Parte Uno de Spring Break

Happy Spring!

Why do my Mondays seem to be so busy lately? Yesterday we got back from our big Spring Break trip to Toledo, Segovia, and Madrid. We had tons to do and there was never any down time, so I am still a little bit exhausted from traveling. But I better find energy for this weekend because I am meeting my friend Lyxan in Barcelona!

Back to last week though (and this is promising to be a long blog post guys):

I left at 6:30 am and headed to Toledo on Tuesday (16th) by autobus. We made several stops before we got to Toledo. The first one was Castillo de Calatrava la Nueva. It is an old castle that was built and used by the Calatrava Order of Knights. There were way too many stairs and uphill climbing to make life comfortable. The movies make things so much pleasanter. I didn’t take any pictures of the whole castle, so if you want to see how big it is, just google the name and it will pop up.

Then we were off to Almargo, a small town that is famous for their lace and pickled eggplant. The reason we stopped there was to visit this theater that dates back to the 16th or 17th century and a playwright named Lope de Vega used the “Corral” to show his many many plays ( we are talking a couple thousand compared with Shakespeare’s 40).

Finally, thank goodness after an entirely too long bus ride we got to Toledo and ate supper. The next morning about 20 of us went to a Catholic mass in the Cathedral that was very unique. It was an original Gregorian style mass that was chanted in Latin. A once in a lifetime kinda deal unless you live in Toledo.

Also we saw one of the most famous paintings by the artist El Greco, The Burial of the Count of Orgoz. Of all the artists that we have studied from the 16th and 17th Centuries in Spain, I like El Greco the best.

Hmm, oh yeah, before we got to Toledo we made a quick and windy stop at some old windmills to commemorate Don Quijote de la Mancha. Don Quijote jousted a windmill in the novel by Cervantes, so we had to take a picture in front of one. The wind there reminded me of home sweet home.

Actually, I am going to break this into several posts. I mean crap, I’m already getting bored with this. So this is the first two days of my trip, and here are photos.

-clh

Pictures in order:

1. Map of Spain, the yellow dots are the places I went to last week.
2. An example of a "corral" where the plays were held. This actually might be the one that I saw in Almargo.
3. An illegally taken picture of The Burial of the Count of Orgaz.
4. Windmill somewhere in the mancha of Spain.
5. An above view of part of the Castillo de Calatrava.
6. Landscape view from the Castillo. Spring has definitely hit Spain and I love it.