Sunday morning we met around 9:00am at the Plaza Eliptica bus station to take a day-trip to Toledo. I had completely forgotten that over the evening it was daylights savings here in Spain. My phone didn´t automatically change so when I woke up at 7:20am it was actually 8:20am and it takes almost an hour by metro for me to get to the bus station. Needless to say I ran around getting ready and still arrived late. My parents and Amy were waiting and confused as to if they had been in the wrong place since I wasn't on time. We bought tickets for the 10:30am bus to Toledo which takes just under an hour. So we arrived a little after 11:30 to the old part of the city (casco viejo), after taking a bus up to the main plaza from the bus station. I showed my parents the basics. The Plaza de Zocodover, the San Juan de los Reyes Monostary, the Santa Mara Blanca synagogue, the outside of the Cathedral and the Alcazar military fort. We ate lunch at a little café. Unfortunately, we came on a day in which it kept raining off and on. My parents had to buy an umbrella from a street vendor since they weren´t anticipating the weather. Overall my parents and Amy seemed to love Toledo and thought I was so lucky to have lived there for six months while I was studying abroad. They loved how old the cobblestone streets looked and how beautiful the views were from the city into the terrain. We left around 4pm after having spent the better part of the morning and afternoon there. When we got back to Madrid we went to eat at a Chinese restaurant. Which I know sounds horrible since I am in Spain- I should be showing them authentic Spanish cuisine but I am honestly a bit sick of Spanish food. I figured I would introduce them to that sort of food the following day. I left around 9 or 10 in the evening to head back to my apartment since I had classes the next day that I had to attend.
Monastery of San Juan de Los Reyes
Amy
Family
Toledo
Cathedral in Toledo
Plaza de Zocodover
Family with Cervantes
I went to school the next day while my parents visited the Royal Palace- which they loved and the Botanical Gardens. I met up with them in the evening around 5:30. I tried taking them to Campo de Moro which is a big park directly behind the royal palace. It was about a mile walk from their hotel. By the time we got there, just a few minutes after 6pm, we realized that the gates were shut and locked. I noticed that there was a sign up saying that winter hours were only until 6pm. I tried brining them to the Egyptian temple after this but everyone ended up being tired and not wanting to walk more. We ended up taking the metro back to where their hotel was. My parents went back to the hotel to relax a bit while I went out shopping with Amy. We each ended up buying a few items of clothing and then met up with my parents around 8pm. We got some dinner and then I headed back to my apartment around 10pm. The next afternoon we were leaving for Paris and I still needed to pack!
I packed that evening and then got to sleep in till 9am which is unusual for me during the school week. I met up with my parents and Amy at their hotel around 11am and we made the trek to the airport. Our flight was at 2pm so we arrived almost two hours just to be sure we´d have enough time since it is "tecnically" an international flight even though you remain in the European Union. We arrived at Orly airport around 3:30. The airport is technically in Paris but a good 30-40 minute train ride to the center of the city.
We noticed right away that the French people working at the airport and train station (connected to airport) were kind of rude and sarcastic to us as tourists. I have since talked to some of the Spanish teachers that I work with who have told me the same thing: people from Paris act as though they don´t need tourists in their city and actually get irriated with them. Whereas in Madrid I have noticed that since the country and this big city literally depends on tourists for their economy, they try to cater more to their needs and are friendly and welcoming. We finally made it to the center of Paris after a few wrong turns and a taxi ride from the train station in the center of Paris to our hotel. Our hotel was beautiful but very European. My dad has said that a common saying is that hotels in Paris are deathtraps....why? Well first there was no keycard to get into the room, just a single key. They also only had one key for all of us. Once in the room if you want to lock the door so no one in the hallway can get in you have to use the key on the inside and lock it. This basically means you are locked in the room. So for example if there was a fire you would have to use the key to open the door to get to the hallway. Did I also mention that the hallways were some of the most narrow hotel hallways I have ever seen? Though aside from the dangers of fire safety the hotel was nice and a bit luxerious for me since I am used to staying in hostels while traveling in Europe.
hotel in Paris
views from the hotel room to the streets of Paris
We rested for a bit before venturing out and finding a place to eat down the street. Most of the restaurants seemed to have menus in multiple langages: Spanish, English, French, Italian, etc. But few of the restaurant workers could speak English well enough to communicate with us. It was very strange for me coming here and feeling so lost since I wasn´t able to communicate with the French in their language. It made me miss Spain in a way since at least here I can talk to people and know enough to get by easily. In addition the pronunciation of words in French is so different from the pronunciation of words in Spanish. I thought that I would maybe understand a little but I quickly found I could understand NOTHING when people spoke to me in French.
