El Escorial

We went on a day trip to El Escorial, about an hour and a half from Madrid. Nearby is the Valle de los Caidos. It is a monument to Franco and to all those in his army who died in the Civil War. It was pretty eerie, especially with no windows in the whole church. It was a beautiful place though, with an incredible view, and while we couldn't take pictures inside the church, it was awesome in the literal sense of the word- huge archangels stand guard in the crucero of the church, where Franco is buried.

This is an image of one of the angels, Uriel. The other three in the church are Michael, Raphael and Gabriel.

El Escorial palace is the palace that inspired Versailles! It's a beautiful palace. Unfortunately, pictures were prohibited outside the courtyard here as well. 

Felipe II ordered the palace be built, and the palace served as the primary royal palace for generations. It doubled as a monastery as well.

One thing that was very interesting was seeing the differences between the Hapsburg and Bourbon dynasties.The Hapsburgs (the dynasty of Felipe II, Carlos V, and the Catholic Monarchs Isabel and Ferdinand) seemed to be very pious and relatively humble. My current bedroom is a bit bigger than the royal chamber of Felipe II, who, at the time, was the most powerful king in the world. He had a simple desk, exactly the same as that of the monks in the monastery. The hearing room had simple brown tile work and the royal family tree and solemn portraits of Felipe's father and mother, Carlos V and Isabella of Portugal.

The Bourbon area of the palace was entirely different. Incredible gold work and intricate furniture with luxurious seating adorned every room, and almost every wall had a massive, beautiful and colorful tapestry on it. Music rooms and other beautiful areas were spread throughout the bedrooms and court rooms.

The gardens were really pretty. I even got to see a wildlife, a little lizard who eventually got within a few inches of walking onto my hand before he ran off.

Royal Palace

The Royal Palace is incredible. It was so beautiful, and I'm way sad we couldn't take pictures in almost any part of it! There were really cool rooms, some looking very stately, others very rococo.

 I learned that in Spain, the king is not crowned, only proclaimed. The royal crown is never worn, but is carried around as a symbol of the King's authority.

These are 2 pictures I found of the interior of the Palace just to get an idea.

Tarragona

After Barcelona, we went to a small coastal city called Tarragona. We went to the beach and got to play in the Mediterranean Sea! The day was too cold to swim, but the water was warm enough to get my feet wet.

Tarragona also has a number of Roman ruins. There was a coliseum and a circo, as well as a few other small ruins. 

As I read the signs about the Roman games (which, of course, all involved lots of people dying, often gruesome deaths), I realized just how glad I am that somewhere in the time between the Romans and my birth, other games were invented, like Yahtzee and Air Hockey.

In the Northeastern area of Spain, there's a tradition apparently where people come together and make a human tower, and then a child will climb up on top. There was a huge statue demonstrating it, though I still don't know when or why the celebration takes place.

Barcelona: La Rambla

Barcelona has a great commercial corridor simply known as La Rambla (The Boulevard). It was really fun to walk up and down the street and look at the street vendors' stands as well as the stores on either side of the road. When we got a little ways down, we came across a huge monument to Christopher Columbus.

I've been acquiring a few paintings during my time in Spain, and found two gems from a local painter who was touching up another piece as we walked up. One is the Sagrada Familia with a river in front of it instead of the street with boats, and the other is of a bullfighter.

After walking for a bit, I went and met my professor at a fancy tapas place. The food was very fancy, and included one decked with caviar, smoked salmon and smoked elvers. It was surprisingly very good, and I really liked this place, especially when warm dark chocolate lava cake was served with a lemon glaze for dessert.

It was getting late. so on the way home, I enjoyed trying to blend in with some locals.

Barcelona: Hospitals

Also in Barcelona are some beautiful old hospitals. They have been retired and opened to the public after being in service from 1901-2009. 

In the 19th century, and into the early 20th, many people didn't go to the hospital partly for fear that they would go with a trauma injury and come home with a disease. To limit communicating infections between patients, the solution was to simply make separate buildings for different conditions. With 16 buildings in total, divided by gender, there was, for example, a Trauma building, a TB building, and several others. The buildings are connected by underground tunnels, which can be accessed by the central hub administration building, which doubled as a surgical unit.

The porcelain was not only a beautiful and popular decoration of the time, but also a relatively easy material to disinfect, and scientists of the time believe that bacteria couldn't survive on it nearly as well as on stone or plaster. 

It was a fascinating walk into the past. I'm working on a research project about the change of healthcare in Spain since the start of the 20th century, which made this visit really cool and fun, but also a gold mine for my assignment.

I plan to attend dental school, and am open to specialization possibilities such as oral surgery. The operating chairs of the time looked a little sketchier than any I ever hope to use!

Barcelona: Montserrat

Near Barcelona is a large monastery up in the mountains. To get there, we rode a cable car up the mountain. That got us to the monastery, but we then got on a small train to climb the rest of the way up the mountain to see a hermitage. The view was spectacular. We went on a little hike around the top of the mountain and got great panorama shots.

At Montserrat, there is a world famous boys' choir. It was amazing to hear them and while they gave a really short performance, it was absolutely spectacular.

 I loved seeing the beautiful monastery, and it was crazy to imagine the churches being constructed with stone probably hauled up from the base of the mountain by cart. I preferred the cable car for sure.