Coldest I've ever been

Well that's actually probably a lie, I'm sure I've been colder, but that was pretty brutal on Thursday.  So Wednesday we had free in Madrid and our last day with the AIFS program was a day trip to Segovia and El Escorial.

My day started bright and early, breakfast at 8:15 and headed for the bust at 9 am. We then all received our little papers with some info of the places we're going to see and a little daily schedule.  It's pretty awesome because it has a little history of the places we're going to, that way we're not completely ignorant of what we're seeing.  So our first stop was El Escorial.  El Escorial is basically a huge palace that the king made a long time ago.  It's very plain on the outside to show the kings dark outlook on life at the time, I can't remember why though.  So we drove about an hour away from Madrid to El Escorial, and upon arrival we realized that there was some flurrying going on!  That means it's even colder than we all expected.  Now some people, were not expecting the cold at all and were completely unprepared.  I was more prepared with others, because I at least had a hat and gloves and scarf.  However..none of us were prepared for the wind!! All of a sudden the wind got extremely strong when we entered the premises of El Escorial.  Basically that place is a wind tunnel.  We walked into the premises to meet our tour guides, we're such a big group that we always split into two groups, it just makes it easier.  So our tour guide walks out and says alright, let's go this way!  Then the biggest gust of wind hits and all of us scream, cower, sudder, turn around and just altogether do the opposite of our directions.  Granted we all had a blast with the wind, one friend, Bree, was really excited and tried walking, but the wind was so strong she couldn't really go anywhere.  It was comical for us, and apparently for Edu, who watched this all from afar, as well.

So we then headed into El Escorial.  This place is gigantic, and it would be impossible to tour the whole place.  So we only saw the best parts of the place.  We started off in a library, a huuuuge library, that is apparently second only to the Vatican library.  It's collection of old books is so vast that it's considered the second most important library, second to the Vatican's library.  The place is huge and has some of the coolest things, also on top of the ceiling is a really cool fresco.  How anyone could read when in that room is beyond me, because I would not be able to concentrate with all the beautiful art around me.  We weren't allowed to take pictures of most things in the place, but we learned a lot of cool info.  After we visited the library we saw the cyrpt where all the Kings and Queens of Spain have been buried!! That was really cool to see, no they aren't bodies, they're more like the ashes of the decayed bodies.  First they put them in a different room for them to decompose all the way, then they get put in the royal area, and all their caskets are labeled and everything.  It was kind of cool to see where they were all buried, and I actually wasn't all that creeped out by the thought, it's kind of a weird thought in the first place.

 We also got to see where all the other royal family members are buried.  Some of the caskets are really pretty.  Our guide has some really good stories for us, and I just remember one story he told us about the caskets.  We entered another area with a bunch of caskets and he pointed out one that had a really big statue on top of the Queen that had this area built.  Now most of the statues are hollow because it's cheaper and easy to move that way, but apparently this one is solid marble, or some sort of material.  His explaination as to why it's solid was hilarious; the queen that in the casket is the mother-in-law of the queen in the statue.  So he said she had that one made solid marble so she can't crawl out...haha I thought it was funny, although I think I'm not conveying the hilarity very well in my words.  After that we walked around some more and ended up in an are with a bunch really old armor.  We weren't allowed to touch anything, but we were able to take some cool pictures!!  Funny story, we were all running around taking pictures and my friend walked up to a suit of armor and pretends to play the hand slapping game.  She accidentally bumped his hand, and all of a sudden a voice comes on saying "please do not touch the artifacts", or something along those lines...because it was in Spanish.  We finally finished going through El Escorial, and headed to warm ourselves up in a little coffee shop before we headed out to Segovia.  Oh yea!! Our guide also showed us this room where you can feel your echo at a certain spot in the room.  The acoustics are really cool.  If you speak into one corner of the room you can hear it from the opposite corner of the room.  It's like walkie talkies through the wall!

The first snow I've seen all winter!

Next stop....SEGOVIA
My favorite little city/pueblo.  Segovia is pretty much exactly how I would picture a little Spanish town.  The cobble stone, narrow streets, with the cathedrals and other historical things.  I first visited there about 3 years ago and I loved that place.  Now I got to return and see my favorite little castle!! It's the castle that inspired Walt Disney's Sleeping Beauty Castle.  It's pretty cool, and adorably cute and I love the turrets and the fact that you can walk up to the top of the castle and see alllll of Segovia.

Of course it was snowing when we got there, it was windy and cold once again, and the drive up there we saw snow.  My friend was really funny because she's from Texas and it was the first time she saw snow.  She was all giddy and funny, and all of people from up north were like "nope, that's not real snow". haha  First we stopped and had a delicious lunch at a little place in Segovia.  Oh my goodness was it good food.  We got tons of really good pasta and a huge piece of chicken.  I got a big leg, yummmm.  Then we had icecream!! While it was cold outside the icecream was still really really good.  First time I've had actual icecream here.

My Favorite Castle. the Alcazar

Then onto the castle, which is called the Alcazar.  Inma showed us around the castle and gave us the grand tour in Spanish.  I was actually really happy to have the tour in Spanish, because after a few days of not needing to use it I definitely felt myself slipping.  She showed us around, we saw the King and Queen's throne room again.





Both King Fernando and Queen Isabella's thrones and there's a cool motto on top but I don't really remember what they meant.  We also got to see the big painting on the wall of the Queen's ceremony, and all the people don't have eyes on the ceremony.  If I remember correctly, it's because the coronation happened on a certain saint's day and it had something to do with the eyes.  Unfortunately I don't remember again.  haha oh well.

Spiral Staircase

Then we got to climb to the top of the castle!! I love the top of the castle, we get to climb up the classic spiral staircase that goes to the top of the tower.  It's a long spirally staircase that seems to last forever.  But when you get to the top you get an amazing view of the whole town.  It was a bit bitter cold so no one really savored the moment like I did.  Well some of us did, but many were unprepared and did not have gloves or a hat, so the top of the tower was a bit chilly and unappreciated by many.  But I loved the view and was really happy to be back. One of my friends was just really excited that this was the castle that inspired Sleeping Beauty's Castle, and went skipping around the castle saying "I feel like I'm a princess!"  It was hilarious.

We also got to see the Roman Aqueducta again.  Now that....is an impressive piece of construction.  There's actually an old tale that goes along with it and how it was built.  The old story is that the Devil built it overnight for a little maid.  The story goes that every night she had to go out to fetch water for her family, but the well was very far away and she hated walking out at night to get water.  The Devil fell in love with her watching her every night and decided to make a deal with her.  He told her that if she gives her soul over to him he'd make the Aqueduct so she wouldn't have to walk so far every night.  She agreed and then when he was building the Aqueduct she realized what she was doing.  She tried to run away and the Devil got very angry.  I can't remember after that, but there's a little statue in the center of the Aqueduct that is said to be a tribute to the girl that died.  It's really an impressive thing and I love looking at it.

After that we headed back to Madrid.  I was so exhausted that I didn't do much after we got back.  Me and my friends were going to do some stuff but we were really tired, so we decided to go to a restaurant close by and grab some food.  Unfortunately the place we picked was not very good at all.  Their menu was absolutely gigantic, and when we all found something we wanted we were told "no hay" (we don't have it).  haha  Of course we were very confused as to what they did have then, and it took a while, some words and more looking at the menu to choose something that wasn't really even that good.  But it was an experience...and we all got cute little calenders at the end of it.  Then we headed back to our hotel to head in for the night.  Because you see...most of us had to get up at around 3:30 to head to the airport.  On our way one of my friends almost got pick pocketed, but she caught the guy luckily...just goes to show you can never let your guard down in the city.

Here's the picture of the Queen's Coronation I talked about

Me on top of the tower

View of Segovia from the Tower. So pretty!

View of Segovia just in front of the castle. 

Just a cool picture of the Aqueduct that I like.

Over all my last day in Madrid was really really good.  I loved Segovia and was really excited to head over to Barcelona.  I was so looking forward to spending more than just a day and a half in the city.  I got to know the city well for myself.  I was super excited.  Next post...Barcelona!