It was an early night for us since we knew we had to get up early the next morning to fit in everything we wanted to see the next day. We woke up around 6am and all started to get ready. There were four of who needed to shower so it was a long process. It was probably not until 8am that we were all ready and had eaten some breakfast at the hotel. We headed out into the city a little after 8am and our first stop was the Louvre museum. It was overwhelming large but so spectacular! We saw all the famous things that the Louvre is known for like the Venus de Milo and the Mona Lisa of course. We spent maybe four hours walking around and I bet we didn´t even see 10% of the things there. It was so big, I cannot emphasize this enough. I bet if you wanted to really see everything at least once you would need two full days as a minimum. There are statues, paintings, old apartment rooms and more. It really did live up to my expectations as being one of those world wonders that you must see!
under one of the glass pyramids of the Louvre
Egyptian Sphinx
Venus de Milo
The Winged Victory of Samothrace
The Mona Lisa
Psyche and Cupid
Napoleon III apartments
inverted pyramid inside the Louvre
After the Louvre we headed to Notre Dame but stopped on the way to Sainte Chappelle, this beautiful chapel with some of the most spectacular stained glass I have EVER seen in my life. We waited close to two hours to get into the chapel but it was worth it. Simply breathtaking. After this we headed to the Notre Dame and it was free to enter! Everything is so expensive in Paris!!! I thought Madrid was expensive but this was a whole new level of expensive. I seriously do not understand how people can afford to live in that city. You go to a restaurant and order a soda and this small glass bottle comes out and it is 4-5 euros ($6-$7 USD). And of course there are no refills. But back to the Notre Dame, I have to say that even though it was magnificent in size and reputation that I wasn´t as impressed by it as I thought it would be. It seemed like another cathedral to me but larger. Plus it was soooo full of tourists. Perhaps had it been sparse with tourists it would have seemed more impressive and beautiful.
Sainte Chappelle
Notre Dame
inside Notre Dame
After Notre Dame we headed back to our hotel. We rested for a while since it was already 6pm and we were tired from so much walking. We went out and got dinner around 8pm and then went back to the hotel again. Amy and I wanted to see the real Moulin Rouge so my dad and us went out once it was completely dark to see it. It was about a half an hour walk there and the streets seemed just as confusing as Madrid streets- going in circles, ending abruptly and changing names constantly. I would have failed miserably trying to navigate myself which is why we were lucky that my dad was willing to do all the navigating....or maybe he knew that my Mom, sister and I were simply not capable of doing it ourselves. We arrived to Moulin Rouge and it was beautiful and exciting! It was unfortunately located on a sketchy street with a lot of sex shops- a LOT. I´ve never seen so many in my life. There was a huge line, of probably two blocks of people waiting outside to get into the Moulin Rouge. I am not sure what it is like today but it used to be sort of a burlesque club with dancers and singers. I assume that it is more modern today but that it must be very beautiful on the inside. I wish we could have gone inside but the line was too long.
We headed back to the hotel and got to bed much later around 11:30 or midnight. The next morning we woke up around the same time and headed to the Eiffel Tower as our first stop. The weather was the same as the day before- 60s but cloudy with rain off and on. The Eiffel tower was spectacular up close. It was so much bigger in-person than I ever imagined it would be. We bought tickets to take an elevator to the Summit of the Tower. I have to admit that I have somewhat of a fear of heights and going up about 1,000 feet on a 150 yr-old tower is frightening to be blunt. It wasn´t as bad as I thought though. Of course it was windy up there but the tower felt very stable. My dad, being an engineer, commented about how well the structure was made and how ahead of his time Frances Eiffel was to have build such an intense structure that has stood for so long without any problems. He also said that most structures that high usually have a sway on the top of nearly 5 feet but that the tower had no sway whatsoever. The view as well was amazing. Being able to see Paris from nearly 1,000 feet above land was quite cool. We finally went down and headed toward Napolean´s tomb. It is inside a beautiful palace/church. The architecture was very beautiful and the statues were very interesting.
view from first tier of tower
View from summit of tower- close to 1,000 feet!
Palace where Napoleon's tomb is
Napoleon's tomb
After seeing the tomb and getting some lunch we headed to the Arch of Triumph were Hitler stood underneath when the German army overtook France in 1940. We didn´t go inside it because it was very expensive. Then we walked down one of the famous shopping streets. Apparently the property value on this specific street is one of the highest in all the world! So of course there were a lot of fancy shopping places like Chanel and Louis Vuitton. Amy and I went into a few shops while my parents waited outside. Neither of us found anything. Though we did help my dad pick out some jewelry for my other sisters. We headed back to the hotel after this. We had taken the subway to the Eiffel Tower and were quite a long way from the hotel (maybe an hour or more walk) so we took the subway back. Using the subway in Paris made me feel very lucky to be living in Madrid. Madrid has a very modern and very clean metro system. It´s relatively easy to navigate and since so many people don´t have cars in Madrid almost everyone uses it. So it is very safe to use at all times and also well-lit. The Paris subway on the other hand was old, small, dirty and confusing. There also seemed to be a lot of sketchy people using it and many more homeless people that would hang out or beg for money compared to Madrid. It was also more expensive than Madrid´s metro- 1.5x the cost. So in general it made me feel very lucky to have the Madrid metro system.
