Lake Region Spain Trip 2012

This final post is just to direct those of you who are unfamiliar with blog formats how to view this blog in proper sequence. What you see is the end of the blog. So if you want to get it in sequence (highly recommended), go to the Archive on the right and click on the earliest date. That will give you each post, one by one. Or you can click on April at the top, and scroll to the bottom of the page and click on OLDER POSTS. You will have to do this about three times to get to the beginning. The first posts are at the bottom and the most recent ones are at the top. So when you finish reading one, you have to scroll up past the one you just read to the top of the next one and start reading down again. It's a little confusing, sorry. It took me an extra week to get them all done...many, many hours; so I hope you enjoy it and share it with your friends and families! ¡Qué aprovechen!

Last day...Free time, what to do?

We could have planned another day full of activities, but what everyone wanted was some free time to roam (and spend) as they pleased.

So we made our way to Retiro Park to wander and abandoned ideas of visiting the Royal Palace. Retiro Park contains some major acreage in the city and was originally just for the Royal Family, but after about 50 years it became public.

The bodies of water are man-made, and people take out the row boats for recreation.

The glass building is in beautiful shape and designed as an herbarium, such as can be found in England or France.

We wander a bit and then find a spot on the grass to do one of the NETC activities that had eluded us thus far, "The Caudillo's Conquest: Who will win?". We divide up into seven factions, each with a card describing our political point of view as the Spanish Civil War takes shape. On the left we had the Republicans, the Communists, and the Anarchists, none of whom had any great numbers or arms to fight with. On the right, we had the Monarchists, who supported the King. The right also included the Church and the Catholic values so long synonymous with Spanish culture. The Landowners, paranoid of losing everything to the Communists would align with the King, the church, or the last choice on the extreme right: Franco and the army. Since Franco was the only one who had any strength associated with his order, he ended up winning over all the other splintered factions,

but not without many atrocities along the way. The fascist dictator was more closely aligned with Hitler and Mussolini than the US government ever cared to publicly acknowledge. Spain still is divided over its flag, and people are reluctant to fly the flag, because many prefer one of the other versions of it that represent the Republic, the Monarchy prior to the Constitutional Monarchy that has been restored, or even the flag of Franco's Spain. Our discussion evolved into the subject of personal privacy versus Big Brother is watching you. Raquel showed us her National ID card, which has a chip containing all her personal data. We have yet to go to that in the US, but we are so close. And what data do Google and Facebook keep on us that if we thought about it, we might prefer to keep private? George Orwell warned of all this in Animal Farm and 1984. Where did the stimulation for his ideas come from? He fought in the International Brigade in the Spanish Civil War! We had talked about going nightclubbing, but there was the little issue of being underage. The girls were excited to go clothes shopping for the experience. It seemed that ultimately, no clubs were open to underage kids on a Friday night. But at the last minute, Raquel found one that would have us and serve non-alcoholic drinks. At this point it was still a secret,

but we did move the pre-paid dinner to a lunch in a nicely Velásquez decorated restaurant. This is a vegetable dish, layered in puff pastry with a currant sauce. Delicious! Then we were free to shop. My mission was to find a hardware store (ferretería) where I could get a Paella, the pan in which you cook the dish. I was directed toward one in the region between Plaza del Sol and the hotel. The walk started up a pedestrian street for about 7-8 blocks. Along the way I saw many great shops and wondered if the others were striking it as rich. The ferretería was strictly door handles, so I followed new directions through another neighborhood for about 7-8 blocks and successfully found the pan.

Two for less than 15 euros! My bag would be 2.5 kilos heavier for the airline. The walk to the hotel took me through Plaza de Chueca, where every doorway on every adjacent street was an attractive eating or drinking establishment. I thought, "This is where we should come for tapas tonight!" Later Raquel told me it was the gay neighborhood and she steered us away from there.

