Hello friends! I'm back again! This time, my parents came to visit me in Spain during our two week spring break from March 31st to April 15th. We had a phenomenal time touring Spain for 2 weeks, and I'm so thrilled the came over to Europe to visit! Anyway...where did I leave off? Oh, yes...
We’re back to that Friday afternoon…March 30th. I packed a duffel bag to let my parents take full of my winter clothes, as well as my backpack and a small purple bag for our 2 week romp through Spain. I left at 6:00am the following morning to meet my parents at Madrid’s airport, so I made sure to go to bed nice and early that night. This is where the fun starts already…
I woke up on time Saturday morning (that’s a first..). I had showered the night before to allow my hair to dry overnight, and I straightened it in the morning before I caught my bus to Madrid. Well, here’s where the fun starts. I had originally planned to leave our house around 5:30am, because it’s a solid 20 minute walk to the bus station from where I live, and with me carrying three bags, I knew I’d need a bit more time. I hadn’t put my watch on yet that morning while I was getting ready in my room, and as I headed to the kitchen to heat up my milk and toast, I saw on Maria’s clock that I was running extremely late. I was eating breakfast at 5:30am…which means by the time I gathered my stuff, called the elevator, gotten down to the lobby, went back upstairs to get something I nearly forgot, ran back downstairs to get the rest of my stuff, and headed out of my building, it was close to 5:45am. My bus left promptly at 6:00am, and I knew there was absolutely no way I would make it to the station on time…so I knew I could grab a taxi at the taxi stop near my house – there are always plenty of available taxis sitting there. Well, this morning there wasn’t…so as I was booking it to get to the station, I found an available taxi sitting at a red light. I hopped in his cab and told him I had to get to the bus station immediately. Long story short, I made it with a few minutes to spare, and it turns out I was sitting next to another girl on the study abroad trip for the bus ride. Phew. If this was how my spring break was starting, I couldn’t WAIT for my next adventure! 
I got to the Madrid airport at 9am, and I was dropped at Terminal 4. I didn’t know what terminal my parents were flying in on, so I once again ran around like a chicken with its head cut off until I discovered they were in Terminal 1. I made it over there, and waited outside of the arrivals area. Here I also found another girl on our trip waiting for her boyfriend who was on the same flight as my parents! Almost everyone else came out of the room, except my parents. I waited, and waited, and waited…and I was starting to worry if they were on the flight, if they got stuck in New York, or what not when they finally walked through the doors! After lots of hugs, I found out their luggage was still in New York!!! So they had to talk with the people working in baggage to set up a delivery to get our luggage on Sunday, April 1st delivered to our hotel. We took the metro to our hotel, checked in, and relaxed for a bit. We headed out to see some of Madrid that evening…we saw Puerta del Sol (Madrid’s Time Square), Plaza Mayor, and we enjoyed a Flamenco show that night. The show was incredible, with a few different female dancers and a male dancer as well. There was a group of men playing guitars and a few singers as well. This all made for quite the unique experience and everything was done very, very well. There were a few different school groups from the USA there at the same time, and one of the women in the groups gave us her paella because she was too full and didn’t want it. We also had some good tasting sangria! After the show we headed to the Mercado de San Miguel, which is an indoor market full of stands with meats, cheeses, wines, martinis, appetizers…basically everything you can think of! It reminded me of the Milwaukee Public Market, if you’ve ever been there. |
| Palacio Real in Madrid! |
Our second day in Madrid, we decided to hop on one of those super awesome tourist buses that takes you around the city. From there we were able to see a lot more of the city, including things like the Plaza Cibeles, Fuente de Neptuno, the soccer stadium, and the 2 art museums. We spent some time at the art museums, but not too much…just enough to get a touch of the art that they both housed and to see some of the differences between contemporary art such as Picasso and Dali and classical art, with painters such as Velazquez and Goya. It was really amazing to see the works of art after we had learned about them in art class! It made for much more enjoyable visits to both museums. This night, we headed to the Plaza Mayor to get some tapas for dinner. We sat outside at a café, drank some wine from Valladolid, and ate tapas. It was an incredible night. We literally sat there for hours just chatting and drinking wine. (Their luggage also came in today – no worries!)
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| This is from the market off of Las Ramblas |
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| Mom and Dad at the Sagrada Familia |
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The next morning we woke up quite early because our train left Madrid at 8am and arrived into Barcelona at 10:30am. It was such a great experience, I love riding on trains. They’re roomier than buses and airplanes, they’re smoother than anything else (they use electric trains here) and they’re incredibly efficient. This train traveled at 300km/hr!! We made it to Barcelona in about 2.5 hours. After leaving the train station in Barcelona, we grabbed a taxi that took us to our hotel. After checking in and putting our luggage in our room, we headed out to see la Sagrada Familia. We spent a long time there, walking around and around, marveling the architectural genius that went into creating such a massive work of art. We had wanted to go in, but the line was wrapped around the entire city block, so we decided against it. Then we ate lunch (pizza!) and headed to Las Ramblas to see what the hoopla was all about. We spent a while walking down to the port and then headed back towards the city ending in Plaza Cataluña. We were exhausted, and weaving our way in and out of the crowds was getting a little tiring at this point. We went back to our hotel, and relaxed for a while. We got dinner in a cute little café near our hotel. It was an absolutely incredible meal! Everything was so delicious, and the owner was really nice (albeit asking my mother to dance with her daughter…). He gave us free tortilla, bread, and olives. After that we headed back to our hotel. We decided to purchase tickets for the following morning to see the inside of the Sagrada Familia, because we could jump the line and go in if we had them purchased previously. It was absolutely gorgeous. There are no words in ANY language to describe the beauty and magnificence of this church. To this day, I think being in the church was my favorite part of the entire two week vacation. The stained glass windows full of vibrant, eye catching colors, and the solemnity of the altar create a feeling that cannot be duplicated by anything else. It brings tears to your eyes (even for those who aren’t religious). After our morning spent in the Sagrada Familia, it was finally time to head to the port and board our cruise ship! 
This sums up the first half of my entry for our trip! I wanted to do it in two entries so that they were shorter trips. The next entry will be about our cruise to the canary islands! I hope you're enjoying the photos!
(I had to add more photos from the Sagrada Familia - because the two I had originally entered did no do it justice...unfortunately, none of them do it justice).
besos y abrazos,
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