Madrid Temple:

We went to the temple in hopes of being able to go in, but plans fell through.  We went with a member in the ward that just showed us around instead and told us a whole lot of symbolism of the temple.

Pizzaria:

I cannot remember the name of this place but for about 5 Euro I got a drink and 2 slices of hte best panini pressed pizza I have ever eaten in my entire life.  I will be looking it up and making some of these recipes.  There was hawaiian, basil and tomato, vegan, meat lovers... the works.  It was so Good! I need to move to Spain so I can cook like a Spaniard.  Wanna know the secret? OLIVE OIL! 

May 9

We went to the church and played a little soccer.  My first game of soccer I have ever played in my entire life.  EVER! Unbelievable since I have a little brother that's going to be on the Real Salt Lake's team right? Yeah, I'll leave the soccer playing to him; however, it was super fun and I got to run around... obviously looking great... 

Ucles/Cuenca:

Ucles was a monastery basically, a palace where monks live/lived.  We had a University professor be our tour guide for the day.  He brought us donuts and bribed us to be good and listen... don't ask how old we are.  

Then we went to Cuenca.  It's famous for it's hanging houses meaning they are built on the sides of cliffs and look like they're going to slide right off.  There was a modern art museum, cathedral, and lots to walk around to see.  Here is Noelle, Me, and Katie in front of the typical postcarded house of Cuenca.   

Cuenca Cathedral:

Gorgeous stain glass everywhere.  It was so amazing! Just like every catholic Cathedral we see.  We even got to hear monks singing when we first walked in (in time for mass) but we weren't allowed to walk through it because off mass.  So we went on our Nature walk instead

And naturally, during our nature walk, we found magnum ice cream bars instead.  So we ate those :)  We walked behind the city into the neighborhoods and found a gorgeous site of cliffs.  On those cliffs we found giant painted eyes.  It was the funniest thing ever!

May 11, 2012

Day Trip number 2: Destination Aranjuez.

Aranjuez has a palace and gardens that copied those of La Granja (which copied those of Versailles in France) so it was super cool to walk around the palace again.  I can never get sick of these palaces! I always just imagine myself walking the hallways in my dress being so accomplished and too rich for my own good.  If only I lived in the 1700s... and was one of the fortunate fractions that got to live that lifestyle... :) It would have been great.  So here is the main entrance to the gardens of the Aranjuez palace.

After our trip to the palace we went to a shopping center and I could not resist buying a Kinderbueno bar.  HEAVEN ON EARTH! Apparently they're illegal in the states... don't ask me why, I haven't asked just so that I don't feel guilty about eating them, probably because it's too much goodness and happiness in one bite.  It's a creamy hazlenut filling of the vanilla wafer that is dipped in chocolate and then drizzled with chocolate on top... yeah... Not lying here. 

<face of "oh no, I just got addicted.  Oops.">

I'm sitting here going through my journal of my trip and realizing that all I do is talk about food... I need to start taking pictures of family meals because they are so good.  We eat Paella, flan, octopus, Paella, Tortilla (which is not a tortilla that you're thinking of at all), fried eggs, meat, cheese, and with every meal BREAD! French bread with every meal.  And an Orange for dessert.  Always.  Sometimes we mix it up with a yogurt... but their oranges here are candy.  So usually not.  :)

So there was a Festival here, called Festival de San Isidro.  It basically has turned into the Occupy Wallstreet.  But there was a fireworks show on Tuesday so we went, promise we were safe.  This is Katie and I in front of the lake they did the show on.  It was by far the best fireworks show I have ever seen.  Choreography to the music (classical music such as Hall of the Mountain King, the Can-Can, and the Nutcracker) was absolutely amazing! They even had fireworks that shot fireworks into the water that exploded about 20 feet in front of us.  AMAZING!!!! 

May 15: Tuesday: BULL FIGHT!

We got to go to a bull fight here! Here it is a sport.  I asked Paco if he like soccer or basketball.  "Neither. I Like Bull Fights."  The arena was huge and 100% full of people.  They take their bull fights very seriously here.  For those of you who have not attended: 1st round: The men tease the bull and hide behind big huge walls, the trumpet sounds.  2nd round: Horse comes out with a man with a spear.  They point it right at the bull and he charges and attacks the horse (The horse is covered in padding and can't even move because there's so much) Often times the bull would take the horse right out and knock it over while the man with the spear is sitting there with the point going into the Bulls spine.  They have 2 horses/spear men.  Trumpet sounds.  Round 3: Men with little jabbers that they stab into the bull and they continue sitting there weakening the bull.  Trumpet.  4th round: The Torrredor (there are 3 per Corrido de Toros and each get to kill 2 bulls (about 1300 pounds)) comes out and has a little sword and the point is to run at the bull and stab it behind the head and kill it immediately.  There was only 1 man that did that the whole night.  He stabbed the bull while he was charging and the bull stopped in its tracks and fell to the ground.  wow.  That sounds gorey... sorry... But once you could realize it's a sport, art, and totally a part of the culture here, then you actually start cheering with the people: "SIN VERGUENZA (Without shame)" or "FUERA (Get him out of there--the torredor is terrible at this--we want someone good!)"

Also, it's traditional to have fans... so to blend in a little bit more, I bought me a fan... and given the fact we had the worst seats in the house: tippy top row (there are 3 levels (about 4 or 5 stories up)) and in the sun... so a fan was nice to have.

Profe gave us "Madrid Walks" to take so that we could see the city.  We took the "Highlights" walk and that took us to the Catedral de Senora de la Almudena.  This so far has been my favorite Cathedral.  It was huge, romanesque, BRIGHT!, and newer.  The pillars were gorgeous, the stained glass was so interesting, and not to mention there was a bishop performing mass at the same time.  It gave me the feeling of a cathedral that I would actually attend versus a cold dark cathedral from the medieval times.

After that we walked around the Royal Palace in Madrid.  It was used by the royalty of Spain up until 1938, when they moved to a smaller, less gaudy home out of the heart of Madrid.  We got there and it was closed, but planned on coming back the next day.  We got to walk around the gardens though and see the outside.

Back in the Palace.

It was so awesome! This palace was gorgeous! Not a lot was original from the 16th century original building, but it was gorgeous nonetheless.  There was also a royal Armory and Pharmacy that we went through.  Walls and Walls of Armor and weapons and then walls and walls of jars that used to contain powders and liquids for the royalty that lived in the giant palace.  It's ridiculous how much attention they got.

After we went back to Calle de Ginés in the Plaza del Sol and ate the typical Chocolate and Churros treat.  This place has a reputation of being delicious so we decided to splurge and Katie and I split 6 churros and 2 chocolates for 1.85 Euro.  BEST 2 EUROS EVER SPENT! The hot chocolate is about a 60-70% dark chocolate and the churros are just deep fried and we put powder sugar on them to make a delicious treat! The chocolate I think is just hot pudding.  It’s so thick! It’s so good! Supposedly the sign of a good hot chocolate is if the spoon can stand up straight on it’s own. Ha it wasn’t that thick, but more that way than in the states.  I’m going to figure out how to make it.  I’m convinced it’s just pudding… I’ll have to try it once I get home. 

 

A