We dress the kids up as best we can (no problem for the girls, but a challenge for the boys), and head for shared tapas at an establishment just a few blocks from the hotel. Then we head for the evening surprise: The ICE Bar!

You put on this very heavy coat and ascend into a deep freezer where the owners have carved the furniture and decor out of ice. They turn on the disco music and we move about like a batch of frozen penguins, all identical looking, as we check out the

chairs,

the radiatior and

the padded toilet seat. We sip on these non-alcoholic mojitos, the most disgusting lime drink I have ever had. They might be all right if they had the booze they are meant to have in them. We paid 10 euros to get in,

so we hung out for a while until the girls toes were about to fall off. In the lobby (back in the heat) they had bottled water from around the world to support the ICE theme.

This one from California carries a price tag of 80 euros, over $100. It's served by Hollywood celebrities like Mariah Carey at parties. I thought I'd wait and buy it locally! The trip is over:( Our wake up hour is not too early, so of course kids want to stay up. With all this great cultural variety surrounding us, I am shocked that they seem to need to make late night runs to the Burger King two blocks from the hotel. However, if that is the only frustration I have to endure chaperoning Spanish students on a trip like this, I'll call it a success. They are a great group and they exhibited impressive levels of responsibility. A good time was had by all. ¡Gracias a Diós!

¡Fútbol, Madrileño style!

We book it out of the cooking school for several metro line changes and many stops to get to the stadium. Emerging from the underground we are impressed by the litter of beer bottles on the ground for many blocks to the stadium.

The game has just started and the streets are a MESS! These folks like to tank up for their soccer! We had worked hard to get 21 tickets to this game, and ours were about mid way up the stadium, above a corner of the field.All together, they cost around $1000. But when we reached our seats, people were already sitting in them and they refused to move, because there were no other seats available. Raquel summons the bouncer, who tries to evict a couple of spectators from our seats, but quickly realizes that this effort for 21 seats is not going to work and he throws up his hands. About five of us take seats and the rest sit on the steps. The crowd is wild. This is a semi-final match in the league that is one level below Real Madrid. There is a group of fans behind the goal called "Los Radicales" that constantly chant, sing and play instruments. The rest of the stadium follows suit. Madrid wins 4-2 and the atmosphere is boiling

Cooking Class

6:30pm we all meet at the Opera metro station to head to the cooking class. The kids are getting good at responsibly finding their way to the meeting places and being prompt. There would have been a whole lot of stress if they had not been responsible. At the cooking school we are given aprons and divided into groups, each to cook a different item on the menu. Appetizers, Lemonade,

Tortilla Española,

Paella, and Chocolate Mousse. Much fun to cook,

but even more fun to eat¡ The evening is young yet and we have a date at the soccer stadium...

Day 7 Madrid

Local tour guide, Ana, meets us at the hotel and we take off for a driving tour of the city to orient us a bit and show the

theater, financial,

ritzy and older parts of town. We stop at the bullring, where a torero must do well to make a real name for himself in bull fighting.

This driving tour ends up at the Cervantes statue and we get our pictures with Don Quixote and Sancho.

Then on to the Prado Museum, one of the great art useums of the world and we are destined to see the best it has of El Greco,

Velasquez and Goya. We learn about these painters' roles as royal artists and the development of their craft.

(employeesoneonta.com) Velasquez', Las Meninas, is the treasure of the museum and a fascinating work because of the artist's tactic to only include the royal family as spectators, kind of an early "conceptual art".For more on the many questions debated over the centuries about this painting, try this interactive virtual tour by Hisham Bizri. http://www.evl.uic.edu/chris/meninas/

