the walk.

This is the famous El Oso y El Madroño statue- the Bear and the Strawberry Tree. The statue is fairly new- within the last 50  years- but the bear and tree have been a symbol for Madrid since at least the 1400s. It is in the Puerta del Sol- an open plaza just FULL of people. Sensory overload for sure.

After wandering around, buying some sunscreen and a toothbrush for me (I forgot mine like a travel newb and the hotel freebie wasnt going to cut it for more than a couple brushings ha) we found a gem of a place: San Gine’s Chocolateria, famous for churros and chocolate. They don’t drink their hot chocolate in Madrid- they use it to dunk their churros!

After than wonderfulness, we marched on to Plaza Mayor, the main plaza of the city. I find it so interesting how the use of public spaces has changed so much over time. Today, people sit around the edges of the plaza, enjoying coffee or wine, lunch, a few shops… but if you were to go back to the late 1400s, this was a major site of the Spanish Inquisition. Every month or so you could have seen a whole group of “heretics” paraded out into this very plaza and burned at the stake.

The Spanish Inquisition was authorized by the pope in the late 1400s, originally just as a way to ensure that Jewish and Islamic converts to Catholicism were adhering to the orthodox principles because they had a tendancy to continue their “old” religious practices after conversion. (Could have had something to do with the fact that all Jews and Arab people were told by law they HAD to convert to Catholicism or leave Spain….).  However, the Protestant Reformation- a break from the Catholic church and led by Martin Luther just a few short years later would really run the inquisitors off the rails giving it the reputation throughout history as a bunch of priests telling everyone they weren’t doing catholicism right and then burning them alive.
Anyway… We headed on over to the San Miguel Marketplace. So many people… but such a cool place.

We picked up some fruit- peaches and apples- and some small sausages to hold us over until dinner.

Norah found a Pinocchio that she just had to have her photo with.

That brought us around to the Royal Palace of Madrid. Over 1.4 million square feet. over 3,000 rooms. AND…. the royal family doesn’t even live here anymore. ha There was a big line to get in and Norah had reached her maximum. Heck, I had reached my maximum with the heat! haha So… we caught an Uber and headed back across town to the hotel to get kiddo a nap and so I could work. Keeping it real- sometimes you you don’t get to do fun things because you are vacationing with a four year old. A very sweet and smart 4 year old, but 4 none the less. 🙂

We did head out across the street for a quick dinner later in the evening. There was a sushi/asian restaurant we went to that really hit the spot. It was an all-you-can-eat sort of scenario where you can order 5 items at a time as many “rounds” as you want. Well, I only did 2 rounds. LOSER ! I’m slacking on my sushi buffet abilities. 🙂

Tomorrow, we head out of Madrid towards Segovia, Avila and end in Salamanca.

Day 2-Segovia, Avila and Salamanca

We got an early start out of the center of Madrid this morning, but still managed to sit in traffic for 30 minutes or so. Considering Madrid is basically the size of London or Paris, 30 minutes on a Friday morning didn’t seem so bad. As soon as we got north of the city, it immediately turned to mountains and an almost desert like terrain. Reminded me a lot of Nevada outside of Las Vegas.

We made a quick stop off at the Castle De Los Medoza just because it was along the way. A granite fortress towering over a small town. Not much history here really. They built this, lived there for less than 100 years… then it has sat empty for the last 400 years or so. I’d live there 🙂

The main attraction of the day was a little further up the highway in Segovia. The amazing Roman aqueduct! This aqueduct was built around 100AD and brought water to Segovia from over 15 miles away and was used until the mid 1850s. Over 20,000 granite blocks with no mortar make up the system and it maintains a 1.5 degreee slope all the way into the center of the city.

We walked around Segovia taking in the old buildings and churchs

Norah wanted to stand in front of the statue and be the Statue of Liberty. Ha

They have an actual bandstand in the main plaza.

Norah and Kegan played their imaginary instruments on the steps.

This incredible Segovia cathedral is a Gothic style from the 1500s that is just massive.

Giant 16 foot doors stand on multiple sides for entry.

One of the only Baroque organs in Europe (we saw another one in Amorbach a couple of weeks ago)


After our old quarter walking tour, we drove to the outskirts of Segovia to see the Alcazar, or “fortress”. Some sort of fortress has been here since Roman times. The Moors set up their fortress and defenses here as well because it’s right at the convergence point of two rivers. Then, when the Christian monarchs conquered the area, they immediately started building this giant stone structure. Very impressive castle.

Next, we went by the Iglesia de Vera Cruz, one of the oldest buildings in the world still standing as an original. There are tons of cathedrals and such from 700 or 800AD, but they’ve all been rebuilt, changed, built on top of an old one… but this 12 sided church was built by the Knights Templar in 1208 to mimic the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. The Knights Templar had taken back the Holy Land from Muslim control years earlier in the first crusade.

The Knights Templar have great mystery and speculation surrounding them…with ties to secret societies, freemasons and the Holy Grail, but the quick history is a lot more humdrum. The Pope decreed that this small order of Knights would answer only to the Pope/Catholic church and be above Kings/borders and all local laws. All Knights Templar swore themselves to poverty and chastity- and survived by donations. As a way to help the Christian cause, noblemen would make grand donations to the Knights and this helped grow the order into what today would be a considered a multinational corporation. Because they weren’t subject to the local rulers and they were sworn to poverty, they eventually became a trusted source for depositing valuables and controlling and securing wealth. They actually came up with the first form of banking- they would let pilgrims headed to the Holy Land deposit all wealth and valuables at their home area and they would issue a “check” to be redeemed when they reached Jerusalem.

The Templars lasted only a couple hundred years. A French king who financed a war against the English through the Knights was deeply indebted and was able to start enough rumors about the Knights Templar to create an absolute witch hunt- accusing the Knights of homosexual activity, spitting on the cross as part of their private initiation rituals, worshipping idols, etc…all because  he couldn’t pay his bills. He was even able to convince the current Pope (a member of his family, conveniently) to disband the Knights and pass their wealth to other Knight orders…but not before burning the leaders in Paris at the stake-for effect, of course. So- really- no true secret orders, no ulterior missions..just a group with more power than a King and a King who outplayed them. It is said that as the Grand Master of the Knights was burned, he said he would soon meet at God’s door those who orchestrated his punishment. The Pope died a month later and the King was killed in a hunting accident the same year….and that fact gives me a lot of satisfaction. Haha

I digress. Church of Vera Cruz:

A blurry dog along the way. I really wish this photo would have turned out… I love this dog. Ha

We started driving towards Salamanca for the evening but stopped by Avila to see the town with these intact medieval walls surrounding it.

We stopped for a quick meal along the road and happened on a restaurant serving suckling pig and suckling lamb.

I had the Jamon Iberico and of course, Kegan ordered the whole leg of lamb. Haha

They have so many rules on raising, cooking and serving this meat to preserve tradition and quality. It is always served in a clay dish, cooked slow in a clay oven and always with the tag on the foot showing it’s certified.


When we got to the hotel, Norah went to try out the pool.

We ventured out to the main plaza for dinner and had Tapas and drinks with all 2,000 other people in Salamanca on a Friday night. Haha

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