La Granja crystal factory and Madrid

This was our last full day in Spain. We returned to La Granja in the morning to visit the crystal factory and museum.

I thought the museum had a great collection of glass and interesting exhibits. One exhibit was the evolution of the shape of the lip on the bottle. Who would have thought such a point would have been so interesting.

Then we drove into Madrid over a mountain range.

Once we arrived in Madrid the sky was clear and it was a warm day.

You can kind of see the traffic we were battling to make it back to the car rental location on time. It was very stressful. We passed this building which I think is the Bank of Spain.

We drove past several plazas, like this one, which I think it dedicated to Christopher Columbus.

Here we are at the Prado museum.



This is the side where you get your ticket. It looks like a small museum, but apparently it has several buildings that make up the entire museum.

This is a picture of a window front for a very nice restaurant. These are some plates full off different tapas that they offer...as well as a pig leg.

Segovia- day 2 Cathdral, Alcazar and La Granja

This morning when we woke up I was very happy to see this farmers market in the plaza outside our hotel. We bought some fresh fruit and some very good pastries.

We sat outside the cathedral and ate our yummy breakfast while some of the sellers organized their tables.

By now our feet were killing us!




The first stop for us this morning was the Cathedral.

Here is one of the many skulls I found inside the cathedrals.

This particular cathedral is know for this extreme example of Gothic art.

We found this great water fountain for us to wash our hands. We did notice that there are not many drinking fountains in Spain. The few drinking fountains that we did find were water coming out of a statue. Here we are walking from the cathedral(which you can see in the background) to the Alcazar.

This Alcazar has been used (like many other big palaces) for a few different uses.

In the Middle ages this was the home to the monarchs of Castile,

then it was a prison for 200 years - (you can't tell from the picture how huge this really is) try to get across this mote-


and then a Royal Artillery school until it burned in 1862.

Now it is a museum.

The ceilings were so elaborate.



To get to the top of the Alcazar we had to climb 152 steps, but it was worth the view.

You can see the cathedral in the background.


Today was a busy day. After lunch we drove to La Granja and walked around Spain's mini Versaille. We enjoyed the art inside as well as the gardens outside.



Here is Daniel's same smile from his high school graduation picture. I thought I would include it to bring back those good memories.


The gardens were so peaceful and the weather was almost too cold. The colors from the trees were such a dramatic combination with the huge bronze statues. It was a perfect afternoon for Daniel and I.


It was 6pm when we took these last pictures.

We came back to Segovia and had a nice dinner by the aqueduct.


This is what I wrote in my journal for Oct. 8:
After El Escorial we drove into Segovia, arriving fairly late, which is where we stayed for 2 nights. Before we went into the Cathedral we happened to run into an open air market that was in the main square. One of the desserts I had was very yummy. It was a coconut covered cake-like cookie filled with caramel. :)

We ate our newly found treats and went into the cathedral and once again were impressed by the MANY hidden secrets. This particular cathedral seemed to have more skulls than I remember at other cathedrals. I became a little obsessed trying to find all the skulls. I learned on one audio guide that a skull can represent guilt. HMMM.... that was something to think about as I would see paintings of Priest's looking at a large book with a skull on it. HMMMM...

Then we walked across town to the Alcazar, of course picking up a little snack on the way. Before we even started the tour our feet were killing us. Daniel was saying how different all this walking is for him. He usually is sitting at work all day. So we were both looking for somewhere to sit at any point in time!

After the Alacazar we tried to find our car, but had no success. So we decided to get something to eat for lunch. I had a baguette frances (scambled egg on a baguette) and I can't remember what Daniel had. Then we went to the hotel and asked the lady how to get to the car. Of course it was very close, we were looking for the car in the streets in front of the hotel, but the car was in a street behind the hotel!

We finally made it to our car and took a 10 minute drive to La Granja. La Granja is known as Spain's mini Versaille built by Philip V, grandson of Louis XIV. Once again we listened to a great audio guide. There are so many things one would miss if they did not listen to the audio guide. For example, in La Granja there is a lot of oriental art. I was wondering why, when the narrator explained that Philip V's wife was fascinated with the Orient, so she would go visit and bring back art and statues. Very interesting! Then we walked around these HUGE gardens and water fountains. By now it was almost closing time and we were practically the only people around. The weather was brisk and the leaves were changing color and falling to the ground. It was so picturesque from the bronze statues in the water fountains to the swans swimming. After the gardens we had another ham and cheese baguette and a delicious tender pastry.

We drove back to Segovia and parked our car with ease... miracle. Then we walked down to the old Roman Aqueduct and had a relaxing dinner on the main plaza. By now we were learning that everything that is put on your table is charged to you. So when they gave us bread, anchovies, olives and water we had the waiter take it all back. The waiter does not expect tips (nor does he work for them), so we did not feel bad asking him to do this. Instead we had a great paella dinner. The night before we were burned by this tactic of bringing food to the table that we did not ask for. The night before we paid over $7 for 2 pieces of bread and 2 pats of butter. So yes, the next night we told the waiter we did not want bread, butter, anchovies, or olives. After a stroll along the aqueduct we went back to the hotel. This was the only hotel we stayed in 2 nights. Next time I plan our trip I will plan on staying 2 nights in each hotel.

The next morning we found a great little store to buy breakfast. We then drove back to La Granja to see Philip V's crystal factory. This was a great museum where we found displaying all sorts of glass from many many years ago. Then we watched some men blow crystal goblets. It was fun to watch. It made me think of the Chahule glass blower DVD Olivia and Sam love to watch. This museum was much different than the cathedral and palace tours we had done the previous days. So I really enjoy this. Then Daniel bought me a beautiful crystal water pitcher. Thank you Hubby!!

We drove out of La Granja thru a beautiful mountain range and came down into Madrid. The entire drive down was so pretty, and Daniel and I had a nice conversation. It was a great way to begin the end of our trip.

Toledo in morning and El Escorial in Afternoon sleep Segocia

After leaving Toledo we drove north of Madrid to Segovia. The weather was turning stormy. In the distance we could see the cross over the valley of the fallen. It must have been HUGE in person.

Before going to our hotel in Segovia we made a stop at the Monasterio de San Lorenzo de El Escorial. It was not only a monasterio, but also a mausoleum for Spain's royal family (except Ferdinad and Isabel), a school that promoted the catholic faith, and a small palace.

Below is a picture of the crest above the entrance into the room that holds all the tombs for the kings and queens of Spain. The ornateness of each tomb is undiscribable!

This is the outside of the inner court. The building was huge, but fairly empty inside.

There was a lot of artwork that the narrator kept pointing out pieces of art in the Escorial "that were made for the basillica but did not work, or was replaced with something else." I kept wondering what Basillica he was referring to. The tour finally ended with entrance The Basillica. This was a sight to behold.

I was not supposed to take this picture (hence the funny angle), but this was amazing. The pieces of art were huge that hung from the alter. I can see now why so many had been commissioned for this altar then not used.
After El Escorial we went to our hotel in Segovia.

This is what I wrote in my journal for Oct. 7:
After spending more time than Daniel would have liked in Toledo shopping, we drove to El Escorial. As we left Toledo the sky began to darken and, after an hour and a half drive north, the sky became dark and full of rain. When we arrived in El Escorial the streets were flooded, literally. I could not believe so much water had nowhere to go, but down the street and over walls. After only a minute in the rain I was soaked.

We arrived in El Escorial around 1 or 2 pm. The only thing we could find open for lunch was a place called Bocodillo. It was a chain restaurant that sold small sandwiches on white bread- definitely not what I wanted to eat while in Spain. To this point we had found a few things I liked to eat (other than pastries). Most food has some type of pork in it. In every restaurant and home a pork leg would be on the table for eating. Daniel said he liked most things he ate. When we were hungry, usually we would pick up a pastry of some sort. I like Napoleans with ham and cheese, baguette with cheese, or tortilla frances, which was scrabbled eggs on a baguette.

