Cordoba and Madrid, Spain

We left early in morning to begin our travels to Madrid, Spain.  It was a two hour drive to Cordoba, Spain where we stopped along the way.  The town was ok, but we stopped there to visit The Great Mosque.  The Cordoba Cathedral is very unique because it was originally constructed as a Muslim Mosque, but was converted into a Christian Cathedral.  It definitely was exciting to see because it is a hot topic in the history of architecture.  Being there it looked so much more impressive than I could have imagined.  I tried to sketch an interior scene but there was just no hope!  So I just sat and prayed for a while during the time the others were sketching. 

 After a visit in the cathedral, we were walking back to our bus when it began to rain!  I thought it was important to note our first rain of the trip.  We have been blessed with wonderful, but chilly weather so far.  I hear it has not been the same for everyone at home!  Anyways we boarded the bus and continued on to Madrid.  About 4 hours later we arrived in Madrid and had just enough time to go out for dinner and explore the area around our hotel. 

Most of the next day was spent exploring the city with Les and Rod, and a guided bus tour.  I was expecting Madrid to be a little more exciting than it was.  Don’t get me wrong I enjoyed my time there; it just was not what I expected it to be.  It was a very large city that seemed to be pretty modern.  We had a four hour bus tour in the morning, and about the same time walking in the afternoon.  An interesting place that we stumbled upon is called the Caxia Plaza.  This is a building my studio professor talked about almost once a week last semester.   Another building I enjoyed is the train station of Madrid because there was an entire garden inside of it.  This was one of the first buildings I experienced that really gave me inspiration for my hometown project.  Also in Madrid is an art museum that is home to the Picasso painting, Guernica.  We got to see the exterior of the building but I wanted so badly to actually see the painting itself.  We just did not have enough time!

  In the evening, a large group of people went to a soccer game.  I think it would have been awesome to see a European soccer game, but it was a little too expensive for me; so Adam, Dan, and I decided to eat somewhere instead and watch the game somewhere.  It still ended up being a great time because the restaurants were crazy with everyone watching the game.  Europeans sure love their soccer! 

We had pretty decent Wi-Fi at the hotel so I was able to Skype some people from home.  I got to talk to Sarah and the girls, Aubree, and Jenica so it made for a pretty great night, even though it just made me miss everyone more!