Arch of Triumph
We got back to the hotel and Amy and I left to go shopping while my parents stayed at the hotel, checking their email and relaxing. We had done so much walking that my mom had blisters on her feet and didn´t want to do anymore walking if she didn´t have to. Amy and I didn't end up finding any clothing in Paris. We must have been shopping down the wrong streets. We went into a number of shops looking for clothing, purses or boots but found nothing either of us wanted to purchase. So we just ended up walking around and seeing more of the city. We came back to the hotel and got our parents and then left to go out to dinner for the last night in Paris. We found a cute little restaurant and my dad and I got some French red wine. It was very delicious. After this we headed back and then by that time it was around 10pm and we were pretty much spent for the night. We packed up our things in preparation for leaving in the morning.
My dad talked to the hotel and found out they had a taxi service to the airport. It wasn´t cheap by any means but cheaper than it would be had we simply hailed a cab in the street. So we were picked up in the morning and driven to the airport, making two stops along the way to pick up other tourists from other hotels. We arrived at Orly airport and it was very confusing figuring out where to go! It was also one of the dirtiest airports I´d ever seen. I guess I had failed to note the environment when I arrived in Paris. My dad said there must be some sort of strike going on and that would explain why there was garbage every where in the airport. Trash bins were overflowing onto the floor and it looked like some people weren't even using the trash bins to throw away garbage- like they were just throwing it on the floor anywhere. We got to our gate finally after much confusion and found out our flight was delayed about half an hour. We got on the plane and headed back to Spain.
Arriving in Spain we were all so tired from traveling. Even though it is only about 1-2 hours flight between Madrid and Paris I feel like any sort of travel is exhausting. We took a taxi, an airplane and then the metro back to their hotel in Madrid. Even though it was maybe only 4pm when we got back I left right away and headed back to my apartment. I wanted to drop off my bag and do laundry. I told them I would see them in the morning when we would go on our last day-trip to Segovia.
The next morning I met my Dad and sister at Chamartín train station. My mom wasn´t feeling well and had huge blisters on her feet so decided to stay at the hotel for the day. I´ve been to Segovia, myself, twice so this would be my third time. I had never taken a train before so it took a while to figure it out. The train ride was direct from Madrid to Segovia and even though it is about 30-40 miles away, the high-speed train (Renfe it is called in Spain) took only 35 minutes to get there. The train station was outside the old part of the city though so we had to take a local bus about a mile to where it dropped us off in front of the famous aqueduct. We checked that out briefly and took some pictures and then headed to their Plaza Mayor (old, main plaza) which is located right next to their cathedral. I had never been inside the cathedral before and it was quite beautiful. Though it was very cold inside. After the cathedral we headed to the Alcazar. It is a castle on a hill, overlooking the mountains. The famous castle image in Walt Disney movies was actually modelled off of THIS castle. Walt Disney was in Spain at some point, saw the castle and the castle logo inspiration came from the Alcazar. You can see the resemblence a bit. We walked through the castle admiring the various paintings and armor statues. We walked all the way up 50 narrow, winding steps to the tower of the castle. It has a very beautiful view and my dad and sister took many pictures. We left the Alcazar castle after this and went to a cafeteria restaurant and got some lunch. It started to get windy and cooler so since we were done seeing everything we wanted to we headed back to the bus stop and caught an afternoon train back to Madrid.
Aqueduct in Segovia
Cathedral
Alcazar
inside the Alcazar
view from the top!
We got back to the hotel and found that my mom was feeling better so we relaxed and bit and then went out for dinner. I left for the evening to go back to my apartment after this. Sunday I met up with my parents and Amy around 11am. We headed to the Reina Sofía art museum. We got in before 2pm so it was free. We wandered around for an hour or two and saw all the paintings that I wanted to show them- mainly Picasso (La Guernica) as well as some Dalí. After the museum we headed to a small restaurant and sat outside since it was probably in the low 70s. It was sunny though and halfway through our meals we felt rain drops but it didn't start to start pouring rain until later. We walked down to the Buen Retiro park and I showed them the main lake and we walked around enjoying all the street performers and got some ice cream. My parents left after this because they were a little tired and Amy and I wandered around for a few hours in the park and shopping. Amy and I were determined to find some boots. We went into so many shoe shops and didn't find anything we like. It also was raining at this point so it was kind of miserable going in and out of shops into the rain and getting our shoes soaked. Finally the LAST shoe shop we went into we each found a very nice pair of boots. We felt very content and headed back to the hotel. For the last meal with me in Spain I brought my parents to the restaurant on the top floor of Corte de Ingles- essentially a huge department store similar to Macy's, for example. It is multiple floors and they have multiple locations all throughout Spain and several in Madrid. We ate a nice meal and even got some dessert. By the time we finished it was already almost 10pm and I needed to make the trek home since I had class in the morning. It was here, near the metro in Sol that I had to say goodbye to my parents and little sister. I wouldn't be able to escort them to the airport for their morning flight since I would be at work. It was much harder saying goodbye than I thought. We all looked sad to say goodbye but I knew that the rest of my time here will go by quick so that I shouldn't be so sad.
Overall it was a good visit from part of my family. In a little over a week I visited four different cities with them. They got a little taste of Spain and I got to go to another country that I have never been to before. I also felt very fortunate after this experience to know how much my family cares about me. They made the long trek to see me and see where I live and what my life is like here.
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