Excursión: Segovia, Toledo, y Burgos

Saturday, 5:50 p.m.

I am currently writing this on my phone as an e-mail to myself while on the bus back to Segovia from Toledo.

Follow that?

I don't want to forget anything I've seen this weekend, and with three amazing cities in three days (Burgos on Sunday), I figured I needed to start documenting now. Or yesterday, if I'd planned better.

On Friday morning we left Santander for Segovia, a five-hour bus ride. No big deal for most, but for me -possessor of the world's tiniest, most responsive bladder - it was an issue. We had a planned stop two hours in, and then were expected to make it the rest of the way sans pit stops.

Ha.

First of all, Spain is extremely lacking in the public restroom area. Try are few and far between, and are either dirty and free or clean and 20€ cents. And they don't believe in bathrooms on buses, even the charter one we take.

I don't get it.

But anyway, as the miles (excuse me, kilometers) rolled by, I more and more urgently needed a potty break. I finally risked being the annoying one holding up the group and requested a stop, which my advisor graciously allowed (she was understanding because I had already explained my issue to her).

We finally got to Segovia, dropped our bags off at the hotel, and went to lunch. I struggled to choke down one of my least favorite meals (green beans with tomato sauce) for the second day in a row.

After lunch we met up with a tour guide and got a brief glimpse of the city. Segovia is home to an amazing aqueduct:

An amazing castle...

Which had an amazing view…

And an amazing cathedral...

We toured the inside of the castle and the cathedral and got to see some very cool architecture and paintings.

Afterwards we wandered the city until dinnertime, where we fed what I was told tasted like Chef Boyardee (thank you for never feeding me that, Mom!).

After dinner I was too tired to do anything except read and go to bed. We got up early this morning and left for Toledo, making another emergency restroom stop (not for me, although I heeded Uncle David's advice and didn't pass up an opportunity to go to the bathroom) on the two-and-a-half hour drive.

Toledo might just be my favorite city. It was absolutely beautiful. Please note the view:

We had another guided tour by a very animated old man. He was great and very excited about his job.

We saw so many cool things, like this Abbie-sized door:

And pretty buildings:

We ate paella for lunch (better than what my host family cooked for me):

I learned to make an origami turtle...

And then wandered the city before heading back to the bus. I finally found the fedora I've been searching for, and beat the heat with a lovely scoop of lemon gelato.

Now we're on the bus, headed back to Segovia for the night. It started raining literally as we were boarding the bus, and right now we're driving through a huge downpour/thunderstorm.

Tonight brings dinner at the hotel, and maybe a bit of city exploring if the weather is decent. Tomorrow morning we leave Segovia to get a tour of Burgos before returning to Santander. Busy busy weekend!

Sunday, 5:45 p.m.

We just finished our tour of Burgos and are headed home, hitting the road only 32 minutes behind schedule (quite a feat with a group of 26 students in a foreign country and even more foreign city).

Burgos was a bit cold but lovely all the same.

We saw a monastery, which was pretty but kind of boring…seen one, you’ve seen ‘em all! Not really…but this one wasn’t anything spectacular, it was freezing, and we had a guide who spoke too quickly for us to grasp all of what she was saying (we were touring with a group of Spanish speakers and didn’t want to ask her to slow down for our account).

We went to a restaurant for a traditional Burgos lunch featuring morcilla, which is rice that has been mixed with pig’s blood and is then fried into a sausage-like food.

Gross, right?

I had tried it with lunch two days prior, not knowing what it was…I didn’t like it, even when I didn’t know I was eating fried blood, so I felt justified in passing on my share of morcilla when it was brought out.

After lunch we toured la Catedral de Burgos, which was incredible. Words don’t even explain it, and the photos don’t do it justice…but here are a few of them anyway:

We took a quick walk through the city before returning to good ol’ Barney for our ride home…it was such a busy weekend! And to round out all my beautiful photos, here is one of my favorites…I took it outside of a men’s restroom. Clearly.

Comillas y Santillana del Mar

Tuesday, 9:31 p.m.

I am writing this with my eyes half-mast – I know it’s early, but I am so incredibly tired right now! Today we went on an excursion after school to the nearby towns of Comillas and Santillana del Mar.

It should be noted that all of the following pictures are from my iPhone – I forgot my camera at home.

In Comillas we went to the Palacio y Capilla de Sobrellano. I think. I get confused sometimes – I usually just stick to figuring out the general idea of what is being said, and names seem to escape me.

This particular palace was another royal vacation home. Can you imagine?! I mean seriously, look at this place! It’s absolutely insane.

We had a tour of parts of several of the rooms (we weren’t allowed to take pictures in most parts of it). Here is the entryway – please note the arches. Or whatever it is I was supposed to be paying attention to for my culture class. See? Things just escape me.

Our guide basically told us she wouldn’t be looking at that if we wanted to take photos we wouldn’t get caught…so I snagged a photo of the library – obviously I loved this room.

