We finished our intensive Spanish class on Friday, Sept. 28, and the following Monday we left for our Madrid trip.

We first went to Segovia, which is a bit north of Madrid, six hours away from Granada. We got off the bus, and then ate our bocadillas with the roman aqueduct in the background. It is such an impressive structure, even more so when one considers that it was built in the second century, and is still functioning, bringing water from a source 15 km away. It's amazing to think that there is no mortar holding it together and that it has only needed renovation once -- in the 15th century.

After looking at the aqueduct, we walked to the gothic cathedral. We weren't allowed to take pictures inside, but you can see its beauty just from the magnificence of the outside. Inside there were chapels and a cloister with intricately carved walls and arches.

Next we walked to La Alcazar, the castle where Queen Isabel and King Ferdinand lived in the 15th century. It looks a bit like the Walt Disney castle. Compared to the intricate Islamic decorations of the Alhambra, the inside of the castle walls might have seemed bare, but I liked the simplicity and the views of the countryside were beautiful.

Patrick, I thought of you when I was looking at the knights and their horses!

There were hundreds of swallows flying about --s o beautiful.

After our visit in Segovia, we headed to Madrid, checked into the hotel, and then went out for la cena. The next day we visited el Prado, and saw, among other famous paintings, Velazquez's Las Meninas. It was really cool to see the paintings that I have learned about in many of my Spanish classes. Many of them were a lot bigger than I was expecting. They were so much more impressive in real life than on the thumbnail pictures I'd seen in textbooks. There is nothing like visiting museums and seeing the actual paintings of the master artists!

After our tour of the museum we ate, and then had free time. I went with some of the other students to El Parque de Buen Retiro, which is a huge park like Central Park in NYC. It had a huge pool of water, as well as many fountains and statues. While there, we had a funny experience with a British couple who were looking for el prado. The woman came over and asked in French if we spoke English. We nodded, and said, "si" and then laughed, realizing we had replied in Spanish.

After explaining to her how to get to the Prado, her husband came over and told her he had figured out where they were, pointing to the lake on his map and saying to us "lago?" "Yes," we said (in English of course), "That's the lake, and you want to go along this road to get the museum."

"Oh, you're American," he said. We nodded, and then explained how we were studying here for the semester. It was an amusing cross-cultural situation. After we parted, and they left to find the Prado, we went to sit on the steps by the lion and mermaid statues and watched the people paddling about in boats in the "lake." It was quite entertaining to watch the different couple and groups of people trying to navigate the rowboats!

Then next day, Wednesday, we went to Cuenca. It had rained on and off since we arrive in Madrid, but on Wednesday it rained the hardest. We were a bit tired from the last two days of touring, and the weather didn't improve anyone's mood. Also, a few students were feeling sick, and the twisting roads that we traveled didn't help settle their stomachs! Even those of us who were fine at the beginning of the trip were feeling a bit queasy as we got off the bus in Cuenca. Still (for those who liked abstract art) the two-hour trip was worth it. We visited an abstract art museum as well as the Cuenca cathedral. The museum was in perched on a cliff, and was almost a piece of art in itself with its small rooms and staircases, its wooden shuttered windows and striking views of the unique geologic structures around Cuenca. Abstract art is not everyone's cup of tea, but I enjoyed the paintings, and in particular liked the paintings of Fernando Zóbel. His painting "Jardin Seco" (dry garden) is beautiful. This painting and a discussion with Maggie, my fellow Creative Writing major, inspired me to write a poem. I've been writing a lot since I've been here, and it is exciting because it has a been a while since I've felt creative. When I've worked a bit more on the poem I will probably post it here.

The landscape framed by the windows is practically a piece of art in itself.

Another landscape "painting".

The beautiful wooden shutters of the windows.

A picture of the museum perched up on the cliff.

Wednesday evening was my best evening in Madrid, as I finally got a chance to visit Chueca, which is the equivalent to The Village in New York City, or Soho in London. (Or so they say, since I haven't visited either place...I don't know.) Yay for rainbow flags! Still, I think I will leave that story till my next blog...because it and its prologue would make this blog unnecesarily long.

So onwards with the historical touring...Thursday was our longest day, as we toured the town of Toledo, which has so many historic buildings that it is practically a museum in itself.

These beautiful pictures were taken from up on the hill, where we could see the whole layout of Toledo.

One of the places we visited was the cathedral, which like the others we have seen, was very impressive. Along with ornately decorated chapels, golden organs and beautiful carved choir seats, the cathedral had many paintings by artists such as Goya, Raphael and Tizianno. It was amazing to see such artwork in the atmosphere of a cathedral and was a very different experience from seeing paintings in a museum. The roof of the room with the paintings completely awed me; the people seemed to be sculpted, rather than painted onto the ceiling.

