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I'm on the Top of the World!

Dear Reader,


I'm surprised that this song by The Carpenters hasn't shown up on this blog yet. Despite that, here is a recap of our trip for this week! We visited El Escorial in Madrid and another castle on our day trip to Madrid, Spain.

Study Abroad Group, Spain, Fall 2014

We are standing on the edge! The shot above is taken in front of the Santa Cruz del Valle de los Caidos. The church is in the mountains to the north of Madrid and is a monument to those who fell during the civil war of Spain. Just like almost every other monument we have visited, we were not allowed to take pictures inside. It was beautiful! When I say the church is in the mountain, I literally mean to say in, as in inside. If you have seen "Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring," you can compare it to the mines of Moria. There is one long hallway leading up the chapel that is at the middle of the mountain. The cupola looks flat, but it is actually a dome. Supposedly there is some uneasy feelings between people who visit this place, feelings that have been carried over since the war ended in 1939. Luckily for you, I don't really get involved in politics, so I don't really understand what problems who has with who. Here all you see in the greatness of the architecture, regardless of the motives behind it. That cross is huge! It is all granite, too. You can get an idea of the height from our friends beneath it. The girl in the bright green jacket is 5'10". With a little bit of imagination and mathematics, it does not take long to figure out that the cross is very tall. You can see it from the bottom of the mountain.

El Escorial
After our visit to the Valle de los Caidos, we went to visit the El Escorial, which is the historical residence of the king of Spain. The picture below is of the Plaza on the west side of the building. As we walked through the Monastery, we learned all about the different kings who lived there since the time it was built. There was one king who was so sick that he was moved to a room above the church. That way, he could open the door in his room and here the services and the music that the choir provided. He lived like that for a year before he died.

Again, we were not allowed to take pictures inside. That is probably a good thing in this case, though. A good part of our tour through the palace was filled with tombs of kings and queens. There was also a part set aside for royal family who never came to the throne because of death or other reasons. In total, I counted more than 110 tombs between the two pantheons inside. The majority of those tombs were dedicated to royal children that died at birth or at a very young age.

It was a very fun trip! We came back and ended up at the Medieval Fair that is being held in our Spanish hometown this week. It is in honor of Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, one of the most well-known Spanish writers. He has dozens of poems and is the author of the famous "Don Quijote de la Mancha." As you can see from the picture below, we had a good time with good food.






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Location: El Escorial, Madrid, Spain

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