Spain at last

The journey to Spain was long and arduous (as you can probbly tell from my blog thus far), but my perserverance paid off last Wednesday. After a short an pleasant flight from London (note some sarcasm in this sentence, mainly stemming from the inhostpitable atmosphere of London airports), I met my program director and fellow ISA (International Studies Abroad) students in Madrid. Together, we formed a large tour group very similar to the groups I had grown to despise earlier in my trip and took Madrid by storm. Maintaining our storm like semblance, we then swept through Valle de los Caidos, El Escorial, and Toledo to end up in Salamanca on Sunday afternoon. My impressions of these places? Madrid is huge and overwhelming. Valle de los Caidos is a giant underground chapel with a couple hundred foot cross on top constructed by Franco in remeberence of the Spanish Civil War, and is both impressive, and oppressive. El Escorial is a giant palace/monestary/school/cathedral, which I found much less decadent and far more regal than any of the palaces I´ve seen in France, London, or Madrid. And finally, I found Toledo absolutely enchanting. Even aside from the fact that Toledo has sword shops every few feet, the town is mostly still contained within its old walls, nd absolutely loaded with character.

While it was a bit of a relief to join a larger group and let others plan everything for me, I have begun to see the advantages of traveling alone. I am left feeling that I missed a significant portion of Madrid and Toledo, though without traveling on a tour bus I would not have been able to see Valle de Los Caidos and El Escorial. There are always trade offs, I suppose.