SPAIN

Gerald had a conference in Valladolid, Spain so Elyse tagged along (for a change!).  It was a long, convoluted journey (bus, train, plane, train, bus), but worth it.  There were some friends at the conference, including fellow PhD students from Imperial whom Gerald had not seen for the intervening 20 years and another spouse-friend (Jessie) with whom Elyse would tour and explore.  There were some very interesting talks (according to Gerald) and we found out at the end that there were 38 countries represented by the conference participants - pretty cool!  

Valladolid

Valladolid is the capital city of the Castilla y Leon province in the northwestern region of Spain.  It is about 200 km / 125 miles northwest of Madrid and was the "royal capitol" from the 13th century until the 17th century (when the royals moved to Madrid).  Ferdinand and Isabella were married there, Columbus died there, and Cervantes also lived there for a time.  There are many examples of late Renaissance and Gothic architecture and a wonderful mix of old and new buildings.  The first few days were glorious - sunny, but cool.  Then the normal summer weather arrived with its hot sun and temperatures, but there was enough shade to manage walking around and enjoying the sights.  But we definitely understand why they maintain the siesta tradition!

The first night's reception was in the Santa Cruz College , established in the 15th century.  Elyse sneaked a picture in after most everyone had left as she was enamored by the arches (below, left).  We were told that it was the center of the Inquisition - that put a slightly different light on it! While the guys were working / learning, Jessie and Elyse toured around the city.  One of our favorite spots - especially on the really hot days - was the Campo Grande, a 115,000m2 park with lots shade, benches and peacocks!  Below are some examples of the views we saw around town: the cathedral, the university, one of the main plazas (named after the poet Zorilla), and the Plaza Mayor (at night).  


As you can see, there were some pretty dramatic views. But there were also many cafes and tapas bars (that we took advantage of as often as possible) and lots of people walking around and relaxing together.  It is a university town, so there are many young people and, given that the Spanish don't start dinner until 10:00 p.m. or so, there are people out and about until all hours of the night!

One of the days, Jessie and Elyse decided to visit two of the local sights.  The first - and most famous - is the National Museum of Sculpture.  It was established in 1933 and is primarily located in a 16th century palace (part of the collection is in a warehouse of sorts while they restore the 15th century chapel that they usually use).  The sculptures are from the 15th - 17th centuries and are mostly made from wood or clay.  Below are a few samples.  On the left is St. Ignatius, in honor of Gerald's alma mater.  The photo on the right is a detail of one of the pieces to show how realistic they were.  The attention to detail was stunning - doesn't the "cloth" in the right photo look real?

They then went to the 13th century San Pablo Church, originally founded as a Dominican convent.  The facade is currently being restored, but they (cleverly) have set up a tour via a glass scaffold-elevator (below, left) that takes visitors up the facade.  It was fun to see all the decorations close up and to see the workers diligently scraping off years' worth of dirt, dung and other pollutants.  The tour was in Spanish, but Jessie and Elyse were able to understand enough (if they concentrated) through their knowledge of French.  The Spanish speak very quickly though!

Salamanca

Another day, Elyse & Jessie took a bus to Salamanca (about 150km / 90 miles southwest of Valladolid).  Given the heat, the siesta closing times and the bus schedule, they only had about 4 hours there, but it was well worth the visit.  Salamanca has one of the oldest universities in the world.  It was established in 1254, although the building - pictured below, left - is from the 15th century.  One of the highlights of that visit was the old library (pictured below right), and a small building / dark room with a domed ceiling picturing constellations.  Other beautiful and famous sights are the cathedrals from the 12th century and the Plaza Mayor (below), but we enjoyed walking through the narrow streets as well.  We left time to sit in the Plaza Mayor enjoying a cold drink and pastry and watching the world go by before catching the bus back to Valladolid.

Segovia

The conference coordinators had arranged an afternoon excursion for all the participants to go to Segovia, about 150 km / 90 miles southeast of Valladolid. They loaded us onto three coach buses (there were a lot of people at this conference!) and drove us through the dry, rocky landscape to Segovia. We passed many fields of sunflowers during our travels (between Valladolid and Madrid, Salamanca and Segovia) and Elyse kept trying to capture their beauty.  None of the photos did the fields justice, but hopefully these give you a sense of why she kept trying.  It was quite a surprise to see Segovia "pop up" in the midst of a dry flat valley.
Segovia is very old.  It was originally settled by the Celtiberians and was later conquered by the Romans.  Although the town was filled with interesting architecture and beautiful streets, it was the 1st century Roman aqueduct that took our breath away.  It is almost 2000 years old and was still in use until the 1950s when a municipal water system was put in place.  It is almost 30m tall and spans 14 kms / 9 miles from the Guadarrama Mountains into the city, with about 800m above ground through the valley in which Segovia sits.  It is made up of about 20,000 blocks and delivered about 30 liters of water per second!  And if that weren't all impressive enough, no cement or mortar holds the bricks together - it is just perfectly designed!  It was truly awesome to see.
   
The rest of the town included many beautiful churches (there were 20 Romanesque churches at one point), including the 12th century San Martin (below, left) and the huge 16th century Cathedral. (below, right).
 
There were three different neighborhoods for the Jews (there were five synagogues at one point), Christians and Moors.  We enjoyed wandering through the streets - many of which were quite narrow.  Each neighborhood had many beautiful buildings, most of which (in all 3 areas) had private courtyards (below, left) that felt about 10 degrees cooler, and/or adopted the Moorish custom of decorating the facades with geometric designs (see below for one that went as far as to make the design 3-dimensional!  This photo is looking up the wall).

The 12th century castle  - Alcazar - shows an example of the wall designs.  The castle was later used as a prison and a military academy until it was mostly gutted by a fire in the 19th century.  It overlooked a high cliff and looked like it would be hard to capture.  We didn't have time to go inside, but apparently some original items survived the fire and others from the various periods have been donated to the collection.

Despite the hot weather and short time, we had a wonderful visit and very much enjoyed seeing Segovia - especially that aqueduct!  The rest of the time in Valladolid was also very nice.  We sampled their specialty of milk-fed lamb (delicious) and the deep red wines of the Ribera region and enjoyed the many choices offered at the Tapas bars.  That is definitely one of our favorite ways of eating - lots of different tastes!

HEIDELBERG & SURROUNDINGS

We finished our packing and cleaning the apartment early in the week so that we would have some free time to relax and enjoy Heidelberg before leaving.  Luckily for us, Wednesday proved to be a spectacular day: warm (but not too warm) and sunny with a cool breeze.  We took our bikes on the train to Neckarsteinach (where Elyse had gone a few weeks before) and walked around the town.  Then we biked over and up - way up - to Dilsberg (the name kept reminding Elyse of the cartoon, Dilbert) where we visited the old castle and were afforded some fantastic 360-degree views of the Neckar Valley and its small towns (below, left and right).  We then biked back along the river to Neckargemund where we ate a tasty pumpkin seed-cheese-pretzel by the river and soaked in the fresh air.

The ride from there back to Heidelberg was mostly through the forest (shady and cool) which was nice.  Our legs were pretty tired (did we mention that the road up to Dilsberg was quite steep?), but we wanted to visit the Heidelberg castle one last time.  We stopped in the old town at our favorite bakery and got our absolute favorite cherry pastry - and an almost-as-good apple pastry - and hiked up to the castle gardens.  There were a lot more tourists there now than there were when we first arrived, but it was still beautiful and a wonderful way to end a phenomenal year.  We're really signing off now.  We hope you've enjoyed the ride along with us!