After lunch we ran into El Escorial and listened to the audio guided tour. There were so many incredible works of art. After this we went to a restaurant called The Best Tapas, b/c we thought it was tapa time. But as usual we were the only ones in the restaurant. So far we have not had much luck eating tapas with the locals even though we were going at tapa time. I don't know about this.... Anyway at The Best Tapas restaurant we had a salad. Then Daniel and I went walking around this little town and found a small, but very nice pastry shop. We had a great honey treat, almost like a puff pasty with THICK honey/caramel in the layers. (not like baclava)

We walked back to our car and drove to Segovia. Our hotel was easy enough to find, but the parking that came with the room was IMPOSSIBLE to find, but we desperately needed it. It was interesting to see the different tactics Daniel and I used to find our car. He wanted to retrace the path we had taken to park the car (with the hotel attendant). I wanted to cut though streets and use familiar statues or restaurants I had remembered to guide us there. The first time we tried to find our car we were both completely wrong! We are a great team, let's just stop there.

Toledo

After finishing our drive into Toledo we toured the Cathedral of Toledo. We were very grateful for the audio-guide we bought. It was full of all kinds of information and turned a nice visit to the cathedral into a very long and informative visit. Daniel and I found ourselves looking at an impressive mural, then after listening to the narrator we would turn to each other and raise our eyebrows with awe b/c of the insight.

This is one of the organs inside.

After the cathedral we were ready for dinner/snack. Daniel and I had a great paella in the Plaza de Zocodover.

After the paella we hopped onto this funny "train" that drove us around Toledo and the Don Quioxte Route. It was a nice change for our feet, which were getting tired.

Toledo was Spain's capital until 1561 when Philip II moved it to Madrid

Daniel and I enjoyed Toledo. It was a very pretty town.



This is the view from our hotel outside of the city in the afternoon.

This is the view from out hotel in the evening. It was breathtaking! The moon was the most amazing site.

The next morning we wen to the Santa Tome church to see El Greco's famous piece The Burial of the Count of Orgaz

Then we drove up to Segovia.

This is what I had written in my journal for Oct. 6th:
After waking up is Granada on Monday morning we quickly packed our bag and checked out of the downtown hotel. We found a parking ticket on our car, put our bags in the car and went to find breakfast. We had a yummy pastry (which we always bought in the future when we found it!), a box of orange juice and a little cheese and ham baguette.

We arrived in Toledo around 2pm and went right to the cathedral built from 1226-1495,mostly gothic. There were many paintings here by Goya, Titian, Rubens, Velazques, and Bellini. After the cathedral we went to the Plaza Zocodover for dinner. After dinner we realized the last tourist "train" was going to be leaving. So we quickly paid and jumped on. It was a nice change for our feet and had a nice tour around the town. Then we went to the best place in Spain to have mazapan, Santo Tome. We sat on the plaza for a while and enjoyed the people and the mazapan.

Our hotel tonight was the best lodging of our trip. The hotel Almazara was the summer residence for a 16th century arch bishop of Toledo and a retreat for El Greco. The view was amazing.

In the morning we went to the Santo Tome chapel where El Greco painted his famous work of Art the Burial of the Count Orgaz. I was really looking forward to this chapel and know the churches we had been inside I thought this was going to be quite a site.... well... After we paid Daniel started to open the door in front of us to go inside. A guard said, "That is the exit, enter over here." So we turned to our left and opened that door. We stepped inside and turned to the right. There was the painting, very impressive, but only 20 feet away from us. It was the smallest church I have ever been in! After Daniel and I got over the shock of the smallness of the Santo Tome church we studied the painting for quite some time. After the painting I window shopped a while and bought a few gifts. This is where we found a knife for my mom. For centuries knifes and swords have been made here and are still made here for the bullfighters today.