Tim's Visit to Spain

This weekend was a blast. Tim came to visit me in Spain, and I had a lot of fun showing him around. Plus, I finally got to see all the stuff in Madrid that I hadn't gotten around to.

The weekend started out on a bad note, as Tim's flight landed late and caused a chain reaction of problems that ended with him spending the night in a bus station and me spending the night worrying about him. When he finally made it to Alcala in the morning, we ate some tortilla (my first time making it by myself!) and took a much-needed nap.

In the afternoon, we explored Alcala. I took him to the botanical gardens, which have gotten a lot prettier since the weather has cooled down. In town, we walked around the historic buildings, ate some kebabs (still probably my favorite food in Spain) and visited la Casa de Cervantes, where we saw some neat old and foreign editions of el Quixote. We also tried Rosquillas de Alcala, a sort of tiny layered donut smothered in orange frosting. Apparently they are only made here, and I've been meaning to try them for weeks. In the evening, we visited the medieval Murallas and the Museo del Toro Bravo, one of my favorite places in town. There, this old man with a mile-long beard has filled a shop floor to ceiling with hundreds of his own colorful paintings.

Friday night, we came home and played Hoteles with my roommates. They are such fun kids. It's a pretty fun game, very much like Monopoly, and I won! Muahahahaha...

Saturday morning we took a train to Madrid and set out to run the gamut of historical sights, all of the various Puertas and Plazas and Iglesias. Some highlights: la Catedral de Almudena, where we climbed up in la cupula for a spectacular view of Madrid; la Basilica de San Francisco el Grande, a HUGE domed church; and el Rio Manzanares, which turns out to be a very sad trickle of water. We also visited el Palacio Real, which is mind-blowing. Much of the palace is decorated in the Rococo style, which means that everything is decorated, opulent, shiny, and overdone. It is also absolutely enormous.

In the evening we walked up to el Templo de Debod, which was pretty neat. How often do you get to see an Egyptian Temple in Spain? (Also, no, the Spanish did not steal it. It was a gift in return for aid.) After walking all across the city, we were pretty tired, so we decided just to have a quiet evening in and get up early the next day.

On Sunday, I was thrilled to return to both la Reina Sofia (in the morning) and el Prado (in the evening), where we spent hours poring over paintings. It was fun to see how much I could remember from art class, and even more fun to see beautiful masterworks in person.

In the afternoon, we headed to el Parque de Buen Retiro, which was decked out in some splendid fall foliage. We took a rowboat out on the lake to enjoy the scenery and watch the park-goers. I even got to row for a while! :-) We also stumbled upon la Rosaleda, a large round rose garden that I had completely missed on previous visits. It seems like every time I go to the park I discover new things to like about it. It's still my favorite place in Madrid.

That night, after some tostas, we headed up to the Nuevos Ministerios station to go our separate ways. It's always a little sad to say goodbye, but it was a great weekend!