Day 9 - Baking in Barcelona

So today we woke up and went on a panaromic bus tour of Barcelona. Our guide was Aida and she was sweet. We started our tour in Parc Güell, a park that was originally supposed to be a neighborhood of 60 houses, but oh 3 were ever built. So it was changed into a park. Up until 2013 it was free to enter and you could stay as long as you wanted, but because of overcrowding in the park only 400 people are allowed in every 2 hours and you must buy a ticket to enter. It made the visit more enjoyable because we weren't competing for pictures with thousands of people.

Next we headed to see La Sagrada Familia, another work of Antoní Gaudí. Construction on the church began in the 1860s and isn't done yet! The goal is to have it done by 2026 to celebrate the 100 year anniversary of Gaudi's death.

When completed the church will have 18 towers in total. The church is being built through private donations and through the entrance fees to go inside. We did not go inside, we only traversed the entirety of the outside  Still and impressive sight.

Then, we went to Montjuic hill for an awesome overlook of the city and to see the Olympic park.

Once we said good bye to Aida, we had time to grab lunch. We went to the market of La Boquería. It is a large open air market that is open every day, they have the freshest fruit, vegetables, meats, cheeses, etc. it also has a plethora of restaurants where you order food / drinks and stand at the counter and eat. Personally one of my favorite places in BCN.

Afterwards we joined back up with Alberto and took a walking tour of the Gothic Quarter. It was super hot and we all wanted a break. But we enjoyed the sights of the Cathedral of Barcelona among others...

We ended our tour for the day with the optional called the Game. We were split into groups of 4 and were traversed the entirety of the Gothic Quarter completing challenges for the senses. It was muy divertido.and it wore all of us out! 

We had dinner at a buffet and drug ourselves back to the hotel by metro. 

Tomorrow is our free day in Barcelona, we are all looking forward to a calm day to explore the city on our own.

We said good bye to two groups tonight who are not staying for our extension. Here's a whole group picture for your enjoyment.

Day 8 - buses, bulls and bombs

Today we left our hotel outside of Bilbao early and made our way to Pamplona. Pamplona is famous for the running of the bulls during the Festival of San Fermin which happens every year from July 7 - 14. We were able to take a quick walking tour of the city that included the highlights of the bull ring and the route the bulls take through the town. Here are a few pictures.

We then loaded the bus and headed out of the Basque country. After another 2.5 hours we stopped in a city called Zaragoza. It has a huge basilica with a few miracles, one being the black Madonna that appeared on top of a pillar to encourage Saint James to continue on his journey. The second has to do with 3 bombs that were dropped on the basilica during a prayer ceremony that magically didn't explode. 

After lunch we made a 4 hour trek to Barcelona, we arrived at our hotel and ate dinner. Now we are relaxing for a full day of fun tomorrow!

Day 7 - Donostia

While Bilbao wasn't our favorite, San Sebastián enchanted all of us. San Sebastián like Bilbao is located in the region of País Vasco one of the 4 regions called the Basque Country. In this area of Spain they speak a language called Euskara or vascuense or Basque to the rest of us. All of the road signs, street signs, menus, and/or buildings were in Euskara first, castellano second. So the title of this post reflects that, Donostia is the Basque name for San Sebastián.

This was the place I was most excited to see and it definitely didn't disappoint! The drive from Bilbao was about 2 hours. It began to rain on the way into the city where we picked up our local guide Eduardo. But as we departed the bus to begin our walking tour, the rain stopped. It was still overcast and super windy. Later the skies were bright blue with lots of sunshine.

San Sebastián is a beach town with the most famous beach being La Concha, the shell, because of how it is shaped. After our walking tour the kids were given 5.5 hours to sight see, eat, shop or visit the beach.

Here are a few pictures from the day, enjoy!

Day 6 - The Pittsburgh of Spain

Today we were able to sleep in until 8! A treat after a few days of  6:30 am wake up calls. We left the city of Burgos at 9:30 am and drove about an hour and a half through the Cantabrian mountains to the rich city of Bilbao.

Bilbao is known as the Pittsburgh of Spain, their main export is steel. When Spain became part of the EU in 1986, Bilbao became desolate because of new production and pollution rules. At one point the city suffered 32.9% unemployment. With the help of their sister city, Pittsburgh, they have rebounded into a very wealthy state. While they still produce steel, they are also very much into the business of banking, insurance and politics.

The most well known location in Bilbao is the Guggenheim Museum. It holds a rotating exhibit of modern art. The kids and adults agreed that while the building was awesome, the art wasn't up our collective alley.  

