Aranjuez

          On our trip to Aranjuez we stopped at a little place called Chinchón.  Another tiny town, but this time surrounded by olive trees.  Interesting facts: olive trees thrive in desert like environments, and in Spain instead of saying “olivas” they say “aceitunas.” I love the brick and stone in Spain! Chinchón represented Spain well cause there was stone and brick everywhere!  We had only about an hour so we stuck to walking around town.  There was a ruined castle with a great view.  We went to a park very briefly.  Just a short and sweet stop.

Those Are Olive Trees

          The main feature of Aranjuez is El Palacio Real.  One of the royal palaces for La Familia Real Española, or the Royal Family of Spain, which is also to say the current king and his family.  We weren´t allowed to take pictures inside but one room was decorated on all surfaces by porcelain carvings all connected and intertwined like puzzle pieces! Another was designed with outjuttings, and intricate moldings and shapes all made of plaster and then all of which were hand painted. You have to understand that each piece was really no bigger than a silver dollar.  Extremely talented craftsmen. There is just so much wealth in the palace.

Thanks to google images!

Porcelain Decorations

          The gardens outside were also amazing.  They just seem to go on forever!  So many ancient trees, and fountains, flowers, pathways, streams and the works!  I recorded how it sounded because I felt so good there!  listening to the breeze, the birds, and the fountains; for me it was just bliss.   I tried to upload the sound file but blogger only recognizes movie and picture files.

Gorgeous Flowers!  I hope you appreciate this Mom!

          Afterwards we ate strawberries and enjoyed the sunshine before we headed back to Alcalá!  I am so glad we have such a fun group to hang out with all of the time!

Julia, Me, Katie F, Michael

Saturday morning Katie W, Andrea, and I went for a hike in the nature park near my host home in Alcalá.  It is so wonderful.  It reminds me a lot of Arizona.  It is a dry climate, clay soil, pine like trees with grasses and dry climate shrubs; very hilly and so fun to just walk around in there.  We think we are going to try to catch the sunset/sunrise one of these days so I will keep you posted (literally haha J). 

Sorry I cut my self out!

After the hike our entire group went to the temple to do baptisms with the Alcalá Ward (congregation).  Beautiful experience!  And I had the opportunity to perform the last 40 or so baptisms!  It was hard to pronounce English names after speaking Spanish so much!  Kind of interesting twist on my tongue! Later Michael, Dottie, Andrea, Katie and I went and got Tapas again and that was really fun.

Michael (very photgenic), Dottie, Andrea

Katie W, Me

This next week we will be visiting another royal palace called Escorial as well as El Valle de Los Caidos! Get excited!