T(w)oledo

Toledo is a fascinating city from a historical standpoint, being a rare example of Christians, Jews, and Muslims living in relative peace, cooperation and harmony for hundreds of years. There's a super fast train that takes you from Madrid to Toledo in 25 minutes, which was perfect. Unfortunately, it was pouring buckets all day, and Laura and I were drenched before we even made it to our early morning mass. We got through most of the day by going out and exploring for an hour or so at a time, and then retreating to a lovely little cafe that served us a few of the Spanish foods Laura hadn't tried yet.

While it was cold, windy, and very very wet, we still had fun at the beautiful synagogues and the breathtaking cathedral.

 One of my favorite El Greco paintings is this depiction of the derobing of Christ, and it was great to see it again.

Cooking in Madrid

Laura and I took a cooking class in Madrid, and learned to make Gazpacho, Sangria, and Paella. It was really fun because it was the two of us, one other guy, and the teacher. Our teacher took us to the market with her to buy most of the ingredients. We saw exactly what she got... and some really unexpected things, like how various organ meats are harvested.

But it was really fun cooking! The paella was more labor intensive than I expected, but we had fun cooking together, and getting to eat all of the things afterwards. We didn't know there would be an option of non-alcoholic sangria (apparently if we had called ahead and told them we don't drink, they would've gotten us things to make a virgin sangria), so while we didn't get to try what we made, we got the instructions to make it with assorted fruit juices to simulate the classic Spanish drink.

The two things we made turned out really well though! We were both pretty proud of our first attempt at making Paella and gazpacho.

Barcelona revisited

I really loved visiting the Sagrada Familia again, and I think it's one of my favorite things from the whole trip to Iberia. We got to go up in the towers and walk across the top of the nativity facade (which is currently the main entrance).

I gained a much better appreciation for the sheer size of the church. When it is completed, it will be the tallest church in the World, and is already the third tallest.

We went all through Park Guell, and had fun seeing the most iconic view of Barcelona again.

We also went back to the old Catalunyan palace and managed to get there just in time to see the most amazing sunset. I wish our cameras could have captured it, but it was perfect timing, and rather impromptu.

We went to Las Ramblas and checked out the iconic Moderist houses. They were all very different-- from each other and from anything else I'd really seen before.

We ended our trip to Barcelona with some great churros and liquid chocolate topped with the biggest, thickest glob of whipped cream I've ever seen.

Back in Belem

Near Lisbon is the historic city of Belem. Laura and I got to spend a little more time there than I got to when I came before, and it was fun seeing everything and getting more time to enjoy it.
We also went to the Royal Carriage Museum, which was much more interesting than I had anticipated. Every royal carriage used since the Spanish King Phillip II ruled Portugal and Spain has been saved and held in this warehouse-like museum. Some of the carriages were so interesting and very... baroque.

 There were even some carriages for the princes and princesses to ride, which were usually pulled by sheep.

Going back to the Cathedral where Vasco da Gama was laid to rest was really fun, and it was easier to see this time with more cloud cover, since last time I was near blinded everywhere I looked.

The Cathedral was also not as full as it was last time, so we had plenty of time to enjoy the more interesting spots.

We went inside the Tower of Belem this time, and were surprised to find it very bare on the inside. Interestingly though, there used to be a rhino living there, which was somehow able to navigate the (very) narrow passages and tight corners.

The day we came down to Belem, we also had a TON of the typical pastries, and enjoyed eating the delicious custards for breakfast, lunch and a snack.

Sintra part 2

After our first day in Lisbon itself, we went to Sintra for the day, which is where I had gone before to the really cool castle. We went back to that castle, and also visited another castle/palace and the traditional Portuguese palace.
The day we went, the weather was crazy! It was really windy at first, but sunny. After exploring for about an hour, though, it started to pour. After about 15 minutes, the rain stopped, and it got really sunny and a little hot. We took off our jackets, just in time to get drenched by some torrential rain. So we got out our umbrellas and jackets and huddled together until the bus came. It was really nice weather by our next stop, but as we were getting ready to go, it started hailing! 

We next went to the Pena Palace up the hill. This was constructed in 1854. The young prince Ferdinand wanted a cool palace and couldn't decide on what style exactly he wanted it in, so it's a little bit of everything.

It was hard to not feel like we were walking around in a life size minigolf castle, with bright and intense colors, mixes of eastern, arabic and european influences in the architecture.

There's notably a keystone with a key on it.

There were spiky turrets.

While it was one of the weirdest things I saw in all my time in Iberia, this palace was definitely one of the coolest things we saw that day. The inside was as mismatched, beautiful and fascinating as the exterior.

While we waited for the bus to take us to the next place, it started pouring again, this time with hail. The weather was pretty crazy all day, but we managed to get off the mountain and down to the principal Portuguese Royal Palace.

While much more plain than the Spanish palace in Madrid, the Palace was still really beautiful and very distinctly Portuguese. The kitchen was probably the most interesting part, with massive chimneys giving it the appearance of some sort of alien mining operation.