You're so cold keep your hand in mine (or, the Madrid entry)

Europe was cold. Very cold. My nerves were so not ready for it. And you know the saying, "The rain in Spain falls mainly on the plain"? I believe they're talking about Madrid. It rained every day we were there. But rain makes for beautiful pictures.

We first went to Madrid to get my sister, who had spent the semester in a city near Madrid. Spain was wonderful, probably because Whit had been there for a bit so she showed us some of her favorite places.

Spanish people are beautiful. And they dress spectacularly well. I felt very much unworthy to stand near them on the metro, in my flat sneakers (all the women wear heels. It's incredible and I am sure so bad for their legs and joints and stuff). Also they wear the cutest decorated tights with boots and skirts. I loved that look.

We spent five days in Madrid. The first day we walked around Alcala, the city where Whit stayed. It's beautiful and old. The architecture is phenomenal. Alcala is the city where Cervantes, the man who wrote Don Quixote, was born. I do not love Don Quixote, but it is a famous story, so I'm writing about it.

One of my favorite things about all the cities we visited is how close all the buildings are along the streets, with the buildings rising on either sides of the streets. I know we have cities like that in the US, but not out west, and I think it's awesome.

We toured Madrid for two days. I was amazed to watch people drive past these amazing old buildings like they're nothing, because they see them every day. The buildings are spectacular. I loved European architecture.

We went to the Prado, a famous museum (more on my art non-appreciation in the next post). They had a lot of religious art, which I find to be so weird and kinda depressing.

One night we ate at what the Guinness World Records says is the oldest functioning restaurant in the world, the Botin restaurant. It opened in the early 1700s. The architecture was beautiful, the food was good, and the atmosphere was really great.

We toured the Royal Palace of Madrid (el Palacio Real de Madrid). I really enjoyed the castles and palaces in Europe. If I ever get to go back to Europe, I'd love to do just a castle tour. The palace in Spain isn't the official home for the royals, but they still hold state functions there. The palace was cold--I don't know how those royals kept their royal bums warm.

Next to the palace is a cathedral that was finished in 1994--it was interesting to me to have this fairly new cathedral next to an old palace. I'm naive but I never thought about how cathedrals might still be built today. The ceilings on that cathedral were very bright colors--it reminded me of the Ukranian eggs my mom paints. Unfortunately it was overcast so I couldn't get a good picture of the colors (not that cathedrals are very bright anyway).

We also got outside Madrid to a city called Segovia. It's about an hour and a half drive from Madrid (or something. I wasn't driving and get really car sick, so I stared ahead and ate my yummy bread. Mmm, European bread was fantastic). Segovia has a castle that we got to tour and I greatly enjoyed it, especially to see the rooms as they used to look. We got to climb to the top of the castle, and it's amazing how well situated it is because you can see a long distance in all directions. Which I know is the purpose of castles, but it was still neat to see. In Segovia there is a very long aqueduct that was built before the Colosseum. And apparently the aqueduct brought the water uphill. Which I do not understand but find fascinating. I don't know how they built it, but it is a really cool piece of architecture. I very much enjoyed Segovia.

We also got to see the temple in Madrid, which was of course beautiful. I love the little touches that make each temple individual.

In Madrid we stayed in an apartment (we stayed in apartments in all three cities), which was really fun because we were far from the tourist centers, so we got to see what it was like to live there. Like that the elevator can't/won't fit more than three or four people. We took the stairs a lot.

We took the metro everywhere and I got very used to hearing "El proximo estacion . . . " announcing the next station. It was very nice of them to announce the next station, because using the metros was surprisingly confusing for me.

I don't speak Spanish very well, but I at least didn't feel completely lost in Spain (like, say, in France). I enjoyed the country, the people, and the food--Spanish tortillas are fantastic. We did have a bit of trouble getting into Spain, but after we caught another flight and left from Philadelphia instead of Chicago, it was ok. Except our bags went to Spain on the earlier flight and got a bit lost (we found them in the airport's lost and found. Except Kelsey's bag, which went to Mexico. Because . . . they speak Spanish too? So random).