While in Toledo, we also visited two synagogues. The first, the oldest in Spain, and possibly the oldest in Europe, was designed by "mudajer" (Arabic) artists in the 12th century. These artists also designed most of the churches and mosques in Toledo. Much of the decoration showed the Arabic influence, with ornate carvings, white-washed walls, and series of arches which separated the building into five "corridors. The second synagogue, from the 14th century, had only one long room, and, the guide said, was closer to the structure of typical synagogues.

The first synagogue.

With its white arches.

The Star of David.

The Second Synagogue

It was a very interesting experience to visit both of them, and to learn about the history of the Jews in this area. Our guide (who didn't stop talking from the moment we got on the bus in the morning, until our free time in the afternoon) talked to us about the Jews who were exiled from Spain on May 31, 1492, by the Reyes Catolicos. Despite the forced move to other countries many of them, known as Sefardi Jews, retained their culture and the Spanish language, and many kept the old keys to their houses, passing them down from one generation to another. Our guide told us about how on one of the tours that she gave a student found the house that her ancestors had lived in, and what's more, pulled out the ancient key to the door! Hearing the story and being surrounded by the history of Spain, gave me the chills. It is incredible to be here in Europe and to explore all these historical places. It makes me realize how young the United States is. She is just a teenager in comparison to Europe.

So, after all this touring, we had la comida, in a very unique restaurant, where we ate underground in rooms where cloistered nuns had lived! Then we had some free time during which we wandered around visiting tourist shops, buying marzipan and other souvenirs, and then in the evening we went to the theatre.

Almost a week before this trip to Toledo, the Friday that we finished classes we saw a play, El Lindo Don Diego, in Granada. It was a interesting experience to go to the theatre and see as Spanish play, although it was very hard to understand because it was from the 17th century and so in old Spanish, the equivalent of watching a Shakespearan play. Even native Spanish speakers had a bit of trouble understanding some of it, so you can imagine the struggle that we Bucknell students had trying to figure out what was going on! Still it was entertaining to just watch the choreography, costumes, and the acting.

The director of the play, an Irishman who has lived in Spain for 40 years, is a friend of the Bucknell Professor [Susan] Fischer, and so on Saturday after the play we had the unique opportunity of speaking with him. It was very interesting to talk about his directing choices, and it also helped clear up our confusion about what exactly the play had been about!

The play that we went to in Toledo was directed by the same director as El Lindo Don Diego. We were all tired from all the touring and were not looking forward to the play which was a dramatic reading. I wasn't sure how good a play could be where the actors were reading from their scripts, and had only had a few days to prepare, but I loved it! I enjoyed it much more than El Don Lindo Diego (partially because I could actually understand it!) and also, the actors were better, (one of them is a well-known Spanish stand up, and another I think has a part in Ugly Betty) and they were very funny.

Although at first the presence of the scripts distracted me, I soon forgot they were there, except for the entertaining moments when the characters became actors again, correcting each other, or losing their place. I really enjoyed it, although I was exhausted by the time we got back to Madrid about midnight.

A building near our hotel. The horses were spectacular looking, up on the roof, silouetted against the sky.

The next morning we had free time, so we could choose what we wanted to do during our last hours in Madrid. Although it was tempting to sleep in, most of us got up to visit el museo de Reina Sofia. A few others visited the park, or just walked around Granada, and Julia, who had already been to el museo de reina sofia, visited the Royal Palace. The main reason for going to this museum was to see Guernica by Picasso. It was amazing, and what made the experience even more notable was that while we were looking at it, a group of Spanish school children, about seven years old, came and sat down in front of us. It was very interesting to hear their commentary about what they saw in the painting. Sometimes they noticed things that we han't seen, and their opinions about the painting meant was interesting. One boy commented that he could almost hear the woman with the light shouting.

We also saw paintings by Dali, and Joan Miro, among others. The details and colors in Dali's surrealist paintings were astounding and it was cool to see Miro's paintings and sculptures, since I did a project about him for a highschool Spanish class. Before we went to the museum Julia and I were talking about abstract art, and how she doesn't really see the artistry in paintings which only consist of one dot or just one line, like two paintings she saw in the museo de Reina sofia when she went. I like abstract art, but I'm also not sure about the artistry of one dot. I told her I would be on the lookout for that painting, and let her know what I thought after seeing it. Well, amusingly enough I found it, and it was by Miro! He is one of my favorite artists, although I much prefer his more complex abstract paintings, like Dog Barking at the Moon, and his dutch paintings, more than the dot ones. Still, when seen in a collection with other paintings by Miro, they somehow are moving.

After our museum visit, we ate with the rest of the group, and then boarded the bus for the long bus ride back to Granada. We had had a long, but satisfying trip! I'm really glad that we have so many opportunities to explore Spain through the Bucknell en España program. In five days we saw four different cities, and learned a lot.

Well, after all that I have written, I think I will leave my news about my classes, until the next blog that I write...as always I hope that all is well across the pond. Also, I'm very excited about the Old Bay seasoning that should be arriving in the next few days. Mr. Lane, what would I do without you!?