Madrid: Arrival, Days 1 & 2

We arrived yesterday, or what feels like at least 3 days ago, at Madrid Barajas International Airport at 9:30am local time. Eleven of us in total-- nine students, Professor Skotnicki and his wife, Vivian arrived tired, but excited to see what Spain had to offer us.  After proceeding through the airport we met with our local trip advisor, Rocio, who greeted us all with smiles in her Manhattan College t-shirt. We hopped onto a bus and were dropped off to our residence for the next 5 weeks, an apartment located on Calle Gran Vía across from the musical "El Rey León" (The Lion King). Our apartment is located in what feels like the Times Square of Madrid. Bright lights, large crowds, tourists, public transportation, and many shopping attractions make this area almost feel like home. After finally settling into our apartments, we all took a much needed nap, or what the Spaniards call a siesta. At 6pm, we went to Rocio's apartment for some tapas and to go over the course description and syllabus.

Monday morning we all woke up still feeling quite jet lagged and met with Professor Skotnicki at 10am for our first class. We met with him in La Plaza de España, just a two minute walk from our apartment, and discussed the history of the Jewish people in Spain. After an hour of discussion, we walked over to El Palacio Real which could not compare to any other building I had ever seen at home.

El Palacio Real

 After taking many pictures in front of the palace, we proceeded to walk to the Central Sefarad Israel, the state-owned public cultural center of Jewish heritage in Madrid. Here we were given a brief lecture on the bridging cultures between the Jewish and Spaniard people. After this, we had a late lunch in the town of Lava Pies and spent some time in the area shopping. After about 10 miles of walking, we headed back to our apartment.


Tuesday morning we made the trip to El Escorial, about an hour drive to the Northwest of Madrid. Constructed by King Phillip II to honor Saint Lawrence, the palace was unlike anything I had ever seen. The outside alone was absolutely breathtaking and the interior was even more captivating. We took a tour of the palace exploring three different areas open to the public-- the bedrooms, and two pantheons. We observed the exquisite detail of the palace which we learned took over 20 years to build.  Between the paintings, doors, windows, and architecture, it was all so much to take in.

El Escorial

The pantheon of the kings and queens was my favorite part of the tour. It felt remarkable to be in the same room with the corpses of Spanish royalty dating back hundreds of years. After walking through only 10% of the palace (the other 90% is closed to the public) for about an hour and a half we proceeded to go outside and explore the garden and courtyard area. After a long day in the sun, we took the bus ride back to Madrid. It was one thing to read about the history of El Escorial, but it was even more amazing to actually experience it in person.

El Escorial