(no subject)

Day 2

In the morning, we got on a tour bus (our frequent mode of Spain transportation) for a tour of Madrid. We drove all through the city, with it's narrow European streets and crazy drivers. We visited monuments to Don Quixote and Columbus. Then we saw an Egyptian monument, which had been a gift from Egypt to Spain.

Next up was the tour of the former Royal Palace. It was beautiful. The rooms were so elaborately decorated with rugs and tapestries. A great many of them also had murals painted on the ceiling. I took quite a few pictures there. The tour took up the rest of the morning.

Then they gave us free reign for lunch. First Jackie, Lisa, and I wanted to find a bank to get some euros. By the time we found one, we didn't have enough time to eat at a regular restaurant, so we stopped at a Spanish McDonald's. The have most of the same food as a regular McDonald's. I got McNuggets.

After lunch we bussed over to spend the afternoon in Toledo. The city was gorgeous! It was largely undeveloped with beautiful scenery. It was more how I had imagined Spain would be. The group spent most of the trip on foot. We visited a beautiful cathedral. I'd never been in a cathedral before and was amazed at how elaborate they are. Then we viewed some paintings by El Greco. They were interesting. After that we visited a Jewish synagogue. They showed us how Moorish architecture mixed with the Jewish building. Lastly we visited a sword making factory, where they also specialized in making inlaid gold jewelry. Some people decided to buy souvenir swords.

We returned back to Madrid in time for our dinner reservation. We had a tapas dinner. It was so yummy! The first dish was a type of spicy sausage. The next dish was the Spanish ham. Their ham is different from ours though. It's smoked and cut into very thin strips. Then we had Spanish tortillas. The next dish was potato chunks with some sort of orange barbecue-type sauce on them. The last dish was calamari. I'd never had it before, but ended up trying it. It was so good! Desert was delicious cream puffs.

The group then went back to the hotel. We had to make sure we had everything ready for the next day, when we would travel to Sevilla. More soon.

(no subject)

Day 2

In the morning, we got on a tour bus (our frequent mode of Spain transportation) for a tour of Madrid. We drove all through the city, with it's narrow European streets and crazy drivers. We visited monuments to Don Quixote and Columbus. Then we saw an Egyptian monument, which had been a gift from Egypt to Spain.

Next up was the tour of the former Royal Palace. It was beautiful. The rooms were so elaborately decorated with rugs and tapestries. A great many of them also had murals painted on the ceiling. I took quite a few pictures there. The tour took up the rest of the morning.

Then they gave us free reign for lunch. First Jackie, Lisa, and I wanted to find a bank to get some euros. By the time we found one, we didn't have enough time to eat at a regular restaurant, so we stopped at a Spanish McDonald's. The have most of the same food as a regular McDonald's. I got McNuggets.

After lunch we bussed over to spend the afternoon in Toledo. The city was gorgeous! It was largely undeveloped with beautiful scenery. It was more how I had imagined Spain would be. The group spent most of the trip on foot. We visited a beautiful cathedral. I'd never been in a cathedral before and was amazed at how elaborate they are. Then we viewed some paintings by El Greco. They were interesting. After that we visited a Jewish synagogue. They showed us how Moorish architecture mixed with the Jewish building. Lastly we visited a sword making factory, where they also specialized in making inlaid gold jewelry. Some people decided to buy souvenir swords.

We returned back to Madrid in time for our dinner reservation. We had a tapas dinner. It was so yummy! The first dish was a type of spicy sausage. The next dish was the Spanish ham. Their ham is different from ours though. It's smoked and cut into very thin strips. Then we had Spanish tortillas. The next dish was potato chunks with some sort of orange barbecue-type sauce on them. The last dish was calamari. I'd never had it before, but ended up trying it. It was so good! Desert was delicious cream puffs.

The group then went back to the hotel. We had to make sure we had everything ready for the next day, when we would travel to Sevilla. More soon.