June 18 and 19—Hand-Woven Tapestries and Segovia’s Aqueduct

Dear Family and Friends,

Final Monday in Madrid, June 18, Dani was up at 6 AM, getting the day started for us to head to Segovia. In the process of this preparation of breakfast and dishes, she picked up the Lonely Planet, just to check on some timing of when things were open, to find the four of the six major hot spots were closed on Monday. By then, Martha was also up (an hour later than Dani, of course), and we decided to push Segovia back one day and attack a couple more views of Madrid, including poolside!

Out the door by 10 AM, we went to the older building of the Atocha train station, which was rumored to have a gorgeous tropical garden. We found it (photo above, left), complete with turtles that made Martha miss her little friend, Timi the Turtle, who is currently living the fatter life at her former office. We climbed up the stairs and around the building for different views of the greenery, which includes more than 500 different plant types.

From Atocha, we wandered up the hill to find the Real Fabrica del Tapices, where Goya worked to paint 63 different topics for the fabric workers to create into large tapestries. We were immensely impressed upon by the work done in this building. Three euro each offered us a guided tour (in Spanish) of some of the workrooms, and a look at the 16th century tapestries on display in the main hallway. We began there, seeing ceiling to floor-length works of art, ‘painted’ by hand with layer upon layer of thread on such a well-connected and strong structure that it has been able to hang for centuries. Then, we walked into a room where people on one-side were restoring the vitality of some of these ancient relics, piece by piece taking out the old supportive string and replacing it with new ones, or adding in small bits of yarn where areas were particularly damaged.

On the other side of the room, four people shared a platform before a wall of thread lines, white breaks in the yellow plaster, stretching from floor to ceiling. They had patterns and were creating, again by hand—each bit of cloth introduced and cut by hand— the amazing rugs found at some of the great hotels and ordered by the royal family. An entire series; one grand rug and five runners in the same rose and gold pattern were in the works in the two rooms on display. Each square meter takes one week and costs 1,000 euro ($1,300) per square meter, and a family with a new house had requested these many hand-made carpets. We can't imagine walking on such a work of art afer seeing what it takes to create each inch!

In one corner at the end of the room, a towering stack of yarn showed off the contributions of their dying department, which Martha could imagine had equipment for color balance similar to that used in her print publishing industry. Another department of the complex housed the drawing team that came up with different designs. Truly, we had found Madrid’s artist haven.

Especially considering the work being done in the next room! Three be-speckled men, one with iPod buds dangling from his ears, each worked on their own masterpieces of tapestry, which is a really impressively amazing way to create images. The artist has, perhaps, fifty different bobbins of different colored thread dangling behind the work, which he weaves through in specific points to create the art of a finished piece. One worked on an 18th century couple, holding hands; another worked on an abstract cubism design. iPod Guy, however, was truly a star. He had the largest canvas, and already the woman and monkey that he had created were more beautiful than the original drawing; he was working from behind the tapestry with a mirror, and from left to right. He was working on some olives when we had chance to watch him. And he still had the majority of the canvas to create. It takes about four months to create one square meter and costs 12,000 euros ($16,000) per sq meter. Dani loves to do cross-stitch fabric work when she has a few spare minutes (though hasn't finished a few works of major importance), so was especially impressed by people spending their 8 hours of work-day on this beautiful art!

Up the hill some more we came to Retiro once again, to drop by an see the Crystal Palace, which happened to be closed on Monday, but was still neat from the outside, flanked by trees growing out of the water, an Old-Faithful–like fountain, and a cave. We walked all the way around it, taking photos and watching the people. It’s so beautiful how the couples are always holding hands and being affectionate to each other here. We love Madrid!

OK, enough site-seeing for the day. We had six things on our list, it was around 3 PM, and the sun was getting older in the day’s sky. So we caught the Metro up North to Vallehermoso to the pool once again! Snoozing, swimming around to get the soreness from all of this movement out of our bodies, and more time to read. This could become a habit.

By 8 PM, we were a little "pink like a shrimp" and not quite ready to leave, but had to since the pool was closing. Down we started towards home, stopping first for dinner at a place called Sagaretxe. Sagaretxe was wonderful! We ordered a variety platter of 12 tapas for 16 euro and two glasses of sidra, Spain’s cider, which is tart and lovely. The tapas ranged in flavors nicely, and each was delightful (except Martha bypassed the mushroom-based one): salmon and caviar; shrimp over a seafood salad; pate over a raspberry sauce with a blueberry dressing; little white-fish strings with a small piece of pimiento; cheese-stuffed pimiento; white fluffy cheese with ham on top; jam with raw white fish and caviar on top; and more! Martha and Dani decided that throwing a tapas party sometime would be a really fun event!!

One more task for the day! We dropped by the building for the local writers’ and editor’s society, a building that is open to the public only one day in the year, but that is touted as the closest thing to Gaudi architecture in Madrid. So, we dropped by to take pictures as the perfect crescent moon peaked over the edge of the white structure, shadowed in the night lights. Martha wondered if she’d be allowed in if she told them that she was an editor/writer from the states? Might have to try that one day; or, move to Madrid and be an editor/writer here who joins the society!!