(wallpaperpimper.com) Personally, I found the Goya exhibits most interesting, following his work as a royal painter through his dark period and his documentation of the revolt against Napolean, as seen in this painting of "El tres de mayo". Goya became an amazing master of the use of light in his paintings, especially well demonstrated in this painting. The kids are pretty much museumed out already, but after lunch we push on to the Reina Sofia Museum of Modern Art (20th century). Our local guide leaves us and Raquel, who is also local to Madrid) preps us for Picaso's "Güernica". During the Spanish Civil War, as Franco was gradually winning control over Spain (1936-1939) and Hitler was setting his eyes on the rest of Europe, a little show of power, or perhaps a test of some new encendiary bombing capability was arranged between the two fascists for the small town of Gùernica, where no military installations were present and predominantly women and children were killed. For more on this provocative painting and its effect on the world go to:http://www.pablopicasso.org/guernica.jsp Sorry if the link is not working...just paste it into your browser. There were four floors of the museum and I only saw one in an hour and a half.

Dali, "Girl in Window" (early) and "The Great Masturbator"

Miro, "Barcelona"

Lipschitz, "Sailor with Guitar"...amazing! There was so much more, but the kids were ready to shop.

Arrival in Madrid

We drop off our stuff at the Hotel In Madrid and Isadoro agrees to take us to our restaurant for dinner because it is raining.

We walk through various plazas on our way back to the hotel, including Plaza del Sol, where "Kilometro Cero" is, the spot from which all distances in Spain are measured.

La Osa, symbol of Madrid is also here. She is eating strawberries, by the way. Again, our hotel is a bit too far from the center of action, and we either walk a lot or take the metro to make things work. Kids are frustrated because the WiFi in the hotel is limited to the lobby and every half hour you have to enter a new user name and password. Thus my blogging entries ceased entirely in Madrid. What's important in your life?

Sevilla to Toledo

Bright and early the bus picks us up for the trek to Toledo, a 6 hour drive including a break for lunch. So by road it will take us just as long to cover half the distance as we covered in El Ave, the high speed train. But the landscape goes by at a pace we can take in better! We are passing out of Andalucia and through La Mancha, land of Don Quixote. Billboards are no longer allowed in Spain except for El Toro, which has become iconic for the country, but actually is an advertisement for a brand of wine.

The windmills and an occasional "Castillo de la Reconquista" are also stereotypical landmarks of the region of La Mancha. Our lunch break is at a roadside joint where the food was pretty good and the souvenirs were actually reasonably priced. I found the only authentic "Bota bag" (wine skin) that I saw on the whole trip. The bus driver, Isaboro, ordered wild boar meat, (I missed that on the menu) and gave me a bite. ¡Qué sabrosa!

This is the classic (El Greco) view of Toledo and the tour buses line up here for tourist photos. The Koreans are crazy and think it is hilarious to jump into some of our group shots. The city is known for its medieval character; natural picturesque beauty,

with the river forming a natural moat; fortification walls; narrow cobblestone streets; the cathedral; swordsmithing; and as the home to many El Greco paintings and a few Goyas.

(courtesy Web Gallery of Art) Unfortunately, we failed to note that our itinerary did not include a visit to the most important mural by El Greco, the Burial of the Count of Orgaz, and the rest of our tour through the city was quite rushed without any breaks, shopping time or tapas opportunities.

We did get to see the cathedral, which was not as impressive as Sevilla,

and the chains that hang from the outside of the church from all the prisoners taken during the Reconquista.

The altar area was visible here, however, whereas in Sevilla it was covered for restoration. There was yet another St Christopher depiction, this one very large. St Christopher was a giant who carried the baby Jesus across a river, noting that Jesus seemed unusually heavy for a little baby being carried by a giant. Jesus told him it was because he was bearing the weight of the sins of all mankind. That would explain it!

Before leaving Toledo, we visit the famous Toledo sword smithing factory and see the swords being smithed. We were encouraged to shop at the expensive store where they inlay gold into the swords and other jewelry items. Toledo is known for the quality and hardness of its steel, and between tales of Don Quixote, El Cid (We watched the Charlton Heston film on the bus ride) and the thrusting of one of these things deep into the body of a bull, many tourists feel compelled to buy one, even though they really do not fit well in your luggage!