The trip started in Madrid, where I took my first train to meet Missy and Betsy in Madrid at the Palace hotel. The train was smooth and worry-free, and it felt like a preview for the month that Grace and I will be hopping around Europe on mostly overnight trains. When I arrived in Madrid, I was whisked away to meet a lot of the people that work with Betsy at Edward Jones, and also enjoyed a lovely buffet dinner. It felt funny eating at 6pm, because where I am living, a 9pm dinner seems super early! After dinner I enjoyed wine and the company of the ladies in our hotel room. We were super close during the trip, mainly because of the sleeping situations! In Spain I have noticed that if you are staying in a room with 2 beds, they are going to be twin-sized. I don't know why I thought the hotel in Madrid would be any different!
This is the bed that I shared with my mom for three nights!
This was the first night and the girls were a little tired!
But face down on the pillow, Missy didn't snore!
But let's just say I didn't sleep much for 2 reasons:
1. It was like a sauna in the room, mixed with body head I was so hot!
2. The surround sound snoring that went on in the room. Don't be fooled, Betsy snores too!
Despite the bed situation, the hotel was lovely!
We stated at the Palace, right across from the museum el Prado and the Parque Retiro.
It was a great area, close to all the fun things in Madrid.
On the first morning, my mom and I woke up and went to the park near the hotel while Betsy was in her meeting. The Parque Retiro in Madrid is huge, green and beautiful! It was nice to just walk around and enjoy the sunshine. When Betsy finished her meeting, we went out for our first Tapas meal. Not our best ordering, but we never went wrong with jamón! After our meal, I knew my mom would struggle a little with the Spanish food. She had trouble dealing with the heads and tentacles that they leave on the shrimp!
For the rest of the afternoon, we explored Madrid with a partial bus tour and some shopping. My mom is obsessed with the royal family in England, so of course we took a visit to the Palacio Royal in Madrid. After leaving the Palace, we stumbled upon a little market in the city center and ended up spending the rest of our night there! It was a food adventure that turned into our dinner. We hung out by the wine bar, and when the time came, someone would take their turn walking around and coming back with a little tapa to share! It was such a fun accidental meal, because we tried a variety of things like cheese, croquetas, jamón products and paella. There were also a bunch of Edward Jones families hanging out from Texas, so it was fun to get to know people from all over the country. The night ended in the hotel room with bottles of wine and chatting about all the family gossip that I have missed out on! I loved sightseeing, but just relaxing in the hotel with my mom and Betsy was probably my favorite part of the trip.
Here we are Day 1 at the Plaza de Toros
The Plaza in Madrid is the largest in Spain.
Here I am with Betsy by the Cervantes monument.
Cervantes is the most important writer in Spanish Literature and since that
is my major, I really appreciated the monument and seeing the statues
of Don Quijote and Sancho Panza too.
Me with my mom at the Royal Palace
Next, we had the whole day Saturday to explore Madrid. It is the capital of Spain, so there are a lot of important art works from Spanish history in museums that were right by the hotel. I had a few paintings that I was dying to see after learning about them in class. We went to the modern art museum and the Prado. I saw works by Picasso including the famous "Guernica."
This is Guernica by Pablo Picasso
At the Museo de Reina Sofía, they have a room filled of the sketches that
Picasso drew to prepare for his famous work.
It represents the Civil War in Spain. While Franco was in power, Picasso didn't
allow the painting in Spain, so it went all over the world, including New York.
This was also in the museum with Picasso's works
It is Betsy's favorite by Salvador Dalí called "The Great Masturbator"
Needless to say, we got a chuckle out of this one.
Modern art museums always provide some interesting sights to see!
After the museums, we had lunch in the Parque del Retiro, sitting in the shade by the lake with all the cute little boats. One thing that I noticed in Madrid is the bird poop! I don't know what they feed their birds, but all the poop is bright/lime green! My mom figured that out first hand during lunch as a bird pooped from the tree we were sitting under. She claims that some got in her mouth, but we quickly switched chairs and were sure to watch out for birds from then on!
Here is the view from our table at lunch!
Here we are at the Parque del Retiro
We spent the rest of the afternoon walking around the center of Madrid. Betsy needed a phone charger, so we were on a mission! After finding one, we ended up in Plaza Mayor, where it is typical to drink a beer at one of the outdoor tables and so we did! We also met some friends from Scotland who were in the middle of their Bachelor party vacation. The future groom was wearing a bull fighters outfit.
Missy at Plaza Mayor
We finished our day in Madrid at a restaurant where we had probably our best meal of the entire trip. The waiter was such a cute Spanish man who brought us complementary little shots at the end. Unfortunately we didn't take any pictures, but we had great fish, asparagus, artichoke, and shrimp in garlic sauce that had been beheaded and peeled! With daylight savings taking an hour from us, and an early train ride in the morning, I went to bed soon after dinner.
On the way back from Madrid, I had to sit first class because the Jones group took up a bunch of the coach tickets! I was even served breakfast in my car! After this weekend, I am a fan of trains!
I was ready to get back to Sevilla because I wasn't feeling that great and running on only a few hours of sleep. I was also more excited for that part of the trip, because I wanted Betsy and my mom to see my city! And it didn't disappoint, especially the hotel. The Jones group put us up in the fanciest hotel in Sevilla. Madonna even stayed there during her visit. It is called Hotel Alfonso XIII and it was built to be a palace for the king.
Here is our hotel! If you look closely on the right you can see Betsy in our window
For our first day, we walked around for a bit, had tapas for lunch, and took a trip to my favorite the Plaza de España and Parque de María Luisa for our afternoon.
My mom and me at the Plaza
Every time I go it always looks so fake to me!
We rented a little row boat and went around the canals.
Of course I did all the rowing!
The sisters enjoying their boat ride
I don't think they were fully prepared for all the walking we were
going to do. And after millions of bathroom breaks and sore feet,
they were happy to sit and enjoy the Plaza!
Here is one of the best things we ate all week: Goat cheese and jam
Betsy is great at ordering off a menu!
For dinner, we had a nice meal in the old Barrio de Santa Cruz. The food was yummy, but we had an encounter with the first rude Spanish person I have met.
On Monday morning, I sent the sisters off the the cathedral while I went to class. When we met up in the afternoon, they of course had enjoyed the cathedral and were ready for more Tapas! Next, our plans included visiting the Alcazar, going to my favorite ice cream place, hanging out by the river and walking through my neighborhood called Triana.
The gardens of the Alcazar are in full bloom and so beautiful.
Betsy kept saying that she has never been to a city that smelled as good as Sevilla!
I made them pose for a picture too!
Our final dinner together was with Jones people, and their wholesaler took us out to eat! We enjoyed tapas and wine outside in a plaza in the Barrio de Santa Cruz. I got to talk with some incredibly interesting people, like a man who used to lead the ski team for the army! After we went to a bar to enjoy a drink with amazing views of the cathedral.
Here is what the setting was like at the bar
The weather was lovely and the cathedral was lit up!
When I got to the hotel on Tuesday morning, Betsy was barely getting up and barely able to walk! Poor thing got a blister after all the walking around Spain. Luckily it was our last day, and she was a trooper! I took them to get muffins at the convent, my school building, the Church of Salvador and the Cetas as a way to finish up our tour of Sevilla.
Here they are in the Iglesia de Salvador
Semana Santa is next week, and they were in full swing
getting ready for the processions! It was cool to see some of the images
that will be walked through the city next week
Last meal together :(
Of course it was Missy's favorite, italian food! Mixed with the
best sangría in Sevilla, we had a great meal!
It really was a blessing to get to share my spanish experience with my mom and Betsy! I learned a lot about the grown up world by meeting Betsy's coworkers and getting a feel of what they do. I also got a better understanding of what Betsy really does. It takes some serious talent to earn the trips that she gets to take, and she is so confident and proud of what she does. It was inspiring to talk to Betsy about how she ended up where she is today, technically running her own business and working for a great company.
When I got back to my apartment after saying goodbye, I got straight into my pajamas and went to bed! This was at 8 o'clock at night! Unfortunately I got sick during our whirlwind of a week, and had to take my first visit to the farmacía. But after a long night of sleep, and the siesta that I am about to take, I am hoping that I will start to kick this sickness in the butt. I have a lot more spanish traveling ahead of me over the next week!
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