Our journey by train to Madrid, the capital of Spain!
Today's
update will cover our trip to Madrid last Friday (7/6). We started early, getting to the train station by 7:30. After an hour aboard, we headed into the city, visiting Parque Retiro, a large park in the middle of the city; the Prado Museum, home to art spanning from Ancient Egypt up to the early 20th ccentury; Plaza Mayor, a touristic spot with lots of restaurants right in the heart of the city; the city Cathedral; the Royal Palace; and a number of souvenir shops on our way back to the train that evening! Whew. That was quite a busy day.
Let's get started, then...
Let's get started, then...
***
First up, our transportation. Our train was part of the high-speed Ave line, which meant that we covered the distance between Ciudad Real and Madrid (a trip that took about two hours by bus when we first got in from the airport) in fifty minutes. In that time, everyone was busy either chatting or napping in the great big car that we had mostly to ourselves.
Smiling for the camera, but still hiding?! It's for the blog, guys! C'mon. :-)
The brooding look. Perhaps Enrique was working on his dramatic acting skills for the theater project?
Another one? Well, I suppose I should expect this from Sofia by now. I just have to snap a picture when she's not looking!
And just like that, we were out of the train and headed into the city. Welcome to Madrid, guys!
Bouncing a ball (can you spot it in this picture?) while we waited for people to take a bathroom break before the day began.
And then we took off through Atocha station. There's this massive greenhouse-like center to it, which is tropically warmed and filled with palm trees and greenery all year round. Cool!
***
Our first (brief) stop of the day was Retiro park. Once home to an old palace of Spanish kings, it is now home to tourists and Spaniards who are seeking out shade and somewhere attractive to eat.
This early in the morning (before 10am), there weren't any boats on the lake yet, nor many people hanging around.
Time for a couple pictures in front of the lake!
Group photo!
And a silly one, since we don't seem to have many of those.
Our instructor team, hard at work keeping everyone moving (we only had forty minutes by that point to see the park then get to the Prado museum, so we didn't have much time to spare for photos. It took a little urging to convince students of that. :-) ).
A photograph of a photograph!
We made it around the lake to take a peek at the large statue and Roman-inspired columns we'd been taking pictures of moments before.
And then people wanted to get a couple pictures around the pillars.
They turned out pretty nice.
Others went for the stylish picture-beneath-the-looming-statue.
Staring off dangerously into the distance?
Then we were off, crossing a main road and heading down a side street to get to the Prado.
Once we got there, Aline broke off to get our tickets from the booth while everyone else... well, they decided it was time for more pictures! I was only too happy to wander around and snap some of my own in the meantime.
Individual pictures turned into a small group pictures, and before we knew it, everyone was handing their camera to Jessica (luckily not me this time!) for a group picture by the Prado lawn.
A couple close ups as Jessica worked her way through the two dozen cameras she'd been given.
And our dedicated camera crew! First, Jessica, with an armful of cameras.
Also Chaney and Manuel, who took a few cameras to try to help out.
You go guys!
Don't mind me, of course.
And then Aline came back with the tickets and we began our entrance! Unfortunately, no cameras were allowed inside, so I'll leave you this link for the museum to get an idea of what we saw.
***
After about two hours of wandering around to look at art and shopping at the museum store, we headed out to eat the bocadillos that had been prepared for us in the school cafeteria.
And if you give a student a bocadillo, they will surely want some sugary snacks to go with them.
So much sugar! Good, though. We needed the energy for all the walking we had ahead of us.
***
Our next stop was the Royal Palace, although we took a few slight detours to get to see the Plaza Mayor (central plaza) of the city, as well as Madrid Cathedral.
Here's Plaza Mayor. There was a pride festival in the city all week (thus the rainbow banner), but luckily we didn't have worse crowds then normal. In fact, parts of the city were relatively quiet, since most people were probably celebrating outside of the touristy parts of the city.
Time for more pictures!
But then we raced off, since we had to get to the palace by 3pm, and it was already working its way toward 2:30!
***
Next up, we stopped in briefly at the cathedral while Aline and Jessica ran to the Palace ticket booth to grab our group tickets.
It wasn't quite as impressive as the cathedral we saw in Granada, but it was nice and cool, and the students enjoyed taking a few minutes to wander around the small outer chapels.
***
And then we were all together again, getting our tickets and preparing to enter the palace. Behind everyone is the cathedral. Just out of sight to our right, the Palace.
We were just a couple minutes early, so we waited in the shade while a couple of braver souls ventured out into the fierce sun to take some more pictures.
Pictures with the palace in the background.
And one enterprising little pigeon, who seems to have found the only puddle in the whole city. I don't know what caused it, but I can't imagine it stuck around for long, given how hot and dry it was (somewhere around 93 degrees by that point, I think).
And then we were inside, wandering around the grounds. Once again, we weren't allowed to take pictures inside the palace itself, so I'm afraid I can only direct you to this link (and this one) to give you an idea of what we saw. It's strange how anti-camera many of the Madrid tourist attractions are.
By this point in the afternoon, everyone was starting to drag a little. It was 4:30, hot outside, and it had been a couple hours since we'd eaten. Luckily, we were just preparing for the final phase of the day -- shopping. First, though, a couple pictures of us wandering around the Palace grounds.
And entering into a small Armory museum that was part of the palace experience.
***
After that, we headed off in smaller groups, got some ice cream, and did some shopping at a couple tourist stores, since many students wanted soccer jerseys and souvenirs for themselves and their family. We had about an hour and a half for that, then headed back to the station, catching the 8pm train to Ciudad Real, and meeting up with waiting host families. Everyone was exhausted by the time we got off the train, so I hope everyone had a relaxing weekend to recover from all the fun!
Within the next seven days, we have a couple fun and exciting events on the agenda. Wednesday, we'll be meeting with the mayor of Ciudad Real, saying a couple words, and getting a look at the Town Hall building. Friday, we'll be putting on our Farewell show, which our theater, music and dance groups have been working towards since the start of the summer. Then, a week from today (7/16), students will take their final Language Exam, pack their things, and get ready to leave Tuesday morning on our bus to the airport (at 6am!). It's hard to believe that the end is so close!
-M