After the palace we went next door and saw this cathedral (a “small” one by Spanish standards), but only from the outside.

Then we saw this building, El Capricho de Gaudí. Check out how crazy it is! Those are ceramic sunflowers adorning it. The architect, Antonio Gaudí, was a bit eccentric.

Then we headed back to the bus (I have named him Barney since he is large and purple) before heading to Santillana del Mar.

There, we looked at another cathedral:

And then we had time to explore the village before calling it a day. This is what Spain looked like in my head before I got here:

I bought presents for my sisters in this cute little town, then got back on the bus and headed home. After a nice dinner of tortilla con patatas (a cross between an omelet and quiche, but a little more potato-y) I took a shower and sat down here to write this before I forgot anything. Which clearly didn’t work, considering I forgot about half of what I learned today.

But I tried.

Right now I am hearing another procession somewhere in the city – it sounds pretty close! I’m beginning to really enjoy the sound of the drums.

Tomorrow is my last day of school this week. It’s a short day too, we only have two of our three normal classes and are finished for the day by 1:00 – a great way to start my weekend!

♥ abigail

Las Cuevas

Saturday, 10:43 a.m.

On Friday we went on our first group excursión. It was so nice to go on a trip completely planned out for us, from how we would get there to what we would be doing while we there.

We left at 8:45 a.m. to go to Las Cuevas del Monte del Castillo. I'm not sure exactly whereabouts we were, but it was really pretty, as you can see.

[[View on our walk up to Las Cuevas del Monte del Castillo.]]

Unfortunately, we weren't allowed to take pictures in the cave - the paintings in them are about 15,000 years old or something like that, and flashes and things like visitors' body heat can mess with the art.

And before I go any further - yes, I, Miss Claustrophobic, went in CAVES. As in dark, cold caverns with no exit in sight. I was a little scared to go in the first one, but for being enclosed it was pretty open, if that makes any sense.

I still thought I was going to get stuck though. And at times I thought I was basically setting myself up to be a victim of a perfect murder. But I tried to brush those thoughts away because what we were seeing was so amazing.

Our guide did a great job of explaining what we were seeing. It was so surreal to imagine people making these paintings, documenting their lives, and there were were so many ages later, looking at them and trying to understand what they were saying.

Some points in the cave were extremely cool. There were areas where the shape of the walls were worked into the painting to show the shape of animals. My favorite was this "sculpture" of a bison that looked like a bison when you looked at it but when you saw its shadow cast on the wall it hit a painting behind it perfectly to appear as a figure that was part-man and part-bison.

After we were finished with that tour, we went to Museo de Altamira. The caves there are extremely well-preserved, which means no one is allowed in them - but the museum features an exact replica. Definitely not as cool what with the easily-walkable ramps and stairs that are well-lit...and the paintings are a lot more vibrant than what the originals would look like by now...and the ceiling to floor height is substantial and we had to imagine where the floor was based on the track lights on the walls (not that I'm complaining there, these caves were short).

We weren't allowed to take pictures in the fake cave though. That was strange to me. If it ruined the paint, couldn't they just paint over it again? I mean that's what they did in the first place...just a thought!

Also at the museum we were able to participate in some hands-on activities. The first involved using that shorter stick there to throw the longer one (which would normally have a point at the end) at targets. We only got a few tries, but I was definitely the closest to hitting the target - all those years of softball must have paid off!

[[Getting ready to throw. You held the end of the smaller stick in your right fist, hooked onto the bigger stick with the "spear" on the end, holding that one in place with your index finger and thumb. You stood sideways (almost as if throwing a javelin), aimed, and threw, hanging onto the small stick in the process.]]

[[Our lovely, unassuming targets.]]

Our next activity was kind of a let-down after throwing things (especially when no one ended up hitting the targets), but we got to play with rocks, so it wasn't completely terrible. Using sticks and hand covers, we were able to chip away at rocks to become spears. Our guide made his sharp enough to cut off a chunk of his hair (which he must do often because his hair was kind of all over the place). I was able to cut off a piece of mine once I sharpened my rock, but I was a little more subtle about where I cut.

[[Our rock and sharpening tool. You put your left thumb through the leather and had your hand protected by the leather. Using the stick, you chipped away at the edges of the rock to make a point. The points would have later been attached to the hunting tools.]]

My internet is being too slow to let me look anything up right now, but if you feel inclined, look up information about the caves I went to. It obviously won't do the real thing justice, but then you'll have a better idea of what I saw.

We returned to the university at 3:30 and immediately Sara and I went home and changed for the beach. Unfortunately the weather wasn't as nice as it has been, but we did find a shorter route to take to Playa Sardinero (25 minutes versus 40), and got some nice time to relax.

Today is looking like another beach day (as long as I get out there soon) and tomorrow is shaping up to be a rainy homework day. I hope you all have a good weekend!

♥ abigail