Our First Visitors

We have been eagerly awaiting the visit from my mom and aunt for months. They came on the 19th of June and stayed for a week.  We packed in about as much as you can in a weeks time. 



We let them take it easy the first evening by driving around our town.  We showed them how far our village is to Madrid as you can see in this picture. 



Madrid

We have been to Madrid about every Sunday and a couple of Saturdays since we have been here, but we haven´t really seen Madrid besides the tall buildings that we drive by on our way to church. When my mom and aunt came we did see a little bit more.

King Philip II  moved the Spanish court to Madrid in 1561.  It is now home to approximately 3 million people. 

 At the Puerta del Sol the kids filled up with ice cream.  I guess Kamree wasn´t tall enough!

Then they had a Bull Face contest.



We later walked to the Puerta de Alcalà which is across from Retiro Park.  We have been to the park once before and this picture was from that previous time.

 

Retiro Park is a huge 350 acre park that used to belong to the Spanish Monarchy and used as hunting grounds and gardens until the late 19th century, when it became a public park.  It is now filled with  ponds, playgrounds, gardens, statues, galleries, a crystal palace etc.




Mason has been talking about riding a boat at this park long before we even moved here.  It was too crowded the first time we came so we promised him we would do it the next time.  Fortunately for my mom and aunt they got to do it with us. 



We were sure something was wrong with our boat because the left oar didn´t work near as well as the right making us only go in circles. 



You are looking at a money teepee surrounded by bones and a wall of white candles and yes they were all real.  Interesting, right?  Well it stunk, if you were wondering.  This was inside the park at an art exhibit. 







 

This super small lake and boat dock were in the same art exhibit.  We were trying to decide if it was worth jumping in without our swimsuits. 



We then headed to the Crystal Palace still inside the Park.



 This is from the first time we came and we met up with this American family that lives just across the street from the park. 



 After feeding the BIG birds at the Crystal Palace.....



....they moved on to the little ones.    They were so cute!

The birds were so friendly they would fly or walk right up to the kids and eat out of their hands. 

After we were done at the park we walked a block or two to the famous ¨Prado¨  art museum.   After listening to all our kids whine about how boring it was and trying to avoid all the naked art we went and got the car while my mom and aunt took some time to race through it. 

Spain- the Land of Castles

Just a little Castle History

There are more castles in Spain than in any other European country,  all in all about 10,000 castles were built in Spain.  There are only about 2,000-2500 left because many have been destroyed in battles, or by the Spanish kings to prevent them from being used by dissidents. 

The Spanish have several words for castle: castillo, fortaleza, alcazar, and alcazaba. The word Castilian  as in ¨Castilian Spanish¨ was used to describe the people who lived in the Castile Kingdom and Castile is a word derived from the Latin castella (castle-land) that comes from another Latin term castrum (fortress or castle).

5 days & over 15 castles

Between Thursday afternoon and Monday we saw over 15 castles.  I have included a picture of most of them, but I have also added daily posts with more information and pictures of our favorite castles that we visited.

Las Murallas de Ávila

We have been here before but not with Grandma Bellon and Aunt Merralee.

El Alcazar de Segovia

We have been here too, but not in front of the castle.   This is one of our favorite places we have been so far. 

Castillo de Coca

This was just outside of Segovia.





 Castillo de la Mota

This castle was just before Vallodolid.



Castillo de Peñafiel

Just on the other side of Valladolid.

El Castillo de San Esteban de Gormaz

Just a single lonely wall is left standing. .

 Forteleza de Gormaz in Califal

This was one of our favorites.

????Castle Ruins

Calatayud Castillo Mayor

This is one of two castles in Calatayud, just outside of  Zaragoza.

 

??? Castle ruins and a Cathedral

 

And another ???

 

Castillo Palacio de los Obispos in Sigüenza

   

This is now a hotel.



Jadraque Castillo del Cid



This castle was out in the middle of nowhere.

 Castillo de Torija



We stopped in Torija to see this castle and unlike most other castles it was not on a hill but in the middle of town.  We were impressed with the good shape it was in, but after taking this picture we read on that white info plaque below the flag that it was rebuilt in the 1900´s after being destroyed in the Spanish Civil War. 

 Toledo Castle Walls

There was also a castle here but we weren´t able to get a good picture of it because of all the obstructions.

Friday, June 21st

We headed to Segovia Friday morning pulling the kids out of school on their fun water day.  They were told to wear their swimsuits to school, not sure if that would ever happen in Utah.

Navacerrada

We chose to go through the mountains to get there because it is a lot prettier even though it takes a little longer.

The trees were endless as you can see.

 Segovia´s Alcazar

This is our second time here, but we didn´t get pictures from down below the Alcazar last time so here they are.  That is the back of my aunt Merrelee, isn´t she cute?



The Alcazar with part of the city in the background.  We had to hike up a mountain across the valley to get this shot so the kids were exhausted.



This time we climbed the 162 steps (according to Morgan) to the top of  the castle´s tower.



and it was well worth it for this view of the city.

Coca Castle

The Coca Castle was built in 1453 by Spanish Christians, just as the Spanish reconquista was ending, and it is often described as being in the 'gothic-mudéjar' style.  The over-ornate, octagonal turrets and towers suggest that Coca was built more for show than it was for defense.

This was a shot of the castle from the old city walls which can also be seen in this picture.

If you look closely at the photo above, you'll see that the arrow holes in the turrets are in the shape of a Christian cross which are on many castles here and is a good sign it was built by Christians or for Christians.   This moat was very deep.

This way down to the lower quarters,  which was just full of garbage, spider webs and cute girls.




Kamree up on the outer walls sporting the treat bag.




The corner of the outer walls.



 

We really loved this castle and we were about the only ones here, besides the bird keeping watch from above.  As we were leaving; however, a few tour buses showed up.



Finally a castle that is safe to climb.   This was a castle across the parking lot from Coca, maybe the two castles gave battle to each other back in the day.



  The Castle of La Mota  The construction of this medieval castle of La Mota was built in the 15th centruy on Moorish remains from the 12h century by Arabs for the Catholics in Medina del Campo near Valladolid.

We "tawt we taw a puddy tat" and after zooming in it appears we did.




The inner courtyard.

 

Casa El Agapio

 We stayed in this 300 year old house in a little pueblo outside of Valladolid.  It was really cute with some modern updates.  This town felt like a ghost town until we went to bed.   The downstairs housed a restaurant which apparently is a happening place in the middle of the night with live music.   This balcony connected the boys room to the girls and it was just above the outside patio of the restaurant.  This was just around the corner from the Bed and Breakfast, not sure what it was, but we found it quite interesting. 

 Off to Zaragoza