Sra. Yates in Spain!: Weekend Fun

On Saturday, for the first time since arriving in Salamanca, I pretty much spent a day entirely by myself. Most of my classmates chose to go on an excursion to Toledo, and since I have already been to Toledo three times, I decided to go on the El Escorial and Ávila excursion on Sunday instead (more about that later). Therefore, I had a full day to do whatever I pleased.

I started by sleeping in, and then made my way into town to do some window shopping. I stopped to get a slice of tortilla for myself, which I surprisingly didn't care for (it's a pretty difficult thing to mess up if you know how to prepare it), so I made up for that by purchasing a couple of pieces of my favorite candy from one of the candy shops in the center.

I returned to campus to eat lunch and chat with my family for a bit, and then I headed back out to see a movie. Theaters are slightly less expensive here in Spain than in the states, and for 10 euro, I was able to purchase my ticket, a drink, and a decent sized popcorn. I saw a movie called "Ahora o Nunca", a comedy about an engaged couple who planned a wedding in the small English town where they met. Things of course do not go as planned, and a variety of mishaps result in multiple delays and awkward scenarios. It was pretty silly, but still entertaining, and I found the dialogue very easy to understand. I recommend watching the trailer, which is pretty self-explanatory even for non-Spanish speakers.

After leaving the movie theater, I walked back to campus, had dinner in the cafeteria, and then turned around and headed into the city center to get my daily dose of ice cream. As usual, Plaza Mayor was filled with people, including wedding and bachelorette parties posing for pictures. I don't think I've ever seen it empty.

In any case, once I finished my ice cream, I headed back to my room and went to sleep. It sounds like a pretty uneventful day, and it certainly was, but one thing to keep in mind is that my residence hall is about a mile away from most points of interest in town. Therefore, in walking back and forth to different places three times, I walked about six miles. This is not out of the ordinary, as one of my classmates has an app on her phone that tracks miles, and we've been averaging six miles daily since we got here. In spite of that, it was nice to have a day full of down time where I could do as I pleased. I needed it prior to yesterday's all day excursion.

Our first stop yesterday was El Escorial, a royal palace outside of Madrid. El Escorial was ordered to be constructed by King Felipe in the 16th century, and took a surprisingly short two decades to build (compared, for example with the new cathedral in Salamanca, which took two hundred years to construct). Part of the speed of construction was the simple, clean-lined design of the renaissance style of architecture, which was far less ornate than the gothic style (which came before) or the baroque style (which came after). Below are some photos from my camera, as well as a postcard displaying an aerial shot of the entire palace.

Isabel, Me, and Donna

After arriving, our group was split into two smaller tours, and we were given a phenomenal and very informative guide. First, she took us to the royal bed chambers. One of the interesting things about this particular location is that a monastery was built within the palace, and Felipe II had the bed chambers constructed so that the windows opened up into the monastery. This way, if he or a family member was sick, they would still be able to hear mass from their bed. The windows are left open, allowing a view of a few priests who happened to be passing through the monastery at the time of our tour.

Here is a postcard of one of the bedrooms. If you look through the canopy, you can see what looks like two black squares. Those are the windows that open up into the monastery.

After walking through a series of halls and discussing the different artwork that was on display, our guide took us deep down into the basement of the castle to see the royal burial chamber. Almost every king from King Carlos I (grandson of Isabel and Fernando) up until King Alfonso XIII (great-grandfather of the current King) along with any queen mother is buried there, with only a couple of exceptions. There are two spots left in the chamber, and the former King Juan Carlos I (grandson of Alfonso XIII and father of the current King Felipe VI), made the executive decision that those spots should go to his parents, even though they never were actually seated on the throne in Spain (they lived in exile during Franco's dictatorship). They have both since passed away, and are currently situated in the poetically named "pudridor" (literally, the "rotting room"). Typically, royal bodies wait there for a few decades before they are in the appropriate condition to be permanently laid to rest in their stone tombs.

Above is a postcard of the final resting place of a great many of Spain's kings and queens. Note that this room is much more ornate than the architecture of the rest of El Escorial. That is because it was finished later, during the baroque period. Had it been completed during Felipe II's lifetime, it would have been much simpler in design.

We also got the chance to visit the impressive, but less ornate tombs of the children of the royal family, as well as the queens who did not bear heirs to the throne. We then returned upstairs, where our two group rejoined, and we had the chance to explore the library.

The library has one of the best collections in Spain in terms of variety and quality of books. The books are all turned around so that the pages are facing out. This is to help allow the pages to breath, and also has the added benefit of showing off the fancy gilded edges of the paper. The room is topped off with a fabulous domed ceiling completely covered in paintings. It's hard to describe, so please see the postcard below as a reference point.

After leaving El Escorial and having some free time to eat lunch in the surrounding neighborhood, we reboarded the bus and made our way to our next stop, Ávila. Ávila is famous for a 12th century wall that still completely encircles the historic part of the city. It is also home to a basilica, as well as a church and museum that honors Santa Teresa, a 16th century nun, mystic, poet, and author. As is typical of small towns on Sunday afternoons in Spain, it was quite sleepy there, and almost appeared deserted. I would have liked to have spent a bit more time there, because I was unable to do any of the walking tour on top of the wall. Hopefully, I'll get to return some day. Below are a few highlights from our stop there.