Year of Dreams: My Adventures Abroad: Alcala de Henares...Day Trip!

As I was stuck in Madrid this weekend, I decided to make the best of it and take a few day trips. The first one was to Alcala de Henares, a little city about an hour from Madrid with several sites to see. Unfortunately, I didn't leave the house til early afternoon (oops...slept in a bit), had an hour bus ride to get there, and could not find the office of tourism to sign up for a walking tour I'd hoped to take...finally found it over an hour later, but by then it was closed for siesta and by the time I went back there were no more tours :(

While I was waiting for it to open back up, I ate lunch at this place where the waiter was offering free tapas (and was very hospitable 0 offering a blanket to put around me or on my lap because of the cold), so I tried the paaella mixta (aka with both chicken and fish...figuring I'd push the fish aside and eat the rest). Well this may have been all in my head, but the whole thing tasted fishy to me so I ate very little and got dessert. Between dessert and my usual peach juice, I still spent about 7 euros on lunch...drat!

I decided to walk around a bit and saw the house of Miguel de Cervantes (who wrote Don Quixote). Then I went up to the university...another famous landmark and got a tour of that. But by the time we were finished with that tour, I was absolutely freezing and did not care to do anything else. I don't even remember the walk to the bus except that it was very cold and beginning to rain (and I was unprepared for both - my host mom keeps chiding me and telling me to wear more layers and that my jackets are not enough...and sometimes she is right).

Overall, I was not impressed by anything, not even the university and house of Cervantes. Oh well...not every trip will be fabulous.

Here are my photos...they are interesting, but not so cool as others I've put up in the past...

Plaza de Cervantes

Of course...a statue of Miguel de Cervantes...big surprise there.

thought this gazebo was really pretty

I think this is of the Cathedral...didn't see the inside unfortunately

I think this might be the ruins of a church that was burned during the Spanish Civil War (I read about those ruins online and there was no one to tell me if I was right or not)

University of Alcala...very old!

My art history teacher would be so proud of me for recognizing the Habsburg coat of arms with the bicefala (two-headed dragon-like creature) and the toison de oro! (the necklace worn by only really important people like the king...you can see the charm at the bottom.)

University logo

City of Knowing

Cervantes prize winners in Literature...I recognized some of the famous people whose works I read in my Hispanic Lit class last school year.

patio/cloister/quad/whatchamacallit

This was where dissertations were given...every day for a month, 4 hour sessions...all for one person to receive their diploma! Oy! And there was someone (like a prof. assigned to rebut any arguments the student made).