Have I ever mentioned that our CIDE trips are cursed by the weather? Every time we plan to go somewhere Mother Nature decides to bring down her wrath. So obviously in Madrid, where it is usually supposed to be warmer in the later months, it was at freezing temperatures and there was constant torrential downpour of rain. Our hotel actually wasn't too shabby, my friends and I had hoped for triple rooms, but were assigned doubles, so Kate and I shared a room (and bed...) I just can't escape that girl!
My friends Michelle and Santi are die-hard Real Madrid fans so we had to go take a look inside the Official Real Madrid store and Michelle even got a green-screened picture with her favorite player, Iker Casillas! We couldn't bear to walk around in the freezing cold and rain anymore so a few of us decided to head to the Museo Reina Sofia. It was a museum that wasn't on our itinerary, but it had the original painting of the Picasso's Guernica. The actual painting was huge! And just as I was thinking about where he could have possibly chosen a starting point, in the room nextdoor there were a few of his primary sketches. All very interesting... And it was time to head back for dinner soon enough. My friends and I had hoped to go out that night, but after walking around in more freezing cold rain we gave up and just had some fun hanging out in the hotel rooms instead.
(Illegal sneak pic of the Guernica)
The next day was an early wake-up call for our day trip to Segovia. I absolutely loved Segovia. I was a bit nervous at first after waking up to a winter wonderland outside the bus, but it cleared up in no time and we actually had amazing weather the rest of the day (take that mother nature!) Obviously we all headed straight for the Roman Aqueduct. An aqueduct that is still standing two thousand years later! With not a drop of mortar used throughout any of the architecture, amazing.
After losing the group and getting lost for a bit, we got a tour of the Alcázar of Segovia (literally translated, the Castle of Segovia). It was originally built as a fortress but has served as a royal palace, a state prison, a Royal Artillery College and a military academy since then. It was obviously not as impressive as the Palacio Real inside and I could hardly understand our super-speedy Spanish guide, but I caught on to a few things about each of the rooms. One room with two thrones called the "Pinecone Room" (for the golden pinecones on the ceiling. There was a lot of gold on the ceilings of all the rooms..) was where Christopher Columbus came to ask King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella for the funding of his trip to the New World. There was one room with a painting of the people of Segovia, but for some reasons the artist chose not to add any of the people's eyes. Kind of creepy... I also read somewhere that the castle is also featured in the video game Resident Evil 4 and it is said to be influence for many of the castles produced by Walt Disney.
The next morning was rough for a lot of us. I really only got a solid three hours of sleep until the wake-up call came around... but others got a lot less. We had our scheduled visit to the Museo del Prado on this day and not many of us were looking forward to walking around a museum with less than a solid eight hours of sleep. However, the museum proved to be very impressive. There were several painting I actually recognized from old textbooks and classes. Paintings by Goyas and Velázquez. I really liked see Las Meninas (Spanish for "The Maids of Honor") since I remembered learning so much about it. Our guide spoke English, but we couldn't suppress our laughter when she would say, "dee mader welding" (the other building) or "look at dee perpetive and do you see dee apotles?" (look at the perspective... do you see the apostles?)
After the tour was over a few friends and I took advantage of the last bit of free time we had to go explore the Parque del Retiro (literally meaning "Park of the Pleasant Retreat"). It was a beautiful park, I only wish we had more time there because apparently, it being Madrid's largest park, there was so much more to see. After eating another big lunch in preparation for the long bus ride home, we shipped out. I'm realizing after writing this post that the city probably doesn't seem all that bad... Maybe it was the weather that put a damper on things (literally)... But I have been to a lot of big cities and Madrid just wasn't all that great. Oh well... Still glad I got to go! Next on the list of trips: Spring Break!! (Italy, Granada, Seville, Barcelona), Tangier (in Morocco!!), and Dublin!!
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