This week we went to the Valle de los Caidos, or the Valley of the Fallen.
It was a really cool monument built in memory of the Spanish Civil war.
Right when we got there we took one of the infamous Team A jumping pictures.
The story behind it is that it was announced by Franco on April 1, 1940 on the one year anniversary of his victory in the Spanish Civil as a monument commemorating those fallen to create his unified Spain. After 20 years of construction it currently stands as a testament to all of the interesting history of the Spanish people during the time of Franco. It is supposed to be a monument to all those fallen in Spain during the civil war.
However, almost all who were buried there were nationalists and so there is a lot of controversy. Year after year on the twentieth of November those who remain faithful to Franco and his ideals congregate at the Basilica to commemorate the anniversary of Franco’s death. I wish we had been there that day. It would have been very interesting. Franco was a pretty bad guy and did some pretty bad stuff. He was, however, one of the only rulers in Spanish history to actually get something done. For the previous 400 years or so Spain had been in a basic slump. The national debt was beyond belief and the people were living in a haze. They wanted the comfort of wealth but only worked just enough to survive. So Franco built this monument in the “Fascist” style of architecture.
Fascist Architecture is a pretty cool idea that carries the principals of a fascist government. It’s basically massive and set up so we all feel insignificant.
As you walk into the basilica you just feel small, you feel like you really don’t amount to nothing compared to the “institution”. That is the idea. When we walked in it was right during the morning mass and the choir was singing. It was really awesome to walk in right during the echo of the Catholic Latin-style singing. It was pretty darn awesome because it was all in a cave so there was no light coming in and when they turned off the lights, the whole thing was illuminated by candle light. All we could hear was the priest’s voice saying his prayers. It was a really interesting experience. We weren’t allowed to take pictures so I had to be sneaky. On the inside there are only two graves: Franco and José Antonio Primo de Rivera. I illegally took a picture of Franco’s.
From the outside I was able to get a few shots showing the grandeur of the Monument. The Cross is over 150 meters tall.
Here was my tribute to Franco and the Fascists.
The whole place was huge.
I really liked it and it was my site so I knew quite a bit about it so that made it so much cooler.
From there we went to El Escorial. On the way there we talked about how we were like the Wizard of OZ and I got volunteered as Toto.
Cassi was Dorothy, Erika was scarecrow, Missy was the tin man, and Suzanna was the cowardly lion. The Valley was kind of built with the Escorial in mind in that El Escorial was built to show the grandeur of the Spanish Empire at the time. Phillip II built it as a summer home and he was basically a huge nerd so there are a lot of interesting things. We wandered around a lot to just take in the beauty.
One of the coolest spots was the entrance to the Cathedral. We were standing in the Plaza of the Kings. It is called that because there are the Kings of Israel standing there.
It was pretty cool, huh? One of the most impressive spots was the sepalucur down below the palace. Here is the tomb of Phillip’s son...maybe.
The whole palace was all really detailed. Laura, you asked me about my favorite place to see art and this is the type of stuff I was talking about.
That was the ceiling of some random staircase. The picture doesn’t do it justice. It was amazing. The Palace is huge and has one of the largest personal libraries in the world with over 40,000 books and to show that they weren’t for show, many are personally annotated by him. Many called him the King of Paper. He was one of the OCD/Anal kings in Spanish History. He wanted everything under his personal control. He was personally involved in almost every aspect of his empire. In the center of the Escorial there was a pretty impressive church that he had set up with a window so that he could watch mass from his bed. Talk about lazy. There was a really famous sculpture of Christ on the Cross.
It’s made completely of Marble. Out back behind the Escorial there was a really cool garden.
It was a really cool day and exemplifies the amazing feats that the Spanish can do when they have the desire, control, and discipline. I was very impressed. From there we went to a cool castle that is one of the best preserved in the world.
Here it is, flying the Spanish flag.
Andrew and I are pretty awesome.
We began to storm the Castle.
Here is Andrew, Kyte, and I.
This was a very cool day.
And here is the final product.
Pretty creepy, eh? Ok, I wasn’t quite satisfied so we gave it some touch ups. 
