SPAIN

Before I begin writing about Spain I need to give a brief description of the very long horrific flight taken right out of my worst nightmare. Seriously. No words can explain. First of all, I am terrified of flying. Everyone kept telling me that everything would be fine and that whole nonsense about the statistics of getting into a car accident versus airplane crash and blah blah blah like they're the first to discover that. One good thing about our terrifying flight was that it proved me right. I had every reason to be scared. After about 1 hour of flying our plane dropped. Yes, you read that right. D-R-O-P-P-E-D in all caps of course. Sure it dropped no more than 5 seconds, but all the passengers were screaming and holding on to the seats in front of them. The power got knocked out on our 1/2 of the plane the remainder of the flight and the plane never stopped bouncing and shaking. For some reason the plane never recovered from the drop. I kept thinking of our kids back at home without us. That flight was 10 hours. I huddled in a ball crying off and on and I wasn't the only one. No one could get up the whole flight. One man stood up to get something out of the overhead and the pilot yelled at him through the overhead speakers. Because of the violent shaking of the plane my many sleeping pills never kicked in and Damon never let go of my hand. All the passengers were terrified and so happy to see land again. I don't know what went wrong with that darn plane but I do know that Puesto 3 in the Madrid airport is the the most wonderful Puesto in the whole world.

Once we were got to Madrid we hopped on the Metro, dropped off our things at the hotel, and went to the train station to get a ticket to Segovia. At the train station we discovered no seats were available till probably the next day. We sat down and waited for some luck while we tried to figure out what to do. Well, what do you know but a couple from California sat down next to us and we got talking. They had also had some bad luck and had the same itinerary as us for the next 2 days. Luck changed and one last ticket # was called out for the day and it was their #. Chris and Gina (our new favorite people) offered to get our tickets with theirs and we were all able to get our train tickets for the next 2 days. We ended up spending the next couple days in Spain with them and had a blast! It was one of those things where you know the Lord had His hand in everything that was taking place. They asked so much about the gospel, our marriage, Damon's mission, and Damon was able to help all of us with speaking Spanish. Seriously, that was a lifesaver.

Just some views from the train to Segovia.

This is the aqueduct in Segovia. It's the first thing that took my breath away on the trip, so it really stands out in my mind. (Other than the near-death flight experience of course.) It is absolutely enormous. It was built in 10 AD to send water from one end to the other with a canal on the top. There is no mortar, just stones one on top of another. We stood in front of it imagining that Christ was on the earth as a 10-year old boy when this was built. Breathtaking.

A beautiful restaurant behind the aqueduct.

Walking into the city.

Ok, I became obsessed with the windows in Europe. They were amazing!

Looking over the rooftops in Segovia.

Super cool wall.

One of many many cathedrals.

Pastries. Need I say more? No I don't need to but I will. There is nothing in the states that even compare to the flaky, lightly sweetened buttery heavenly goodness gift from up above like that of European pastries. If I dream hard enough I can slightly taste them again. I miss them and I don't regret one calorie consumed from those delicious things. I came back about 5 lbs heavier all as a result of said pastries. So worth it. I lost it and will quickly gain it and possibly more next time we go to Europe.

Yes, that's my hand. Probably trying to reach through the glass.

I love this guy. I have never seen anyone so happy to be holding a stop sign in my life. He was singing and talking to everyone that walked by. I decided I should be a little more cheerful to others like him and said hello to the next construction worker I saw in my best Spanish. Damon was laughing by the man's irritated response. Something in Spanish about me being an American idiot.

Every corner we turned would be another amazing steeple, line of windows, architectural marvel, etc etc.

...and yes they were small almost deadly corners.

Giant cathedral doors.

Some pictures of a cathedral we toured.

This castle is known as the Disneyland castle. This is where Walt Disney got the idea for the design for the castle at Disneyland. It is actually pretty small in comparison to others we saw, but still so beautiful.

A couple different views of Segovia from the castle.

There were 2 of these outside the castle doors, one on each side. That is a canal on the bottom, hundreds of feet below.

Damon found several buddies around the palace.

Royal thrones.

Now I understand why people are so disgusted by Americans.

This was a devise used to twist people's heads off. Seriously.

The dungeon. My kids are totally fascinated by these pics. However, now Trey prays at night we won't be put into dungeons.

Last view of the castle.

A delicacy. Yeah, not so delicate in my point of view. Yes, that's a real pig sitting by the window waiting for someone to eat him. Sick.

More cool windows.

Breathtaking # 3 million.

Watching the aqueduct disapear while we drove away on the bus.

Damon was so excited to have authentic paella from a nice Spanish restaurant.

...very nice and very expensive.

Damon has told me over and over again about Toledo. He visited it while he was on his mission and couldn't wait for me to see the amazing city. It was once the capitol of Spain and where the phrase "holy Toledo" came from. It's now ancient but still beautiful. The whole city is surrounded by water.

As you can tell, the walls around the city are incredible to see and also incredibly tall. Damon thought it would be fun to give me a heart attack and climb everything he could. Scared me to death.

Stupid American.

Love this picture of the rooftops.

Similar to Segovia, the narrow streets are lined with shops, apartments, churches, and restaurants. Oh yeah, and cool windows.

Saying goodbye to Chris and Gina in Toledo.

After us 2 couples went our own separate ways Damon and I went about searching for El Greco's home. We had just seen some of his paintings and I couldn't wait to see where he had lived. After alot of walking we found his front door closed to the public.

Each cathedral is so incredible. I wish I could remember the history of each one, but it's impossible considering how many there are.

I desperately wanted to bring back a baptism dress for Bailee from Europe. I found this very pricy dress just inside the city when we got to Toledo and Damon said we could buy it on the way out. When I got back to buy it, it was Siesta. What? Why don't they have that in America and WHY did they have it when I needed to get into that shop? I was heartbroken. The picture doesn't do the dress justice. Of course Bailee still ended up with an amazing dress, but for the time being I was pretty sad.

The clock at the old train station at Toledo. We bought a painting of this at a little shop in the city.

Right before getting back on the train Damon found the one and only Mountain Dew he was ever able to find on the entire trip.

The renfe. Aka, super fast train that we need in America.

The rest of our time in Spain we decided to spend wandering the streets of Madrid, which was absolutely amazing. We came across this gigantic government building. Wow!

More of Damon's strange buddies he found.

We got a little lost looking for the Prado. With all the larger than life buildings around us who wouldn't, right?

Here is the actual Prado. Luckily we found it before we missed our reservation. One of the most famous art museums in the world. For some reason I got really sick while we were inside and we cut our visit short. Honestly, of all the museums, I was the least impressed with the paintings in the Prado, so I wasn't too upset.

The world-famous botanical gardens outside the Prado. I took these pics through the gate. Had I not been feeling so sick I would've gone inside. From what I could see they looked beautiful even at the end of winter.

The courtyard of the Royal Palace in Madrid.

View from the palace.

After we toured the palace we decided to walk around Madrid and do some window shopping. Once again Damon found some other company. Other tourists by us found this hilarious.

Oh................my...........................heavenly.

Oh not so heavenly. There was meat hanging all over the place. As unbearable as that was, of course I had to snap a shot just once.

One thing I'll never forget about Spain...the hideous clothes! I have never seen such terrible clothes in my life! This dress for example. Damon wanted to buy it as a joke for my sister. The bottom of this dress has a closed seam...except for 2 little holes for your feet. What?

So crowded!

Famous bear statue at Puerta del Sol.

Outside a pizza cafe. This ended up being our favorite place we ate. We had this blue cheese thin crust pizza. I'm not a huge pizza fan here in the states. Spain has ugly clothes but they know a good pizza. We sat there and chatted and observed the bustle around us. The weather had finally warmed up a bit so it was nice to enjoy the sun and relax for a little while. We really really loved this spot.

Next to our favorite cafe Damon found the pastry he had been searching for the whole time in Spain. I forget that chocolate in Europe is so much better. Damon was right on with this being the best pastry in Spain. Very thin chocolate shell, super duper flaky delightfulness with a thin strip of custard in the center. Needless to say, Damon didn't even get to eat half that pastry.

Plaza Mayor. This plaza is huge with so much going on. People performing, painting, restaurants, shopping, etc. I couldn't believe how many people dressed up all over the streets to make money.

Our last meal in Madrid. Damon wanted Paella one more time in historic Plaza Mayor.

After dinner we dressed up nice and headed to a Flamenco show. It was so amazing! The music and dancing were so fast and like nothing I had never seen or heard. It was the perfect way to say goodbye to Madrid.

Our little hotel room. It wasn't bad considering what was ahead of us in Italy.

I'm so glad I could finally experience a taste of what Damon experienced for 2 years on his mission. I loved Spain and would be devestated if we couldn't visit it again. That is, if I ever dare get on a plane again. For sure though...it was definately worth the flight.