Another neat piece in front of the museum is the flower puppy. It is a gigantic dog that is made completely out of flowers that are changed every 6 months.

We did a panoramic bus ride through the city and to a hill for a great view of it from above. Then we did a quick walking tour, at the end of that it began to rain and the whole group decided to go to the hotel even though it is outside of the city proper. Rest, sleep, decompression time is something that was needed for everyone. Some decided to check out the mall that is across the street while others just hung out at the hotel.

We are keeping our fingers crossed that tomorrow the weather will improve for our trip to San Sebastián, which our guide from today told us is the most beautiful town in the region and possibly the country!

More on that tomorrow. 

Day 5 - Carreteras, catedrales y castillos

This morning started off very much like yesterday, except for the fact we needed to be packed up and ready to go by 8 am.

We made our way to Segovia, one of the ancient capitals of Spain. Segovia is famous for its 2,000 year old Roman aquaduct. It was completed without any mortar to hold the stones together. It is about 10 miles long and it carried water up until the 1950s.

Photo by: Meghan Keenen

Segovia also has the last gothic cathedral to be built in Spain.

And finally Segovia has an Alcazar, a castle. Queen Isabel grew up here with her younger brother as virtual prisoners of their older half brother who was paranoid about them overthrowing him.

So we arrived in Burgos and dropped our luggage off at the hotel, then began our walking tour of the sleepy little town, little in comparison to Madrid.

We visited the third largest cathedral in Spain. In this cathedral, Rodrigo Diáz de Vivar, also known as El Cid, the national hero of Spain for his heroics during the reconquest.

Rose window in the cathedral, similar to Notre Dame.

Dome inside of the cathedral.

Tonight we are heading out to watch a festival. Tomorrow we head to Bilbao and the Guggenheim!

Day 4 - RSHS does Salamanca

This morning found us heading out early by ourselves to Salamanca. It was a 3 hour drive, but our guide Alberto had our bus driver make a stop at a little spot called Cuatro Postes which overlooks the ancient walled city of Ávila. 

This city is the home of Santa Teresa de Ávila. The convent still holds her arm and finger as relics. Evidently Franco kept these in his room during his control of Spain.

We arrived in Salamanca around 11 am. We were dropped off at la Plaza Mayor, which is similar to the one in Madrid, but in our collective humble opinion much much prettier!

We ate a nice lunch at a restaurant called Cervantes, themed after the most famous / important author of Spain. Then we did a little shopping and ice cream eating.

We met our local guide, Carmen outside of la Catedral Nueva. She was awesome! The kids did some photo hunting in the façade for an ice cream cone and an astronaut. Then Carmen took us inside and up in the bell tower. It offered AMAZING views over Salamanca. The students took some amazing snapshots! Many of them have commented on wanting to become photographers!

After the cathedral, we headed over to the University of Salamanca. Ask them about the frog, on the façade. All of us were absolutely amazed by the University. We literally walked in the footsteps of history, Columbus, Cortés, Cervantes, and Lope de Vega to name a few. Highlights were the library, the original classroom that is hundreds of years old. One of the kid's exclaimed, "This is my favorite thing I have seen ever, for real!" 

We returned to Madrid with hopes of visiting el Palacio Real, but it wasn't free for us. So we hung out in the park playing Heads Up before dinner.

We enjoyed a dinner as a whole group and then headed back to the hotel for a good nights sleep and to pack up for our departure from Madrid in the morning.

Vamos a Segovia y Burgos mañana.

Day 3 - to Madrid and Beyond!

I Today found us doing a bus tour of Madrid in the morning, we had a great local guide named Daniel. He showed us parts of the city I haven't seen before such as the Plaza de Toros (bullring) and the Real Madrid stadium, which was bustling to prepare for the Rolling Stones concert tonight! Too bad the show was sold out.

La Caixa Forum and the largest vertical garden in the world.

We also visited el Palacio Real but since the new king was in residence taking audiences with his constituents it was closedm but we were lucky enough to watch a military procession march up in front of the palace itself. Then we visited the Reina Sofia art museum with all of the modern art of Spain, such as Picasso's Guernica and some works by Salvador Dalí.

El Palacio Real

We went to lunch, then half the group went to Toldeo and we explored Madrid a bit more. I guided our group to partake the sites in Plaza Mayor and then el Parque de Buen Retiro. We met up with the rest of our group and went to a tapas dinner that we all enjoyed. We ended our night at the San Gines Chocolateria where the group tried churros con chocolate.

Street performers in Puerta del Sol

La Plaza Mayor

La chocolatería San Gines

Tomorrow we will delight in the sights of Salamanca!