We played a bit of Smash Brothers and then got to school when most people had already left but the few who were left really liked it. Once again we decided I looked like a Beatle. My teacher decided it was a good example of Estar vs. Ser. We met Shingo out in the hall after class and got a few good pics as we left the school. (1378 1379 1381) 
I especially loved Andrew’s hat. So, there it is. My hair rocks when its straight, huh?
At first we thought that it had to do with knocking poles over but it turned out that what they wanted to do was spin a disc between the poles. That made it very funny because we kept cheering when they’d know a bunch over, thinking it was good, and everyone would look at us like retards. It would be like someone cheering every time someone hit the white lines on a back board but didn’t make a basket in. See, retards. We found a couple of cool places…
…and ended up somewhere near the Royal Palace for a picture.
We walked towards Sol and saw some nifty street performers. 
It was a really fun day…I always end like that. Talk about monotony. That is the opposite of what each of my days are. Just think of something new and original to describe how the day ended up.
Anywho, while there we saw a neat river with a path of stones that crossed. Spencer and I, due to the “The Return of the King” on my iPod (and I mean the specific song, not the movie) decided to get into an intense sword fight.
You see, the very last morning of the Andalucia trip a couple of people informed us that they had made plans to go to Africa in a few weeks to Tangier. Because it was slightly illegal we had to not speak openly about it and called ourselves Team A. 10 of us in total: (Left to Right) Amy, I, Andrew, Liz, Callie, Sarah, Garrett, Lauren, Alex and Kendal. So there we are. We went off to another scenic spot and all the guys took a cool picture. Even Trevor and Spencer joined in. 
After a few more scenic spots we finally entered the city and headed to the castle. We passed the Cathedral on the way. The Cathedral was the last Gothic Cathedral built in the world. It is called the Dame of the Cathedrals because it is a lighter color. 
I saw someone who was depressed so I decided to join him for comfort. 
One more Team A but no one was looking at mine.
We went into the castle. Some have called it the princess castle because it is the castle that Disney got inspiration for Cinderella’s castle. But many people have said that. The castle was pretty cool on the inside and there were supposedly many secret passages however, there was very little of the castle open for us so it wasn’t too cool. I just wish I were a knight. 
Here was a cool cannon.
I just wanted to feel the power between my legs. . There was a lot of cool armor and weaponry. There was a lot of stuff in it about all the arms manufacturing of Spain at the time the castle was being used. We sat and played hacky sack in the courtyard for a bit. From there we went to the Cathedral.
The inside was pretty cool and they had a neat courtyard and off to one side was a nifty museum type place that had some old tapestries and paintings. Aside from that it was pretty much just another cathedral. Not too great. Its prettier from the outside. 
After the Cathedral we wandered the city a bit and I bought the most delicious pastry of my life. 
It had strawberries and whipped topping and a delicious custard crème. It was really good and I ate it as we walked towards the famous aqueducts. I was once again reminded of the horror of the siesta. We were there in the middle of a tourist city at the most tourist spot in the area and everything was closed.
There were some pretty good views. 
Now, after the Sevilla fiasco I had my doubts about these aqueducts but they did not disappoint. Here was the first view. 
They were massive and perfectly preserved. Someone told me they were over a mile long in total. It was really very impressive. 
We took a lot of pictures and then just wandered the city. Amy, Andrew, Kyte, and I broke off and saw a little more of the city. 
There was some random guy who was roasting some pigs. 
mmmmmm… Our last view of the city was pretty cool. 
In the end I really liked it. From there we went to Pedraza. 
There was this really creepy guy following us and we tried getting a picture and Andrew nearly ruined it. 
But we got one later on. 
So we entered Pedraza. 
This was one of the best preserved medieval cities which, until the 70’s, still closed the city gate at sunset. But, when we were there on Friday night, it was dead. I think when our bus pulled in we doubled the city’s population. There was a really good dinner there but I didn’t get it. After we got bored of the city we went outside the walls and climbed a local hill and went stargazing. It was a lot of fun. While up there, we went stargazing while telling funny stories on each other’s tummies. 
Here was the city at night. 
I wasn’t too impressed with the day when we left but in hind sight I really liked it.
We made it back just in time for class at 5:30 and Shingo was there. The day before Shingo had moved in and would be our new roommate. I was excited because he was a very funny kid. After institute we all gatherer around and he Did a breakdance move for us for FHE.