Coca, León, Santiago de Compostela, the Holy Grail, Salamanca, and Ávila

Our final week of adventure around Spain!

(This post is going to be starting from the end of the trip, sorry if that confuses anyone.)

Our last stop on our last trip around Spain was in Coca to see this castle. Sadly, we arrived just in time for siesta and it was closed. On our way back to Alcalá it snowed. And we thought we had seen the last of winter. Ha!

We spent Friday in León. The main highlight of the city is the beautiful cathedral full of stained glass windows.

Outside the cathedral paper chains made of hand cut-outs hung on the fence and up to the windows. I never found out the reason for the garlands, but I think it was for a celebration.

We took a tour of the cathedral and learned about the restoration project for the cathedral.

Medieval stained glass window.

There wasn't too much to do in León. We got some suckers to pass the time!

A león in León.

How fitting to visit the pilgrimage site Santiago de Compostela on our final week-long trip around Spain! I'm so glad that we saved this incredible place until the end. The patron saint of Spain is the apostle James, or Santiago in Spanish. In the cathedral are the supposed remains of the apostle. At the center of the cathedral is a statue of gold and jewels of James and you can go up behind it and hug him. Kind of strange, but it is a big part of the pilgrimage to finally be able to hug St. James at the end of your journey.

We spent Wednesday and Thursday in Santiago de Compostela and we were able to attend the pilgrim’s mass (held every day at noon). It was my first mass and I really enjoyed it even though it felt very different and foreign. I'm glad I sat by Megan who had been to many masses before.

The architecture of the cathedral is extraordinary.

Saints. Who is the only one without a beard?

A poor shot of the inside. The gleaming gold mass in the center is the main and the statue of James.

On Thursday evening we went to an orchestral and choral concert at the cathedral. The music was beautiful and the setting perfect. Sound filled every corner of the vast cathedral. There is a strong spirit of beauty and there are moments where it can drench our souls.

There was a bagpipe player next to the cathedral.

A guy dressed up like Moses(?) outside the cathedral.

The symbol of St. James (Santiago) is the scallop shell, it is found all along the pilgrimage trail and in the city.

On a street near the cathedral in Santiago de Compostela. It was like the "Costco" of Spain because people were handing out samples in the doorways of the restaurants, enticing the tourists.

We saw the Holy Grail in a tiny villagey sort of place, high in the mountains, called Os Ancares.

This place is famous for the Celtic-style stone huts, called pallozas.

Wildflowers and moss on an old stone wall.

Imagine living in a palloza and having this view to wake up to every morning. I would do it in a heart beat.

Pilgrim walking sticks, notice the shells tied on to the tops.

Tuesday afternoon we spent in Salamanca.

We saw the cathedral (above photo).

We visited La Casa de Las Conchas. A house with scallop shells all over the outside and fantastic gargoyles in the courtyard.

One of the most famous sites of Salamanca is the Plaza Mayor, famous because of the movie "Vantage Point." It was fun to see people plopped right down on the ground in the middle of the plaza, just taking a little sun, chatting with friends, people watching (I was at least), and eating lunch.

Here is the plaza all lit up at night.

We began our trip on Tuesday morning by stopping in Ávila to see the preserved city wall. The whole town had a medieval atmosphere about it. "Ávila is important because of its association with the great mystic and reformer St. Teresa de Jesus, better known as St. Teresa of Ávila. Teresa was a 16th-century Carmelite nun who reformed her order, had many ecstatic visions, and wrote several books. She is the female patron saint of Spain and was the first woman to be named a Doctor of the Church."

Valencia

We visited the Lladro factory and store in Valencia on Friday morning. I loved the nativity sets and the mother figurines. For our last institute class, the history of the Church in Spain, we watched a documentary on the temple and saints here in Spain. Part of the flim showed the role that Lladro had in the Madrid Temple and creating a version of the Cristus for the temple.

In the afternoon we headed to the beach!

