40 byu magazine | spring 2014 MADRID SpAin I N A VIBRANT melting pot of cultures—inherited from Basques, Celts, Iberians, Romans, and Moors—Madrid is the center of one of the most diverse countries in Europe. “It’s a country with magnificent variety,” says John R. Rosenberg (BA ’79, MA ’81), dean of the College of Humanities. With some of Europe’s finest art museums, a history that includes the 15th-century New World expeditions, and a topography featuring both glaciered mountains and breathtaking beaches, Spain offers BYU groups and other travelers a rich linguistic and cultural experience. Students in BYU’s Madrid program— usually there to study Spanish—live with host families in Alcalá de Henares, a 50-minute train ride from the heart of the capital. They take classes at the Uni- versity of Alcalá from the local profes- sors in subjects like Iberian civilization and Spanish literature and grammar. Most weekends BYU students take trips to other cities in Spain and visit sites like the preserved Roman aqueducts in Segovia or the Islamic mosque in Córdoba that was converted into a Christian cathedral during the Reconquista in the 13th century. By Natalie Sandberg Taylor (’14) Madrid ★ PORTUGAL FRANCE S P A I N Authentic Spain JOIN THE CROWDS. Touristy though they may be, the big-draw sites “are part of authentic Spain,” says Rosenberg. “Even the great monumental places . . . are very much embedded in the Spanish psyche.” While Consuegra, with its iconic windmills that inspired Miguel Cervantes’s Don Quixote, is a popular tourist destination, you will also find Spanish families sitting on the rocks and reading passages of the novel to their children. RELAX IN THE PLAZAS. Nearly every major city or village in Spain has a unique plaza mayor, or a main town square, where you can sit and people watch, enjoy a three-course meal, listen to live musicians, and savor the terrace atmosphere. Carson J. McKinlay (BA ’13), a spring 2011 student, especially enjoyed observing “the cute old ladies we’d always see sitting together in the Plaza de Cortez gossiping.” TRY THE TAPAS. Tapas—small appetizers or snacks—are an important part of Spanish eating culture. They allow you to restaurant-hop, sampling a bit of what- ever you like, and help you make it to dinner, which usually doesn’t start till 8 p.m. Most tapas menus include items like fish, sausage, stuffed olives, or a slice of tortilla Española—a Spanish omelet with fried potato and onion. m e d i t e r r A n e A n s e A 40 º 25'01"N, 3 º 42'13"W 5,273 MILES FROM PROVO Puerta del Sol VICTOR PALAEZ/ISTOCK/THINKSTOCK
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40 byu magazine | spring 2014
M A D R I DS p A i n
IN A VIBRANT melting pot of cultures—inherited from Basques, Celts, Iberians, Romans, and Moors—Madrid
is the center of one of the most diverse countries in Europe. “It’s a country with magnificent variety,” says John R. Rosenberg (BA ’79, MA ’81), dean of the College of Humanities. With some of Europe’s finest art museums, a history that includes the 15th-century New World expeditions, and a topography featuring both glaciered mountains and breathtaking beaches, Spain offers BYU groups and other travelers a rich linguistic and cultural experience. Students in BYU’s Madrid program—usually there to study Spanish—live with host families in Alcalá de Henares, a 50-minute train ride from the heart of the capital. They take classes at the Uni-versity of Alcalá from the local profes-sors in subjects like Iberian civilization and Spanish literature and grammar. Most weekends BYU students take trips to other cities in Spain and visit sites like the preserved Roman
aqueducts in Segovia or the Islamic mosque in Córdoba that was converted into a Christian cathedral during the Reconquista in the 13th century.
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Authentic Spain
JOIN THE CROWDS. Touristy though they may be, the big-draw sites “are part of authentic Spain,” says Rosenberg. “Even the great monumental places . . . are very much embedded in the Spanish psyche.” While Consuegra, with its iconic windmills that inspired Miguel Cervantes’s Don Quixote, is a popular tourist destination, you will also find Spanish families sitting on the rocks and reading passages of the novel to their children.
RELAX IN THE PLAZAS. Nearly every major city or village in Spain has a unique plaza mayor, or a main town square, where you can sit and people watch, enjoy a three-course meal, listen to live musicians, and savor the terrace atmosphere. Carson J. McKinlay (BA ’13), a spring 2011 student, especially enjoyed observing “the cute old ladies we’d always see sitting together in the Plaza de Cortez gossiping.”
TRY THE TAPAS. Tapas—small appetizers or snacks—are an important part of Spanish eating culture. They allow you to restaurant-hop, sampling a bit of what-ever you like, and help you make it to dinner, which usually doesn’t start till 8 p.m. Most tapas menus include items like fish, sausage, stuffed olives, or a slice of tortilla Española—a Spanish omelet with fried potato and onion.
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For Your Itinerary
EL PARQUE DEL BUEN RETIRO. Once a recreation area for the royal family, this 350-acre park in the heart of the city lives up to its translated title: “Park of the Pleas-ant Retreat.” BYU students like to relax here on Sundays or after class on a weekday afternoon, when they can peruse the trinkets of street vendors, rent a rowboat to take out on the small lake, visit the gardens and fountains, or simply nap on the lawn.
THE GOLDEN TRIANGLE. Downtown Madrid houses three world-class museums—known as the Golden Triangle of Art—all within about a block of each other: the Prado, the Thyssen-Bornemisza, and the Reina Sofia. One year, before visiting the Reina Sofia, Turley’s students put on a living reenactment of Guernica, Picasso’s depiction of the bombing of a small Basque town during the Spanish Civil War. “[It] really opened up the history of the civil war for them and made visiting the actual painting . . . so much richer,” he says.
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Get Out of Town
For all there is to see in Madrid proper, says program director Jeffrey S. Turley (BA ’82, MA ’84), “the weekend trips really are vital to understanding Spain as a whole. There’s just such a variety.” A must-see is the medieval city of Toledo, a half-hour from Madrid via a high-velocity train. A place where Christian, