Be prepared.... This is a long post!
After departing Luxembourg on a night train, we arrived in Spain. Our train pulled into Perpignan, and we waited around for about an hour before we headed onto Madrid. In serving my mission in Utah, I met people from all over the world, such as Laura, our guide in Denmark. I also served with Riqui Tellez, who is from Madrid. We were able to contact him beforehand and he said we would be able to stay at his in-laws house in central Madrid. The location was perfect! After meeting Riqui and his family we got settled in and unpacked. Riqui had to head out so we left to explore Madrid on our own. It was late... Well late for us...and armed with tips from a local we set out to find some food. We settled on place that served some great cheap tapas... Fried chorizo, chicken wings and patatas brava (fried potatoes with a spicy tomato sauce). Delicious!
By now you have probably realized that we love sweets. A popular treat in the area is churros with chocolate. The churros and chocolate were great, delicious crispy yet chewy churros and the chocolate actually reminded me of chocolate gravy just not as sweet. The chocolate was served piping hot!
While walking around we also found this Mariachi band...in Spain... Anyways tourists love it.
Nothing better then enjoying an evening stroll with the love of your life while eating churros and chocolate, listening in the very alive city of Madrid.
Our hosts (who are actually from Colombia) made us some amazing empanadas the next day for breakfast. I ate a lot of them, they were great!
After breakfast we headed for Toledo, which was only a short train ride away. We decided this would be a day trip for us and we are glad we did. It is a beautiful, walled hill town that is full of history, it actually used to be the capital of Spain. Below you will see us as we prepare to enter the gates of the city.
Toledo is were a lot of swords are made. I really wanted one but carrying a broadsword strapped to my backpack through airports just doesn't seem like it would have worked.
We also met this knight, as you can see I have a bag of Haribo gummies in my hand. I know, I know I look pretty tough. The whole time I was here I thought Spencer Hubbard would love this place.
Here we are at a high point in the town overlooking one of the many churches within the walls.
Here is Brooke, looking beautiful as usual, standing in the narrow streets of Toledo.
My beautiful wife again, err she is demonstrating the correct way to pass through a medieval city wall.
This picture was taken as we were leaving Toledo, it gives the best perspective of the hill top walled city. Toledo was amazing and it absolutely felt like you had just stepped back in time to medieval town.
In Greece we found these popsicles called Jungly, we found them again here this time with two flavors. They are honestly the strangest popsicles. A jello like edible banana peel with a soft ice creamy banana (or mango) center. Before...
After...
The next day Riqui and his wife took us around Madrid and showed us some of the sites. Our favorite, of course, was the Madrid Temple. We have loved seeing the various Temples throughout Europe, we just wish we could have seen all of them.
After going around town they took us to one of their favorite restaurants, 100 Montadidos. It is a place with 100 different small sandwiches, very popular in Spain, we each ordered 5 sandwiches and enjoyed the company and good food. The prices were great so Brooke and I actually returned here 2 more times while in Spain.
We attended Sacrament meeting the next morning at our host's ward (Riqui's in laws). We actually walked to church with some sister missionaries and sat by them. It was fun listening to services in Spanish because we could understand some of it. By no means could we understand everything, but at least some of what was said. It was also fun speaking some Spanish with our hosts; our vocabulary was quite limited but we were able to communicate whenever needed. It just took the occasional miming to get each others point across.
This is the symbol of Madrid, we actually do not know the history or meaning behind it, but it is a bear in a tree.
Here we are outside the gates to the park Retiro. It was a very large, very beautiful park, right downtown Madrid.
We laid in the grass, drinking lemonade and discussing the future of our lives and goals.
Later that day we decided to delve deep into the culture and go to a bullfight! The arena was within easy walking distance to the flat we were staying in. As you can see from the picture, the arena itself was beautiful. The beautiful walls definitely hid the bloodshed from within.
Brooke and I watched the whole bullfight and it was entertaining, but also quite gory. I don't think either of us were ready for what we witnessed. Swords, spears, spikes, an lots of blood as teams of matadors killed bull after bull. I believe we witnessed the death of 7 bulls that day. The matadors were quick an impressive, the bulls were big and angry. In the picture you can see a group of matadors. They surround the bull in the manner as seen each waving pink capes. Eventually the bull will charge the horse and smash it (the horse is wearing protective gear) then the guy on te horse spears the bull. Blood shed begins...
After the spearing they send out some matadors with these spike like things. These guys yell "hey, hey, hey" the bull turns towards them and charges. The matador in turn rushes toward the bull jumping up and dodging the bull while stabbing these spikes into its back. Very crazy, very bloody.
Then comes the main matador, he brings the red cape, and gets the bull to chare him. Back and forth they go charge, dodge, charge, dodge. This continues until the matador feels the bull is tired enough, in which case he retrieves a sword, gets the bull to rush him again and then stabs it in the back. Most likely we are watching a lung/heart piercing, which after a minute brings the bull to the ground...dead. It is man versus beast... Man always wins.
Another shot
Overall interesting to watch, both Brooke and I agreed that this would be our last attendance at a bull fight.
Below is our picture with our new Spain shirts in front of the Plaza de Toros.
After the bullfight we returned to our hosts place for empanadas with Riqui and the family. After conversing for a while we said goodbyes and gave much thanks for such great hospitality.
Monday morning we hopped on a high speed train bound for Barcelona. I snapped this picture of the train's speed...300 kilometers per hour. That' is faster then the Audi R8 in Rothenburg!
On the train to Barcelona we booked an apartment through airbnb and it turned out perfect. Great location, great price and it was clean! We came into town dropped our things off and went to the city center. We stopped at this market Mercat La Boqueria. There was a lot of fruit, meats and sweets to look at!
One merchant at the market and their presentation of their fruit! Looks fabulous!
This is a statue of Christoper Colombus, so we snapped a picture of him, most likely he is pointing to the United States.
The next day we were heading to the train station to buy tickets to get us to the airport later that night. On the way we saw some missionaries. After talking with them for a bit, we noticed they had a flat tire. Brooke and I both were like oh, you have a flat. They said yeah we are about to call someone to one change it...what? We said we would change it for them, and we did so, it was a little hard because there kit did not have the right tools in it. At one point there were four Elders there, and a senior Elder and the tire sat unchanged, Brooke and I were both quite surprised by this. The missionaries were very greatful and headed on there way.
Out dirty hands from the tire change.
One of the nice greetings from the Spanish directly towards people of our kind... We think backpackers are very different the tourists though... Ok maye not so much.
Brooke and I hiked up to the Parc de Guell by Gaudi. On the way up there was this amazing view of Barcelona!
Some of the walkways of the park are built upon these crazy stone pillars, the whole park had a very fun environment. However, it cost to enter the main part of the park, and there are two things Brooke and I won't pay entrance fees for, churches...and parks. Call us stubborn, I guess.
Below is one of the structures within two park walls, this was designed by Gaudi as well, but we were able to get a shot outside the walls! It was sort of Dr. Seussesque
We also went to this church partially designed by Gaudi as well, The Sagrada Familia. Interesting architecture everywhere with a finish build date of 2024, 100 years from Gaudi's death.
We also stopped by an apartment that Gaudi designed as well, again a very different sort of architecture.
After admiring all if Gaudi's works we headed back to the market where we sampled various fresh juices...our favorite raspberry coconut! It was awesome with fresh coconut chunks and delicious raspberries, we tried four different kinds in all.
After the market and a quick bite to eat we took a train towards the station where a bus would then take us toward the Girona airport. Our flight was leaving at 6:30, which meant be there at 4:30am, so we decided to sleep at the airport, and it was not bad at all. We felt safe the whole time and there was actually quite a few people doing the same thing. I would never hesitate to sleep at an airport again.
Traveling wisdom:
Use any connection you have in places you want to travel to, more often than not they are more then happy to host and show you around their hometown.
If in Spain and you want to see bull fighting, be forewarned if you love animals do not go, if you hate blood do not go.
If you have an early flight, sleeping in the airport is a great option typically others are doing the same thing, and security usually strolls through all night.
