Barcelona and the Reina Sofía Museum. Maybe some Fábrica de los Tapices

¡Buenos días!  Or maybe it is Buenas tardes or buenas noches where you are but you get the point.


So, fun weekend with a lot of travel time.  Barcelona was great and the students said they had a fantastic time.  Several of them said they want to move there so I am sure it was fun.  I will be scouring their Facebook pages over the next few days to find some appropriate photos for the blog so expect something soon.  


If you ever doubt your child's ability to be on time, don't.  This weekend they were rock stars.  On the way to catch our flight in Madrid to Barcelona there was no problem getting to the airport by taking a bus to the train station to the metro and finally to the gate in the afternoon and even MORE impressive was the fact that they were all ready and out the door by 5 am to do the reverse to catch the flight home.  Solid.  Monday made for a very long day because we arrived at the airport and had to take the metro into Madrid and meet at the Reina Sofía museum at 11 am.  So we were a little late.  And it was raining.  And we were tired.  And the metro ride was long.  And we had to walk.  Yet no one complained.  WHO ARE THESE PEOPLE?  THANK YOU!  With no sleep, little food and a super long travel day everyone was positive and there was no griping.  Amazing.  


Reina Sofía Museum = Very nice.  
Changing last year's policy of, "Please, take photos of everything."  to "No photos of the cool stuff" = lame.
Having the foresight last year to know they would pull a stunt like this & photographing everything = priceless.
Here are links to photos of everything in their museum from last year and this year:


2010 Fotos


2011 Fotos

After the museum we took a 20 minute forced march with Luis (I mean a leisurely stroll) to th Tapestry Museum which is always impressive but alas - no photos.  

The Fábrica de Tapices produces and restores tapestries using 18^th century techniques.  The oldest tapestry they house dates back to the 15^thcentury.  They also are commissioned to make rugs which are gorgeous but the tapestries will certainly blow your mind.

They use a lot of wool and I believe all of it is from Spain. 

  

We thought about bringing one home as a gift but weren’t sure if we had enough money: rugs cost 1,500 euros / meter squared and take 2 weeks to be completed and the tapestries cost 12,000 euros / meter squared and take 4 months to complete.  A typical commissioned work in the past would have been a portrait like this one of Alfonso XIII

However, as you can see, their work in general is quite spectacular and detail oriented.

 

After the museums we ate entirely too much food for lunch and contemplated walking around Madrid for a few hours despite our exhaustion but the torrential downpour that ensued upon our leaving the restaurant forced us to surrender and we headed home to the comfort and warmth of our homes in Segovia.  

íHasta luego!

In addition to Segovia being a city it is also a province in Spain and we visited it today before our flight to Barcelona.  The museum is very well designed with videos and relics dating back more than 2,000 years.   We were given a guided tour that involved a discussion of the creation of the area more than 600 million years ago, all of the known inhabitants of the area from 30,000 years ago to the present and the different products that were manufactured in the area which including everything from pottery to clothing to coins from the local mint.  More history of the general area of Castilla y León can be found here and it is rather impressive.  Our tour took about 75 minutes and was both interesting and informative but we were all too excited to head off to Barcelona today so that was our main focus at the end of the tour.  No more posts until next week but hopefully we will have a lot to share from our weekend up north.

Photos from Museum of Segovia

The Alcazar of Segovia

Today we visited the Alcazar of Segovia which is purportedly where the idea came for the design of the Disneyland castle.  The history can be found here if you are interested.  Our other Professor Luis Encinas has a PhD in History and was born and raised in Segovia so he is VERY knowledgeable about the Alcazar.  He explained everything one could ever want to know while we snapped photos.  I hope you enjoy them!

Please peruse our album

Salamanca and Avila

As usual, we met at the Aqueduct and left around 9 am.  I think we all take for granted the fact that we hang out around this amazing 2000 year old structure every day!

We arrived in Salamanca just after 11 and were dropped off near the Roman Bridge (also over 2000 years old) and explained the history of the Romans in the city and took photos near statues of Lazarillo de Tormes before walking up to the outside of the cathedral. Luis gave a talk outside for almost 10 minutes then we went inside and spent about 5 minutes looking at the ceiling and walls before heading into the capilla where we would spend the majority of the looking at mostly religiously themed art from many different time periods.  The town is full a lot of amazing architecture and history but you can only see so much so after a bit we headed off toward the Plaza Mayor and gave everyone an hour to shop before meeting back there.  The plaza was full of people and many were Americans because Salamanca is a university town so it is very touristy. We walked to Gran Via for lunch where the food was once again fantastic.  Choices were baked macaroni or paella for the first course and then baked chicken french fries or a plate of jamon serrano covered with fried eggs and french fries.  Afterward everyone had some more free time before we met to walk to the bus.  We left just after 4 for Avila and stopped outside of town to take photos of the city.  The idea of an entirely walled in city for protection is pretty amazing.  We had about 1 hour to explore the city so we saw the cathedral and the area where you can get on the wall and enjoy some panoramic views of the city but decided not to take that option. 

More photos of our trip

Here are a few links on the history of where we were:

http://www.spanish-town-guides.com/Salamanca_History.htm

http://www.top-tour-of-spain.com/Avila-Spain-History.html

Today we took a 20 minute bus ride and our time was spent at a Spanish royal glass factory established in 1728 near the summer palace of King Philip V in San Ildefonso.  The factory was established with the objective of providing the palace with all the necessary glass to furnish it, mostly windows, mirrors and chandeliers. The glassworkers were initially foreigners; the main stylistic influence was, as in earlier Spanish glass, that of Venice.  As with many buildings from that period, it fell into ruins and little use but in 1982 it was transformed into a museum and a school for glass work but they retained the majority of the original look.  Here is a link for more information:
http://www.patrimonionacional.es/en/granja/granja.htm

We spent an hour touring the building and were able to see how glass was made in the past and an exhibition of what modern artists are doing to create art with glass.  I am sure everyone got a lot of great photos.

When we finished we walked over to see the palace mentioned above and were given a nearly 90 minute tour of the palace and then walked around the fountains behind it.  The palace is home to a collection of tapestries that have immeasurable fortune due to their size, age, historic significance and materials: they are interwoven with gold and silver.

Information on the palace

We were not fortunate enough to see the fountains run yet but we will try next week.  

Bullfighting

After 4 summers of bad timing we finally arrived in time to offer a bullfight to the group.  No, we did not actually participate because we did not have time to train but several of us did go to a bullfight and it was definitely a new experience.  All of the circumstance surrounding the event was very lively and it was well attended so we had a good time although the end result of each of the 6 bullfights we saw is not something we choose to see on a daily basis it was interesting to see and learn about the culture that surrounds it.

What's cookin'? PAELLA!!!

A few summers ago I met Bernardo and he runs a cooking school at La Albuera.  He shows us how to make paella (AKA - he makes paella for us) and we end up eating it at around 10:30 in the morning.  You should try it some time!  

Paella is in no way difficult to make so if you want to try it, here is what you do: 

On high heat, sauté your prawns in some olive oil for a few minutes so the oil will retain some of the flavor then remove them from the pan. Sauté your meat until it is cooked halfway through – we used some lovely rabbit.  Add in some thinly sliced red and green peppers as well as some diced tomatoes, some garlic and some colorant – saffron is used but you can cheat and use turmeric if you don’t have any saffron.  Cook for several minutes until the veggies soften.  Here you can add in other things such as squid.  Add in the desired amount of rice and then add twice as much water as rice.  Bring it back up to a boil for a few minutes, add back in your prawns (we used clams too) and reduce heat for 10 minutes.  Remove from heat and let it sit for 10 minutes before eating.  See, easy!  Now make it and impress your friends!

If you do decide to use rabbit, I hear it is a good idea to let your students, I mean friends, finish eating before you tell them what they ate.

Buen provecho!  Enjoy!

Natalie LOVES seafood!!!

Cooking photos