Last Tuesday in Madrid, June 19, Dani awoke to some stellar email news!! Her buddy, Markus, just HAPPENS to be headed to Dusseldorf for his mother’s birthday celebration the same weekend we are headed that way. Would we like to be picked up? Driven North? Get to spend several days with me?? HECK YEAH, WE WOULD! So we started the day on cloud nine thinking about our time with Markus, having someone with us who speaks the language, and perhaps getting to offer ourselves as ‘American waitresses that Markus flew in from the states just to help out at the party!'

Out the door by 9 AM, we caught the 9:30 AM train to Segovia, a town about one and a half hours away; by bus it cost us each six euro and 52 cents each way. We sat on the opposite side of the bus from our excursion to El Escorial, and were able to see it off in the distance, as well as the Valle de los Caidos (Valley of the Fallen) dedicated to those fallen in the Spanish Civil War and where Franco is buried. Why were we headed to Segovia? The aqueduct there is supposed to be amazing: built by the Romans in the first century to bring water 15 kilometres down the mountainside and into this walled city with its triumphant castle (the one that inspired Disney’s castle for Sleeping Beauty) and glorious cathedral.

We arrived at the bus station outside of the city, and immediately were drawn to the two euro breakfast of café con leche (yum …) and sandwich mixto (grilled cheese with ham, does anyone see a pattern forming here?). Energized for our second early-morning awake in a row, we headed directly towards the aqueduct, stopping at a couple of churches along the way.

The aqueduct was phenomenal, truly a work of engineering and manpower mastery (reminder: created in the first century AD). It stretched farther than the eyes could take in from any angle, and towered above us in stacked, perfected archways. We walked from end to end of the aqueduct’s entry point into the city, taking photos and watching others enjoy the obvious Wonder of this World, before climbing the stairway leading up and into the city wall.

We were completely lost in trying to figure out our whereabouts on the Lonely Planet map for this city, which is not most detailed. So, we started walking until we could figure out where we were, which worked just fine. Soon, we found ourselves at the Plaza Mayor, located just outside of Segovia’s grand Catedral and highlighted by a gazebo in the center of the large, circular plaza.

The Catedral was multi-tiered and gorgeous in its tan exterior. Inside, it contained great works of art, which we could photograph without flash, so we did, getting examples of the carpeting and the tapestries that we talk about seeing above (Editor’s Note: All of the sample photos above were not taken at the tapestry factory but instead at later times, mostly in the cathedral, but also at the Museo de Bellas Artes in Madrid, where we went the day after Segovia. Most museums do not permit any photography.). The religious paintings and statues were particularly striking, and an entire room contained gold and silver religious tools of celebration and the decorative robes of former clergy. One accomplishment we hope to achieve in this trip is finding a devotional image that we can enlarge for home use, and this photo to the right might be Martha’s … she's in love with that image and will paint it, as well.

Back into the street, we haggled with some local street saleswomen, bought a couple of souvenirs as our time in Spain closes for now, and thought about going into the very interesting History of Witchcraft museum that we passed by; but were in the end too cheap and too interested in seeing other parts of the city. We arrived quickly to the city’s infamous Alcazar, which Martha's niece would probably think is a princess’s home … and it has been. It is also the structure that inspired Disney’s castle for Sleeping Beauty, as you can see from the way the towers are similarly shaped.

Our wearying of museums kept us from this large complex’s display, and the large tower with expansive views was closed for reconstruction, so we chose instead to enjoy our lunch (grilled cheese) in the plaza instead of take a tour. Then we hiked down some incredible steps (there are several interesting ways into and out of the city walls) and up a hill to visit the Iglesia de la Vera Cruz (where a piece of the cross was housed; now located in a nearby town to be shown each Easter), walked by the Convento de los Carmelitas Descalzos (yum … carmelitas …), and to get a better view of the North side of the city. And so we stretched our legs once again, making it to the top, and then hiking a wildflower-edged pathway past the field of wheat and down the rocky landscape back to the roadway.

Instead of hitting those steps to go back up to the city, we took the long pathway outside of the city walls back towards the heart of town. Another set of steps took us from the main roadway down along the river that ran outside of the walls. (Dani kept asking why the Romans needed to build the aqueduct when there was a water source … right there!) It was a great shaded pathway, which was good because Martha was getting a bit cranky again. Thank goodness we had cookies!

Up again along steps that led back into the former Jewish neighborhood of the city, which is being restructured to preserve it, as is much in the cities in 2007. On the main shopping street, we found Spanish students, other tourists, and locals walking about to see what treasures could be found in the shops. At the Plaza de San Martin, we were only able to see the church from the outside, and the former artillery tower was also closed. Further down the hill, we enjoyed some time off of our feet at a local cerveceria (that gave us little potatoes and tuna salad to eat, as well; love that tradition of giving people something to eat with each drink so they don't become intoxicated!). Onward, Casa de los Picos was closed even though Lonely Planet said it reopened at 7 PM. We hiked through town to find a grocer and bought more of the little salads that sustained us recently so we would have them on the road come Friday, and headed back to the bus station.

Tickets in hand, we headed back home on the 8:30 PM bus and took the Metro home to Tirso de Molina instead of walking. The pedometer said we covered another 10 miles, but it felt like more with all of the hills and steps! Great day!

Much love,

Martha and Dani