Last Week of Traveling

Schedule for the last week of traveling:

June 30th:

Uruena and Book Town, San Cebrian de Mazote and Wamba

Each of these stops were honestly not all that interesting. The Book Town was a tiny little town that is only dedicated to making books now. They make paper and bindings and do calligraphy. We went to a museum that showed the evolution of paper starting from animal skins, etc.

We also went to another museum in this town that had musical instruments. I honestly don't know why we went here, other than it was the only other thing to do in this town. Sorry if this is boring you but I spent two hours in the museums so I don't feel too bad for you.

San Cebrian de Mazote had a church that was supposed to "Wow" us. I think we all missed out. He seemed disappointed afterwards because he was like, "No reactions?". He said that artists from all over the world would kill to see a place like this because it had architecture from several different types of architects and time periods. It was pretty, I guess.

The monastery in Wamba seemed like every other place we have seen until we saw the tomb of monks in a room off of the cloister. It was fascinating because it was a tiny room filled with bones on top of bones. I'll post a picture because I have never seen anything like it. (Although the internet won't let me upload pictures now)

Burgos

That night, we finally made it to Burgos which was a lovely city. The cathedral was actually very interesting and it was gorgeous. It had alabaster ceilings and statues and it was all built in a beautiful white stone. We really enjoyed what we saw of the city as well. The hotel we stayed at was very nice and served us a nice dinner. Luckily, I wasn't one of the girls that got stuck in the tiny elevator with their suitcases for around thirty minutes. They couldn't get out until help came. Needless to say, I didn't use the elevator after that.

July 1st:

Huelgas Reales and Cartuja de Miraflores

Not much to say about these two places, sorry.

Santander

The drive from Burgos to Santander was absolutely gorgeous. There were tiny little towns on the sides of the road with beautiful gardens, flowers, stone fences, and the locals worked in the fields. We were driving through the mountains so we saw the valleys and the tops of the mountains were covered by the clouds. Once we got closer to Santander, we could see the ocean and it was incredible. The mountains so close to the water makes a beautiful landscape. It made it even better that our hotel was right on the water. We could see the beach from the window and hear the waves during the night.

This was another great hotel, and we loved this dinner that they served. The salad was very fancy with crab and shrimp and lettuce and guacamole. It was great eating seafood when we could see the water outside the window. Then we had a steak that was so tasty, it's making my mouth water again.

July 2nd:

That morning, we got up and went straight to the beach after breakfast. We were a little bummed since it had rained the night before and little bit that morning, but it ended up being beautiful. After we buried Alex in the sand (the only boy on the trip) we got in the water and swan and rode the waves. It was neat when the sun was out and it sprinkled while we were out there swimming. It was much warmer than I expected as well as very clean and clear water without seaweed wrapping around my legs. Geez, I want to go back to Santander, we weren't there long enough.

Santillana del Mar and Altamira

Altamira is a museum that is a laser replication of the real thing which was close to where we were, but they don't let tourists in anymore. It was a cave that was discovered in the 1800s. The opening of the cave had been almost all closed when some rocks fell leaving only a small opening. Inside were paintings that supposedly date back to 18000 B.C. It apparently proves that there were people like us that were modern human beings that hunted and made tools to hunt and sew and they were even advanced enough to create art.

Gijon

Gijon was pretty disappointing to start out because we weren't in a great part of town and the hotel was not very nice and it was raining outside. We decided to go out to a sidreria. It was their form of Apple Cider. They apparently were the original makers of it--but it is quite different from what we drink at Christmastime. It is made from real apples, but then it has alcohol in it. The bartenders poured it into the glasses from way up high in the air to aerate it. We were supposed to drink it until there was only a little bit left, then pour it out into the drain on the ground to let the alcohol clean the glass where we put our lips because they reuse the glass. I tried it, but I did not like it one bit, ugh. I'll stick to the americanized apple cider.

Last Day in Salamanca

Tuesday, June 29th

Last day of classes! We made it through our four weeks of classes and earned 9 hours of credit, the easiest college credit I think I'll ever get. It was weird walking with Ali to campus for the last time. We have gotten so used to our routine and the surroundings. The afternoon on our last day of Salamanca wasn't anything special, we walked around the shops looking for last minute souvenirs, but we made sure to get some helado for the last time. It was so worth it: lemon and raspberry was a nice treat on the hot day.

I thought Feli might do something special for my last meal at her house, but I thought wrong. She yelled "Melanie, vamos a comer" and I walked out to the kitchen expecting something extravagant, but it was just a microwaved pizza. It was still good though, I'll never turn down a pizza. After dinner, we met up for another round of tapas for the next world cup game vs. Portugal. Feli didn't think Spain would be able to beat Portugal because of Cristiano Ronaldo who normally plays for Real Madrid. It turned out to be a good game, mostly because Spain won 1-0! It was very exciting once again with the atmosphere. The bartenders painted our faces with the Spanish flag and people were yelling, dancing, and honking their horns I would not be this into soccer if I weren't in Europe, but it's so fun here. After the game, we went down to the plaza one more time. It is really one of the most beautiful places at night with the floodlit lights, I'm going to miss that place.

Madrid

Saturday, July 26th

We left Salamanca early in the morning to spend the day in Madrid. Our first stop was at the Museo del Prado, an art museum. We spent 90 minutes in there with Dr. Torrico leading us around and pointing out things I would have never noticed. I'm not very art savvy. The main artists we focused on were Velazquez and Goya, but the place was just huge with art everywhere.

Madrid is so big, we really couldn't wander around too much over our lunch break because we didn't want to get lost. Our next planned visit, however, was at the Palacio Real, or the Royal Palace. I really enjoyed walking through the rooms at the Palace. They were each uniquely decorated with different color schemes and extravagant detailing. Some of it almost seemed gaudy with all of the gold and ornate chandeliers, but it was neat to see nonetheless. It was a rather quick trip, but we were all very tired after being in the hot sun.

Sunday, June 27th

Salamanca (or Spain in general) doesn't offer a lot to do on Sundays, but my host lady had told me about the 'rastro' that happens every Sunday by the river. A rastro is a flea market, and apparently this one was really big. Blake and I decided to check it out, so we caught a bus down to the market since it would have been a long walk. People were right, it was very big, it had rows and rows of tents with merchandise from shoes, clothes, underwear, purses, sunglasses, chainsaws, and even what is best described as garage sale leftovers. It was basically a whole bunch of crap. It was all very inexpensive, but nothing worth buying. It was crowded though, and Feli told me to make sure and hold onto my bag tight, because a friend of hers had her bag stolen a week or two before. While there, some guys called me Barbie, that was a first in Spain, I gave them points for creativity.

I ate lunch with Feli and her daughter-in-law and two grandsons, her son died from pancreatic cancer several years ago. I guess they eat there every Sunday, but I had been gone on excursions and hadn't met them yet. They were very nice, I had forgotten about the European greeting of the double cheek kiss, but I caught on.

Later on, a couple of us walked down by the river to and sunbathe and read our books, it made for a relaxing Sunday afternoon.