This first photo is after maneuvering through the terminal system to find my way to the 5 Euro transfer bus to take me to the Madrid train station-Atocha. My flight was delayed 2 hours in Dallas and by the time I get to the train station it is early afternoon. Monday-June 3, 2019
I have to wait for a train since they are all booked. I finally make it out there by 5. Cool architecture in this Toledo train station. Yes, high speed train! I love Europe's high speed train system!
Next morning I snap a picture before heading out to the highlight of Toledo visit- their Catholic Cathedral. Tuesday- June 4, 2019
I had ventured out the evening I arrived and found (through the map on my I phone) a local small market and got food. Love fitting in with the locals! Grocery shopping is something we all need to do. Today I decide to show how narrow some of these streets are! No car on this one!
Below:
The cathedral is the head of the Catholic Church in Spain. The building does not look like much until you step inside. I had paid extra to take the trip up the stairs to the top of the bell tower.
So right away, I had to go through the inner courtyard called the cloister.
This is a view from midway up the tower climb.
And here is the bell with yes, a crack like our Liberty bell.
After climbing back down I toured the fabulous cathedral where I took no selfies!
However, this Cathedral allowed me to take photos. Another smaller church I visited earlier in the day to see a famous El Greco painting, would not let you take photos.
Later on this day, I would take the high speed train back to Madrid and walk to my hotel to join the people of the tour. This day was the hottest of the trip and the walk to the hotel during rush hour proved to be a little uphill!
Wednesday-June 5 2019 After sight seeing in Madrid that morning, we went out to Es Escorial and then to the Valley of the Fallen. It was actually chilly and the wind was blowing. A monument here with burial places for the dead of both sides of the Spanish Civil War of 1936-1939. Other pictures show the mountain and the giant cross, this shows the valley!
Thursday-June 6, 2019 we head south out of Madrid to the area of La Mancha.
One of my group volunteered to take this picture of me with Don Quixote.
Makes me glad I read the book all those decades ago!
We are heading to Seville but we stop in Cordoba to view the 8th Century Mosque of the Caliphs which has been a church for centuries since the Reconquista in 1492.
The mosque is behind my head in this photo.
And it is across the street from me and the police in this photo.
I have interior shots but they are not selfies. It was rather dark in the building.
Our local guide here was the funniest. His attention getter was to say, very slowly-"Well...well...well." It works but I doubt I could steal it for the classroom!
Below: Made it to Seville! Lovely purple flowers are everywhere. Still cool which is great when we find out that Seville is considered the Frying Pan of Spain! Temperatures could reach 115F.
Seville is our base of operations for the next three days. It is here where I found the best fruit of the trip: Fresh raspberries from Portugal in a small grocery store. They were half price so it must have been the end of that crop because I never saw them again at that store or any other store I went to!
Friday-June 7, 2019 in Seville I did not take any selfies as we visited the Casa de Pilatos and saw a flamenco show among other sites that day.
At the end of the day, our trip's tour guide Jose Luis took us to the best place in Seville. We went at dusk to the Plaza de Espana which had been constructed for the Iberian American Exposition World's Fair of 1929. He had been pointing out in our bus travels buildings representing various Latin and South American countries who were at the fair. But this plaza is fantastic and you cannot tell until you get inside!
(Yes, I have more picture of the plaza but this post is only selfies!)
Saturday-June 8, 2019 we left Seville to see Gibraltar and Malaga and then returned to Seville that night.
Both these pictures are from Gibraltar. Quite a lighthouse. The Atlantic is on one side and the Mediterranean Sea is on the other. And yes, Gibraltar actually is United Kingdom territory so our bus driver on the tram up the rock had a British accent.
Below: This picture is me looking away from the lighthouse and you can see the rock behind me and also notice the Mosque one of the Saudi princes has built near his fabulous residence.
We spent some time in Malaga which has beaches with a 4 1/2 mile promenade!
And yes, a harbor for boats! (See below.) We enjoyed visiting the old city center with
lots of locals nearby enjoying their Saturday.
Sunday-June 9, 2019 Our last day in Seville
Besides sight seeing, we came to encourage and learn from the LCMS missionaries
to Spain. Obviously I took no selfies during church or at our luncheon together!
It was great celebrating Pentecost with the missionaries and the church families there.
But time for us to head on to Granada for the only selfies of the day-this time again at dusk overlooking the Unique Alhambra!
Three of us had taken a cab up to get pictures of the red structure and I have many more pictures of it. We even tour the Alhambra the following day. But we asked our cab driver to take a photo of us:
I am flanked by Marcie in the blue from Plano and Karen in the red from Broken Bow, OK.
Monday-June 10, 2019 Granada time to explore the huge complex that is the Alhambra!
Like every place we saw in Spain, palaces and houses of worship changed hands in 1492 when the Spanish finally finished the job of taking their country back from the Muslims (Moors). The final place to fall into the hands of the Catholic monarchs was here in Granada as the Alhambra was not attacked but they eventually had to surrender as supplies were cut off to Granada.
Eventually the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V had this portion of the complex built. I am on the top floor of this palace built for Charles and his bride, but Charles had too many responsibilities running the empire to ever return to live here.
That afternoon we traveled to Cartagena where we would spend the night. Beautiful harbor close to our hotel. The beach was outside of town and out of sight so I chose not to go. But walking the wonderful, clean, marble pedestrian only streets to the old city was delightful! Smaller city I believe will grow in popularity. And this is another city where our missionaries are living and working!
Tuesday-June 11, 2019 (Owen Randall's 6th Birthday!)
Before we leave Cartagena we have some more places to see.
Besides seeing the property the missionaries hope to start renting soon, we visited a well preserved Roman amphitheater. Amazingly it was only discovered in the 1980's. The tour guide assured us that the city knew they had one but did not know where it was. In an excavation they found it and it is a wonderful find!
I liked the natural design of the columns, too!
We stop for lunch at the city of Alicante. Determined not to miss a beach so handy, I walked almost the entire break along the beach. FANTASTIC!
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