Weekend in Spain

It has been an incredible two days. Friday evening Michael and I traveled into Madrid to grab dinner and go to the bull fight. We found a small restaurant a couple blocks from the bull fight arena. Michael ordered us a couple plates and some drinks. It was nice to have a nice dinner just the two of us. After dinner we headed back to the arena. There were a total of 6 bull fights scheduled for the evening. The processional for the bull fight was incredible. We felt like we were thrown back in time. During the first bull fight, one of the matadors was knocked in the face by the bull. I found it pretty intense and after about 10 minutes watching the bull fight I had to close my eyes. I really did not enjoy watching the bull being tortured for sport. Myself and one of the girls we met up with left the arena when they let the second bull in. Michael stayed for 3 fights and enjoyed this experience of Spanish culture.
Saturday was a less emotional day for me. A large group of us took a bus to a town called Segovia. We spent the day touring a castle, a cathedral, palace gardens and the aqueducts. It was amazing to see so much history and beautiful architecture. We learned that the aqueducts were built around 93 AD. It is astounding to think that this structure is still standing almost 2,000 years later. In our tour of the castle I really enjoyed looking at the intricacies of the ceilings. Tim (one of the leaders of English Camp) was telling us that you can see the different time periods the castle was worked on from the different layers on the ceiling. On our tour of the castle we climbed to the top of the keep. There were over 100 stairs and a very small space to go up and down. Though I don’t like small spaces and am somewhat afraid of heights, the view was completely worth it. The cathedral was another spectacular sight. I remember studying ancient architecture in school but to be standing in front of something was beyond words. Our last stop of the day was at a palace just outside of Segovia. We only had a short amount of time to tour so Michael and I chose to just tour the gardens and not the inside of the palace. There were beautiful trees as we entered the palace that had been donated from different countries (US donated Sequoias) to the King & Queen. Once we got passed the gates we could see the beautiful fountains that surrounded the gardens. The fountain show started and it was awesome. There were four fountains they had running, each for ten minutes at a time. It was also incredible to see the history in the palace.
Today our host family took us and some friends to Madrid. We went to the botanical gardens and had a picnic in the park. We also walked by the U.S. Embassy (Casa of America), which was very neat to see. We have done a lot of walking this weekend as well as our bike rides during the week. My legs are very tired but the sights are worth the sore muscles.
I have had my siesta for the day and am getting ready to go back into Madrid with some friends to watch the Spain vs. Netherlands football match. Go España!

Below the Castle

Aqueduct

Palace Gardens

Park in Madrid

Bull Fight Arena

Dinner in Madrid