It was the perfect place to watch the sun set behind the city.

On our final day Heather and I made our way over to see the Ciutat de laes Arts i de les Ciencies and the largest aquarium in all of Europe, also known as the L'Oceanografic (Oceanographic Park).

I think these were windows, they look very futuristic to me.

The picture doesn't do this building justice.


Yellow irises and pelicans.

Don't these birds make you think of Valentine's cards or jelly beans?

He posed for us!

Jelly fish are incredible and so delicate.

This big daddy star fish was almost 2 feet long.

One of the strangest fish that I've ever seen. What kind of fish is this?

It was crazy to be walking in a tunnel, separated only by glass, with sharks all around you.

Side note: Once upon a time I thought that I would be a marine biologist. That dream died when I realized that fish could be just as frightening as dogs. I still love fish though and had a great time at the aquarium!

Las Fallas

Okay, where to begin?

Las Fallas is "one of the most unique and crazy festivals in Spain." The main event of the fiesta is to set on fire the huge cardboard, wood, paper-machè, and plaster statues (known as ninots: “puppets” or “dolls”). The reason to part? Most people believe that the fires evolved from the pagan rituals that "celebrated the onset of spring and the planting season."

And we got to go! Let me just tell you, it was one of the craziest days of my life!

One of the ninots.

Many people dress up in traditional clothing for the parades and to celebrate the festival.

Some of the ninots can get pretty extravagant.

The main falla that we waited for about two hours to finally to be lit at 1 a.m.

The crowd.

At 2 p.m. fireworks go off to begin the party. An ambulance tried to get through the crowds which was pretty crazy.



Bull fight posters.

Outside the bullring.

I originally had planned on just skipping the bullfight, but somehow I ended up going. It was a good experience and I really felt like I was immersing into the culture, even if there were lots of tourist at the bullfight also.

Got to love those pink tights!

This guy put on quite a show and the people loved him. He won the bull's ears from his fights.

I learned a lot about bullfighting and why it is a tradition. There were some pretty intense moments where I could feel my own heart racing and I had to turn away.

This guy smoked three or four cigars during the bullfight and we reaked of smoke afterwards.

I loved to see the reactions of the spectators. It was so much fun to say "torro" along with everyone when the bullfighter had done something well or daring.

Sitting right behind us during the bullfight was Jose Thomas, the BEST matador in the world. Courtney, a girl in our group, got a handshake.

So much work and detail goes into the plaster statues that it is almost a shame to burn them up. The best are saved and put into a museum.

When it got dark the streets lit up. There were hundreds of booths lining the streets for the festivities, selling trinkets, food, and what-not.

The fireworks were spectacular! There was so much variety and some that I've never seen before. It was literally raining ash on us because we were so close to were they were going off. You couldn't hear yourself let alone the person next to you during the show.

I don't think I will ever be satisfied with the Stadium of fire or doing fireworks at home again.

The grand finale!

(We didn't get to our hotel until 3 a.m. and then we slept in until 10:30 a.m.)

*Thanks to Kim for a few of the photos!

Bilbao

Bilbao was on our agenda while visiting the Basque Country in northern Spain. The hotel we stayed at was super bien!

We celebrated Jenna's birthday with a Chinese dinner and toast (con agua).

The next morning we went to see the Guggenheim. Bilbao is a the place to see some amazing architecture like the museum and the bridge.

The "pond" surrounding the museum made a mist and I felt like I was in a cloud.

Me in the mist!

A creepy spider statue.

I noticed this little suprise underneath an overpass!

There is a super fun park next to the Guggenheim full of out-of-the-ordinary toys. I didn't get a good picture, but the little guy sitting underneath the jungle gym thing was doing tons of acrobat tricks and stunts while we were there. So cool!

Sorry Mr. Brown, I think I liked this bush clock better than the famous tree stump when we went to Guernica (the city that was devestated by German bombs in 1937). On our way back to Alcalá we ran into snow, crazy.