The Land of the Dutch!!

I'd have to say that one of my favorite parts of being in Europe and getting to travel is visiting the countries that I KNOW I have ancestors from. Being in Germany brought out the German roots just a little more (along with being mistaken for a German in Rome) and being in Holland had almost the exact same effect. The only problem was that I wasn't able to visit the Dutch cousins due to some technical difficulties. But next time! Next time I will find them. Our visit started with a train ride from Eindhoven up to Groningen.

Why were we visiting the virtually unheard-of city of Groningen? (Which, by the way, is pronouced with a hawkingish h-sound at the beginning) Well, that would be because Southern Adventist University was doing an orchestra tour through Belgium and Holland and their concerts in Groningen were the ones that Brittany and I could make it to. And we wanted to see Emily.

And even that was pushing it a little as we were skipping a Friday of classes the weekend before quarter finals. But no worries. I'm pretty sure we both did fine on our tests afterwards. Anywho, back to Holland. We made it safely into Groningen, despite missing one train connection. We just took the next train headed in the same direction and all was fine. After lunch in the train station, we decided that it was time to find the church for the performance that night, before wandering around Groningen, taking in the sights. It was at this point that I realized that I had not remembered to print out directions to the church. Nor did I remember the name of the church. But no worries, we would just find an internet cafe, log onto Myspace, reread e-mails, and Google the place. No problem right? Well, we found an internet cafe and it was even free! But they had Myspace blocked. At this point, it was my random memory skills that remember things like it originally took 27 hours to hand-make a peep (those nasty Easter candies) that allowed me to remember that the name of the church was something along the lines of "Martinkerk." Google helped me to realize that it was actually spelled "Martinikerk" and after checking out their webpage, we confirmed that yes, there was a performance by SAU that night at the church. Score!

So we went our merry little way off into the drizzle to experience Holland. Our first realization was just how much the Dutch use their bikes. Oh my goodness. Death by bike is actually a legitimate worry in Holland. There are so many bikes and you're more likely to see a parking garage like this than parking space for cars.

Unfortunately for us, it was not tulip season yet, the other famous Dutch characteristic. However, the daffodils and crocuses were blooming so we still got flowers.

There were also the canals, of course.

And also, by some magic streak of luck, as we were walking around Martinikerk, getting pictures from all sides, we stumbled across what were probably the only four blooming tulips in all of Holland. Right there, just clumped together for us. Made me happy, it did.

The reunion with Emily was great, the concert was amazing,

the organ stellar, the skull head sticker in the heat vent disconcerting,

the coffee in the department store yummy, and the all around atmosphere that first night great. Brittany and I had booked a room in the same hostel as the orchestra so we just became groupies for the trip and rode with them back to Sneek (pronounced "snake") for the night. There, we talked till 1am or so before going to bed. The next day included a concert for the worship service at the SDA church in Groningen and a soup and sandwich potluck afterwards.

Another great Dutch experience in which we met a little old lady who actually had heard of Idaho, and even Boise since she had relatives there and also got to taste a fake ham that's better than Wham. It was also the first time that in the name of providing translation services I saw TWO headphone splitters used on the same device.

Afterwards, the orchestra packed up again and drove down to the Amsterdam Marriot airport hotel. There, Brittany and I (with permission from the orchestra director) snuck into Emily's room with the intentions of sleeping on the floor. Since Southern was leaving the next morning at 4:45 for the airport, the only logical thing for the three of us to do was party till all hours of the night.

We started off by taking the fast public bus to Haarlem where we saw Corrie Ten Boom's house,

a cheese shop (that unfortunately closed 10 minutes before we got there - no Spanish schedule here folks!),

bought Stroopwafels, and had coffee (with a "k"!) in a restaurant before heading back to the hotel.

Then we headed down to the lobby to talk rather than disturb Emily's three roommates. But we only were there a little while before management kicked us out since I was lounging on their sofas in pajama pants. Oops. So we trekked up to 10th floor and parked ourselves on the floor of the elevator lobby by some chairs where we figured no one else would bother us. And no one else in the form of humans did. However, as we were preparing to head back down to sleep (at 1am of course - Emily could sleep on the plane), when the elevator doors opened, out came a little dog, all by himself.

I still cannot think of a good explanation on how that dog got into the elevator all by himself. However, we picked him up, went down to grab a camera, took some pictures, named him "Brinker," and then delivered him down to the front desk where we relieved a rather worried desk worker.

Then it was off to bed. Sunday morning Brittany and I crawled into bed after the Southern girls and Emily left before actually getting up around 8am. Then it was a never-ending journey by public transport back to Spain. It went like this: public bus, another bus, tram, walk around Amsterdam in the rain for 30 minutes,

train, bus, plane, metro, train, and walk back to the school in the dark. Yay for public transportation!! And that was Holland folks. Here's a foggy/rainy picture of a windmill to round out the Dutch experience.


Oh and the fuzzy slippers at the airport that I really wanted to buy but couldn't cause they were too expensive (stupid euro).

Gira a Castilla: Madrid!

The last couple days of our trip were spent in the capital of this amazing country: Madrid.

