Salamanca is truly the city that never sleeps....

After only two days of classes, I have already figured out that I won't be sleeping much while I'm here. I have between 7 and 9 hours of classes per day plus homework and everything else. By the end of class today (Monday), I was just overwhelmed with all that we do every day. Plus, with weekend excursions, it's as if I'm in school six days a week. Hopefully, things will seem better by the end of the week.

After our first two days of classes, it was finally Saturday. A few of us tried to find the store that rents bikes, but they no longer do that. It was okay because it was a hot day though. Really, really hot. Luiza and I walked down by the river and across some of the bridges later in the afternoon. We saw a place that rents little pedal boats and kayaks. We'll try to do that on a weekend without a long excursion.

After catching up on rest (or at least trying to) on Saturday- no 4th of July celebrations here, our Seattle University group woke up early Sunday morning for a day trip to Madrid. After a 2.5 hour bus drive to Madrid, we were driven around the city looking at important buildings and monuments. We then walked past the Prado to the Plaza Mayor (not as good as the one in Salamanca and still less impressive the second time around- sorry Madrid) and then to a cathedral and the Palacio Real (I'm in front of it in the picture above). Mass was going on in the cathedral so we only got a quick peek inside. Some of the girls left the tour group to go on a tour of the palace- I am told it was beautiful, ornate, and impressive. Nicole, Luiza, and I wanted to go back to the Prado since the Reina Sofia was closed - that's where Picasso's "Guernica" is. We stopped at a cafe, ate a bit of lunch, and saved up some energy for El Prado because Madrid was really hot. El Prado was amazing- a lot of art looked similar just because the holy family was a very popular theme in the 1500s and 1600s. We made it through all the rooms except 3 in the basement which were small and for the decorative arts (which we assumed would not be classic masterpieces by famous artists). I think that makes a total of 99 rooms seen in the course of approximately three and a half hours. Besides El Greco and Rubens, Jose de Ribera was the artist that impressed me the most. His work "La Trinidad" is below:

At the end of the day, we drove back to Salamanca and got ready for another day of school. The countryside was pretty though. Next weekend will be a trip to Pamplona (spelling?) to see the running of the bulls (not participate though!).