The Comings and Goings of The 2nd Brother: Cuenca

My gosh the time is flying here! Just over three weeks left of my program and I am going to be sad to leave! Last week was amazing! Only three days of classes and then two day trips! First, on Tuesday a group of us and Jon, one of our native friends here, went to the temple to walk around. We initially wanted to go in and do temple work, but we called too late and could not get an appointment for that day. So we still went, cause we wanted to see it, and it is a beautiful little temple! It reminds me a lot of the temple in Fresno where I served my mission. Jon is a recent convert of a year, and he has gone out with the missionaries many times and sometimes they have taken people interested in learning about the Church to the temple and done tours around the exterior. Jon took us on one of these and it reminded me so much of the tours that we would do on my mission. Asking questions, reflecting, and teaching true gospel principles, it is amazing how much symbolism there is even in the exterior of our temples. It was a little eye opening for me and I will pay much more attention to not only the interior of the temple but also the exterior in the future. Jon has his mission call right now to go to Romania, and when he took us on that tour I truly felt that he already was on his mission! He did an excellent job! The temple site is really cool because it is elevated and you can see a portion of the city, the Missionary Training Center is there and a chapel. Very cool.

Madrid Temple

After visiting the temple we walked around Madrid for a bit and got some Italian pizza. I honestly did not enjoy that pizza, but it is good to try other types of foods. In Madrid there is a huge park called Parque de Retiro. I am going to venture to say that it is nearly as big as Central Park in New York City. Paths everywhere, fountains, playgrounds, waterfalls, a few ponds, a lake with row boats, and a big amphitheater; it is pretty easy to get lost! There are some festivals going on in Madrid right now and they had a fireworks show that we went to last night. I have seen quite a few fireworks shows in my life and I love them. Saguaro Park in Arizona, multiple parks in Naperville, Navy Pier in Chicago, Niagara Falls in Canada, and all of those shows were less in comparison to this show! Twenty minutes straight, spinner ones, loud ones, sparkling ones, multicolored ones, huge ones, little ones, screamer ones, and the best part was that they launched them onto the lake in El Parque de Retiro and they exploded on top of the lake water and some were very close to us! It was incredible!

Puerta de Alcalá

Italian Pizza, Katie W, Katie F, Jon, Julia

I know these are foggy and they don´t really represent anything nearly as great as what we saw!

On Wednesday, we played fútbol with the natives here at the church building. It was so fun! Just a small little basketball court/soccer field.

Eric, Michael, Alisha, Me, Josh

Then on Thursday we headed out on our excursion to Cuenca! On our way we stopped at El Monasterio de Santiago de Uclés. Situated basically on a cliff, it was the meeting place of the templar knights, which were knights whose purpose was to protect those performing pilgrimages on El Camino de Santiago, which is a famous hike across Spain stopping at various cathedrals to worship. Now, the monastery is a seminary for high school aged boys. While there we were introduced to a donut type snack called Roquillas. They a very dry donut type thing and it was really funny because our tour guide told us that they come with frosting or without. In Spanish he called it "pan listo" and "pan tonto" which literally translates to "smart bread" and "stupid bread." I just got a huge kick out of that!

Monasterio de Ulcés

Afterwards we arrived at Cuenca. It is literally a city set on a hill and cannot be hid. It is nicknamed the impenetrable city. There is one way in and you have to climb the mountain to get there. The city is surrounded on all sides be sheer cliffs. Because of this there is a very cool construction of the homes they call "casas colgadas" or "hanging homes." They just sit there on the edge of the cliff just hanging, it is really kind of crazy. While there we walked out on a pedestrian bridge several hundred feet in the air, we went to an abstract art museum, and two girls and I took an amazing walk through the city and along the cliffs and such! It was fantastic! Spain has such beautiful country! We also went into the basilica, which interestingly enough was of English design. Over all a very peaceful and beautiful place. By far one of my favorite excursions, just because I loved the views and just how awesome the city is built on the cliffs!