The first night that we arrived, we had nothing to do other than wander around half the city in search of cheap pizza just to finally decide on kebabs from the place almost directly in front of our hotel. The next day was spent outside of Madrid rather than inside of it. Our first stop was at the Escorial, palace/monastery/cathedral/private school all rolled into one.

Originally built for Felipe II, he spent half of his ruling time in Madrid in a normal palace and the other half in the Escorial, living in three tiny, bare rooms, basically coming as close to a monk as a ruling king can. The building complex itself was more or less what you would expect from Spanish architecture, so nothing new there. However, two really cool aspects of the Escorial are the library and the crypt. The libary is like most others expect that all of the books are shelved so that the pages rather than the binding are showing. Kind of odd and I don't remember the explanation, but it was neat to see all the shiny golden-edged pages facing out. Another great aspect of the library was the ceiling, which had paintings of all the different academic and philosophic areas. And yes, I will admit that I'm enough of a math nerd that I was double checking their addition in the painted equations.

The crypt at the Escorial holds the bodies of almost all the monarchs and their spouses since Carlos V. The coffins are arranged in such a manner so that the monarchs are on one side of the room and the spouses are on the other. Isabel II is the only woman to be buried on the monarchs' side, with her husband Francisco de Asis being the only man on the spouses' side. The royal bodies aren't placed immediately in the crypt but rather are placed in a "rotting room" first for fifty years to deteriorate down to the bones and lose their smell before going into the ornate crypt. All the spots left are now taken up by bodies still in the rotting room, which means that the currently living Spanish royalty have to decide where they want to be buried.

After the Escorial, we drove out to "El Valle de los Caídos." *

This monument is out in the middle of the mountains and is a memorial/burial ground for troops who fell during the Civil War. Commissioned by Franco, after it was finished, he decided that he too wanted to be buried there and thus, he is.

By far my favorite cathedral in Spain, the monument has a huge 100m high stone cross outside and a cathedral carved into the mountain. With huge soaring stone vaulted ceilings and enormous creepy statues of archangels (which look more like fallen angels to me), the cathedral doesn't really feel like a church.

It makes me think more of a pagan worshipping place that the dwarves in Middle Earth might have constructed for themselves inside the Mines of Moria. Creepy, but a very, very cool creepy.

After we got back to Madrid, we all went out to eat at the Hard Rock Cafe for Erin's birthday.

Quite the undertaking considering the first time the bus we needed came by the bus stop, it didn't stop for us and the restaurant apparently doesn't normally do reservations and the tables weren't set up for a group when we arrived.

However, a good time was still had by all and I had some AMAZING (expensive, but amazing) American food. Mmmmm... yay for Caesar salad and Spinach & Artichoke dip with real tortilla chips that weren't stale. And on the way back from the restaurant, we had a lesson in statistics and that pedestrians are NOT almighty.

Our next full day in Madrid started with a walking tour of the city, passing by the Prado, numerous plazas with fountains, arches, the Plaza de Sol (that's Madrid's city symbol in the background, the bear and the tree),

where Kilometer 0 is located (starting measuring point of all highways in Spain),

the Plaza Mayor,

and the shopping districts. We had lots of free time before meeting up again in the afternoon for a tour of the Prado. During that wandering, not only did Brittany and I find a couple different yarn stores and buy yarn to make a baby set for an American ACA couple here who left early after 2nd semester who couldn't go to Madrid because she got pregnant and was having morning sickness problems (Brittany knit the hat and I knit the booties and did the eyes and feather poof on the hat),

but we also found a used antique bookstore where we spent a good hour. Although I don't have a picture and really wish I did, I found a book in the store that had been written by an "Eugenio Noel." Maybe we do have Spanish relations. Who knows? Another fun shop that I found was this one. It's a good thing that Jacque got married to who she did because now we have a name for that fifth J.

The Prado is a really good museum and the most important in Spain, but I would have enjoyed it more if the tour hadn't been in the afternoon and my feet hadn't been killing me and if I could have taken pictures like in the Louvre. As such, I didn't take advantage of the extra time after the tour to look around more on my own, but since I'll be back to Spain someday, it doesn't really matter, right?

Our last day in Spain only had one scheduled visit - the Palacio Real. However, before heading off with the school, I got up a little early to walk/jog over to the main city park to see the Crystal Palace. Although it was cloudy and crappy weather, the palace was still really pretty and I would totally want to get married there if I lived in Madrid or anywhere close.

After that was the Palacio Real. This Palace isn't the residence of the current kings (although past kings have lived there), but rather is a museum when it's not being used to State functions and such. Apparently the school had only paid for us to visit the Armoury and the Farmacy musuems, but not knowing that, Sasha, Brittany, Amanda (friend from the States who's SMing in Madrid), and I bluffed our way into the actual palace with the permission of the guard to look really quick for our teacher to find out what was going on. Of course, we ended up going through the whole palace at a leisurely touring pace, but I will say that I kept my eyes open for Chelo the entire time.

After the palace, it was more free time to shop and walk around Madrid on our own before loading up the bus and beginning the 4-5 hour trip back. All in all a good tour. Except that I never could find just the right black boots to buy. *sigh*

*pictures of the interior of el valle de los caidos are taken from a random website because we weren't supposed to take pictures inside and i was too lazy to try to be sneaky with my camera.

Gira a Castilla: Segovia

Only one day was spent in Segovia, but that didn't keep us from seeing two different cool castles and one really old aqueduct.

The first stop in the morning (we had arrived at the Segovia hotel the night before and partied late in one of the rooms playing a rather heated game of Mafia) was at the Aqueduct.

This aqueduct was constructed by the Romans sometime during the 1st or 2nd century AD. And not only is it still standing in good condition after two thousand years, this aqueduct was constructed without the use of any sort of cement. It's held together purely by friction and gravity and those sorts of things. I don't know about you, but I'm in awe of the Romans and their engineering. After the Aqueduct, we walked through Segovia on our way to the Alcazar, the resident castle of the area.

A beautiful piece of architecture, rumor has it that this is the castle that Walt Disney based his Sleeping Beauty castle off of. This castle was quite the center of the Spanish realm for awhile, being the residence of Isabel la Católica and hosting random different Spanish court functions. I was a big fan of all the armor etc that was displayed and tried to decide between a knight on either side

or a knight on a horse.

In the end I decided the mounted knight was the one worth my time. :)

After the Alcazar, we had free time to eat and Brittany and I decided that we needed a pastry to go with our lunch. Then we decided that it needed to be eaten in a park in the sun. Then the park decided that it would eat the knee of my jeans and chew on my actual knee. I was not amused. No worries though, I'm all healed up now from the scratches and bruises and the jeans will become shorts in a couple weeks when it's just a little bit warmer here in Sagunto.

We packed up the bus and headed out for Madrid early in the afternoon, stopping on the way at the Granja de San Idelfonso. I'm not sure what exactly was the function of the palace, but I do remember that it was built as a replica (more or less) of the Versailles Palace outside of Paris.

After seeing both Palaces, I think I like the Spanish one just a little bit more. Not sure why, but I do. Maybe it's because as you're approaching it from the street, it reminds you a little of the castle from Beauty and the Beast.

And after the Granja, it was back in the bus for a couple more hours until we reached Madrid!

Gira a Castilla: Toledo

Our first stop during our tour to the province of Castilla, antiguo Toledo is a step back in time with twisted cobble-stoned streets winding their way between shops of jewelry and swords and Don Quijote paraphernalia.

Toledo is probably my favorite "little old city" in Spain so far. That probably has something to do with the fact that it has this great little park that's quiet and looks out over the river and the surrounding hills. And for those that know me, I'm a big fan of the nature stuff. You can keep your big cities and shopping districts for yourself. But I'm getting off-topic. Toledo is a city of a combination of religions. I really don't know/remember everything they told us but basically there's been a mix of Jew, Christians, and Muslims in the city for pretty much all of its history. Or something along those lines.

The first afternoon/night that we were there we had free time to wander the streets before we all met up again to visit the cathedral. Huge and freezing cold, my favorite part of this cathedral was a room with portraits of the different bishops that had presided in the cathedral. Unfortunately no pictures of the inside.

The next day we visited a beautiful church that originally had been a Jewish synagogue built in the moorish style that was later changed into a Catholic church and today stands in disuse. I absolutely love the moorish style with the arches. I think one of the really unique parts of this building is that from the outside it's pretty plain-looking but as soon as you walk in, you're hit by the incredible beauty in the simple white arches.

Afterwards we visited another cathedral with a completely different style. Commissioned by Isabel la Católica, this cathedral has the mark of los Reyes Católicos all over it, including their motto of "tanto mota," which is short for "tanto monta, monta tanto, Isabel como Fernado" which loosely translated means "Isabel is just as much sovereign over Spain as Fernando and vice versa."

Isabel was the queen of Castilla and Fernando, her husband, was the king of Aragón, and after they got married, they pretty much united the country for the first time. The cathedral was originally built with the intention of being the burying place of Isabel and Fernando, but in the end they were buried in Granada (which I'm going to see in a few days! woot!). The cathedral is extremely ornate and a little much for my taste, but whatever.

While there, our professor/chaperone for the trip, Chelo, picked up some bodyguards. And yes, she's really that short. For comparison, Nate, the guy on the right, stands at about 6-2.

And here she is again with all the ESDES guys.

Afterwards we had free time for the afternoon before leaving for Segovia. Brittany and I wandered around in search of cheap lunch which was almost impossible. But luckily, our search took us to the edge of the town to the aforementioned park. And luckily again, we found a kebab place nearby that was open and bought some amazing falafel wraps. We took them with us to the park, found a bench in the sun, and proceded to sit and eat and sun ourselves for the next hour or so with an amazing view in front of us.

It took quite the effort to get ourselves up and moving again to make it back to the hotel to leave with the group.

Oh, and on the way back to the hotel, I met my knight in shining armour. Too bad I had to leave him in Toledo.

On the way out of Toledo, they stopped the bus at a scenic overlook and let us take pictures of the city and the hill it's situated on.