I'm back from a solid trip to Madrid and the surrounding areas and on to another week of school. Like my dad once said, "I went to a party and school got in the way." Except the party here, is study abroad. However, all is well with school, so I'm pretty stoked about that.
Let's recap a week worth of travel in Madrid to a condensed post.
Last Tuesday, I set off for Madrid at 6:30 am on a bus bound for Calatrava, Almagro, and Toledo, the first leg of a five day adventure across Castille-Leon and Castille-La Mancha. The first stop traveling was to the Castilla de Calatrava La Nueva or the New Castle of Calatrava. This castle was built in the late 1100s or the early 1200s by the Knights of Calatrava. This castle was pretty cool, because it was on one side of an expansive valley across from the ruins of an Arab castle. Guess who won that battle? This castle was never successfully invaded and according to historians, the Arabs took one look at this castle on the hill and were like..Nope, not gonna invade this one. The views were amazing from the top. On the way to the castle we cut through mountain passes that reminded me a lot of Colorado and Guadulupe Mountains in Far West Texas. Our next stop was on to the tiny town of Almagro.
Almagro is home to a theater from the late 17th century of which it is a national monument. Apparently I didn't know Spanish theater was a big as it was and pretty popular for plays by Lope de Vega who far out wrote Shakespeare in the number of plays. Almagro also is home to several interesting things, for instance, pickled eggplant tapa. Also, free tapas with a purchase of a beer. I had a tapa that was "cuello de cerdo" covered in olive oil and other some peppers. It was interestng to eat to say the least. On the way to Toledo, we stopped by the famous windmills of Castille-La Mancha and was a setting in Don Quixote. The windmills in Spanish are called, los molinos de viento. It was pretty interesting to see the windmills and see that they are actually larger than they look. It was cool to see the contrast of the old windmill and the modern, windmills of today, against the horizon and across the valley from one another. Some things only need to be updated and not reinvented.
Finally, after a very very long day of bus riding, We stopped for the night in the town of Toledo, home to ancient sword making techniques (where I purchased a Toledo-made dagger), the Spanish Inquisition, and the setting of Edgar Allen Poe's, The Pit and the Pendulum. Toledo is one my favorite Spanish cities I have been too. It's beautiful at night and in the day time. Very medieval. Also, I spent St. Patrick's Day in Toledo. Going to an Irish Pub in Toledo, seems odd to you? Well, wherever there is an Irish man, there will be a bar. It was packed, everyone manages to be Irish for a day, regardless if you are 100% Spanish or not.
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