chirpies

I promised myself I’d get a video of this before leaving Madrid, since I’m not sure it occurs in any other Spanish city, so in our last few hours of wandering the city today before catching the AVE (trén de Alta VElocidad – high speed or “bullet” train) to Sevilla, we were crossing the street and I caught this:

chirpies from Catherine Steiner on Vimeo.

[Wow videos take forever to upload...won't be doing too many more of those]. I love that this sounds so much more pleasing to the ear than a constant beeping. It’s just twittering birds, and, at times, it caught me a little off-guard because I thought there really were birds nearby.

Anyhow, here are a couple more photos from the morning, before my camera ran out:

The glass atrium in the middle of the Parque de Retiro - this is so beautiful! It had a marble floor art installation inside...I want to know what happened in this place a century ago

Inside the "glass house" - beautiful, no?

Lauren: There's a bug in this one!

distractions

The Museo del Prado didn't happen today, but a visit to the Catedral de la Almudena did. Wow do I love cathedral aesthetics. Vaulted ceilings, painted with bright colors, sunlight coming in at just the right places. It's hard to walk into this place and not feel like you just want to sit and soak in how beautifully it was made.

This one is my favorite - the ceiling at the front above the raised platform area.




The aisle that, as Lauren was saying, it would take forever for a bride to walk down...



About 20+ of these panels (picture = 1 panel) covered the ceiling over the pews and aisle, each painted distinctly. Wow.








"Love your enemies. I'm coming soon."

madrid via amsterdam

This is a little view from our 2nd floor hostel on Barbieri Street in the Chueca area of Madrid (a tiny bit northeast of the city center, as far as I can tell). Isn't it gorgeous? I have to imagine the lines of laundry that could be hung between buildings over the street,

We flew in yesterday at around noon via a 55 minute layover in Amsterdam. After waiting about 1/2 hour for Lauren's luggage (it didn't come), and asking all the police and security guards we could about where to get a stamp to establish date of entry into Spain (which we thought we needed for our residency cards - it turns out we don't), we got on the metro to our hostel, checked in and slept for 2 hours straight. KLM was kind enough to deliver the luggage later, and it actually worked out well as I had brought 2 bags which would have been quite a pain to carry around the metro...Lauren was pretty sweet in hauling the one around. Thanks Lauren! If we could only figure out a way to "lose" one of our bags to have it delivered later (for free and with a KLM discount!) when we train it to Sevilla...

After waking up around 5:30 local time, we decided to walk around the city a bit before it got dark, and without aid of a map found an amazing city park (el Parque de Retiro - think of Central Park only much more groomed and without tall buildings in the background, and a bit smaller), the Museo del Prado which we'll visit today, and lots of beautiful buildings. So excited to explore!

Here's just a couple shots more...








A view in the Parque del Retiro gardens, near the edge where you can see buildings. But they are beautiful buildings.









Lauren in front of a "bubbly tree" in the gardens. So much amazing trimming!

leaving on a jet plane...but totally coming back again

I was reminded by my sister recently that we were raised by parents who listened to John Denver, the Carpenters, the Beatles/Monkees set (I know, I know, they're two totally different groups...psh). That's pretty much what most of our pop-music education consisted of. Honestly, though, I wouldn't trade that. Ever.

That has nothing to do with this post. Except the title.

I'll be on a jet to Madrid via Amsterdam (woo hoo, 55 whole minutes of layover) in less than 6 days, nwa.com confirms. Then after 4 days on to Seville, and then on to the city of Cádiz, in the province of Cádiz, Andalucía (region), Spain for 8 months to teach English at a nearby elementary school in the city of San Fernando. Cádiz is a much sweeter place to live, though, so undergrad-friend Lauren and I will be hanging there. I get a morning commute in a place with amazing public transportation - geeked!

In an effort to keep up communication with you all, this blog will be my primary point of telling you about why you should come visit what life is like here. Comments are encouraged (and encouraging!) If you're not so much into the blogging world, though, know that when you do leave comments, everyone can see them.

In the meantime, here's the flight schedule so you can watch our plane crash flight pattern (hi mom!). Enjoy!

Northwest Airlines, Flight 36
Departs: 7:05 PM, Detroit-Wayne County Int'l, MI (DTW) Tuesday, September 23
Arrives: 9:05 AM, Amsterdam-Schiphol, Netherlands (AMS) Wednesday, September 24

Duration: 8 hours
Approximate Distance: 3920 Miles
Cabin: Economy Class
Seats: 25-E
------------------------------------------------------------
KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, Flight 1701
Departs: 10:00 AM, Amsterdam-Schiphol, Netherlands (AMS) Wednesday, September 24
Arrives: 12:30 PM, Madrid, Spain (MAD) Wednesday, September 24

Duration: 2 hours and 30 minutes
Approximate Distance: 909 Miles
Cabin: Economy Class
Seats: TBD