The next day came with tours of Madrid. We went to Palacio Real. It was kind of interesting, but not very unique all things considered. After that we went to the Prado. This is the art museum in Madrid. It has the great works of great artists such as Goya, El Greco, and Velasquez. We were only allowed an hour in the museum because we were a group, but we had a wonderful tour guide that explained the art wonderfully and knew her way around the museum so that we could get as much out of it as possible. Later on our own, the guys made another excursion into the art world. We went to the Reina Sofia. This was the museum of modern art in Madrid which has works by Dali, Juan Gris, Picasso, and Miro. It also has the mural of Guernica, which is Picasso's famous painting from during the Spanish Civil War in the Cubist style.
After the first day in Madrid, we made trips to sites surrounding Madrid. We had three separate day trips to Segovia, El Escorial and the Valley of the Fallen and Toledo. The first day involved a trip to Segovia. We were let out of the bus in the shadows of the Aqueduct. Segovia was a colony city of Rome. In fact a monument speaks to its connection to the imperial city. It has a statue of two boys sucking at the teets of a she-wolf, a sign of imperial Rome. The city also has a famous Cathedral that was just breath taking and an Alcazar. The Alcazar had a tower that we were allowed to climb, but personally I took it at too great a speed all things considering. I spent five minutes recovering my breath on the top, which was difficult since Segovia is high in the mountains. Finally after admiring the view from the top of the Alcazar, we carefully made our way down the tower. I say carefully because this stairwell had no guardrails and the steps were incredibly steep. The steepness of the steps explains why my thighs hurt so much that night. This was also the night that we went to a bar in Madrid that had a 1000 peseta cover, but had unlimited refills of cervesa, cava and sangria. Everyone in the group went to this bar. So it was our first drunken excursion where we all had fun at the bar together. The next day saw us going to El Escorial and the Valley of the Fallen. The Escorial was the monastery and palace of one of Spain's most pious acting kings. He spent a lot of time in this place. The day was quite dreary so we were not enjoying travelling on this day. After lunch at the Escorial, we departed for the Valley of the Fallen. This Valley is actually more on the side of a mountain and is actually for one specific fallen. It is a tomb for Franco, the late dictator of Spain that came to power during the Spanish Civil War and handed power of Juan Carlos I on his death. This tomb is marked with a church, that is the second largest Catholic church behind Saint Peter's in Rome. Plus the dreary day turned to a snowy day when we got to Franco's tomb. In fact it started to stick; this was the only thing remotely close to inclimate weather that we experienced during our whole two weeks in Spain. The weather in Madrid was not even close to rainy. On the third day, a Sunday in fact, we were to go to Toledo, but we were leaving an hour earlier than normal, since Toledo was farther away then either of the first two trips. My roommate and I overslept a little, but we were getting ready when someone lightly knocked on our door. My roommate was in the bathroom and I was unsure that I had heard the knock. By the time we got downstairs, the bus was leaving, but they did not see us running down the road after them. So we missed our trip to Toledo, which is the center for steel and sword making of Middle Age Spain. This is one of my regrets from my trip to Spain, not being able to go to Toledo and getting a handcrafted sword. My roommate and I decided to go back to bed then tramp around Madrid to show that we did not completely waste the day. We went to a park near our hotel and the gardens outside a palace. The most pressing thing that we learned though was the fact that Spain goes into its shell on Sunday. Most of the stores were closed and did not open. The only store we saw open was Cortes Ingles, which is a department store in Spain. We also got exposed to prevalence of gift giving that occurs twelve days after Christmas. So by this point, the stores were having the American equivilent of day after Christmas sales.
Our days in Madrid, the longest stretch of the trip, were full with interesting experiences. The guys went out to dinner with Professors Shannon and Whitehead, by the way they are married with different names, to a place called Museo de Jamon. Yes, it is a chain in Spain, but I am unaware if they know that their name means Museum of Ham in English. The professors bought Sangria for us, since there were only four of us. At another dinner that I did not attend, Professor Whitehead drank a charafe of white wine and proceeded to try to figure out the tip. This is when Professor Shannon leaned to one of the students and said this should be interesting. Also during this dinner in a drunken state, Professor Whitehead also proclaimed that the students should not take a class with her because she could be a real bitch! At another dinner with the girls and me, we were discussing something about Spanish and Brooke Barbe proceeds to insult my intelligence. This is the start of my problems with the woman. Another night we went out to a Discoteca, we were in for quite a culture shock. First off, the Spaniards do not start their parties until midnight, and they may not end until sunrise. The guys watched as every girl got picked up during the dancing by a Spanish man. We were a little concerned since many had been drinking and we did not want anything to happen to them. We finally got rounded up together and left about 4am. On the last night we all went out as a group to a bar that was on a square near the Puerta del Sol. We actually bar hopped, in fact the group, Baker, John, Lacey, Amy and myself, I was with walked into a gay bar. We did not notice the warning signals until it was too late, but Lacey and Amy had to use the bathroom. They came back talking about a rainbow flag. After bar hopping we went back to the big room, three girls in one get the big room. We had a good time before we all decide to knock off. I went back to my room, but Brook and my roommate were hanging out alone so I went to Baker and his roommate's room. I was trying to be the good roommate and not cockblock, but after another hour, I was too tired and had to go to my room for some sleep. Well I went to bed, but I am not sure when Brooke left, because when I fell asleep she was still there. This was yet another incident that started my disliking of Brooke Barbee.
This concluded our trip in Madrid, it only had a small fiasco with buses and automotive travel. This means thus far we have had issues with two out of four possible means of transportation on our trip through Spain!