And here it is: the long awaited third part of the journey to the North trilogy. (I know you were all getting worried about not being able to hear the ending to this amazing adventure-but have no fear!) First off I am happy to report that Spaniards do believe in cream cheese and my mouth was in heaven that Saturday morning after tasting some fond memories of home.
After this blessed event we heading to the Monasterio de las Huelgas (this is for nuns, not monks as might be expected with the name. I’m still confused.). This was built in the 12th century and was once a summer place for Castilian royalty (hence its name: huelga=strike/break), as well as a retreat for nuns of royal blood (why they would become a nun with all those rules rather than getting waited on hand and foot as a princess is beyond me). The Gothic church inside contains the remains of its founder-Alfonso VIII and his queen, the daughter of England’s Henry II. There are also original 13th century doors between cloisters in the mudéjar style (and yes I did get to walk through them, though it would have been more special and authentic if I was in medieval attire). This place was very similar to all of the other monasteries/religious buildings we have been to here so I won’t bore you with endless details. I will however say the couple of interesting facts I learned from our tour guide (the only ones I was actually able to hear): the symbol for Santiago (Saint James) is a conch shell and that people going on the Camino de Santiago (stop right now and read the previous post if you don’t know what I’m talking about) wear them as signal of what they are participating in. So then we got to go to this museum there that has 13th century costumes removed from the tombs that showed what medieval dress was like. I must say that I was less fascinated by what they wore (except that the girls could not show their feet-how dumb and impractical!) and more interested in just how dang small these people were. I mean I thought Spaniards now were small people because there is many an old lady who I am a good head taller than (and I’m 5’3”), but apparently they have evolved into larger people in comparison to their child-like ancestors. And then we proceeded to spend about an hour in the gift shop. My personal fascination was this book showing all the kings and queens of Spain, which was nice to see after learning all about them (especially the two who died from being oversexed-at different time periods).
After the monastery we headed off to see the Catedral de Santa Maria. This was begun in 1221 and was one of the most celebrated in Europe. It has a bunch of different styles, but is mainly Gothic, and took 300 years to complete (hello either procrastination or attention to detail). Here we got to see tomb where El Cid and his wife, Doña Ximena, are buried directly in the middle of the cathedral. This cathedral is freaking huge and the one I was most excited for (if you can believe I could be excited about any cathedral) because everything I’ve read about other cathedrals is that they are the best at this or that, besides the cathedral of Burgos. So this is the king of the cathedrals of Spain. And I saw it. Bam. What was really cool though was that we got to go down and see different structures of how this place was made and great artwork. But that was not even the best part. The awesomeness was that this area was all these tunnel things that I’m not sure what they were originally used for, but they seeped awesomeness nonetheless. So after a long tour guided by our ENGLISH pamphlets we were quite famished.
And who could satisfy our hunger best? Why it must have been the Alibaba man! (We did try searching high and low for other restaurants, but none could offer the delicious food and wonderful show that this place did). This time we got a sweet deal on some Turkish pizza and Mr. Sexy even gave us free fries while we were waiting (can you see why we’re in love?). When we were done we just had to document our time with this Greek God and he even let us go behind the counter by the meat to do it (I knew he felt something too). And we found out that McGorgeous likes to go to Madrid to party it up at…(get ready for this)…KAPITAL! So the next time we go I’ll be looking for that man that’s for dang sure.
With full tummies we set off to explore the castle on the hill in ruins (that wasn’t really in ruins-at least not like you would think). At the top of the hill we got a great view of the city and took our typical pictures, alongside many a couple-truly precious. Then we made our way up to the castle, but didn’t actually go inside, but actually explored the amazing foliage outside the building. The other girls felt like Jacob or Edward were going to pop out at any moment, but for me and Megan it was just like home. I didn’t know how much I missed the green and nature until we were here, and it was fantastic. I’m definitely going on some good hikes when I get back home.
Our time up top wasn’t too long because we had to meet up with the bus to start our journey home. On the way we stopped in this town called Lerma. Basically its only claim to fame was that some guy tried to build a building here that he wanted to be another El Escorial. He failed. And there is only a smaller building that looks similar to the original in the Madrid province. Other than that Lerma provided a small bathroom with no soap or toilet paper and a break for our driver. And then finally we were home, where I got to enjoy Blanca food and some much-needed sleep. End of our Northern adventures. (Be excited for the next post all you pyros out there-it’s gonna be good!)
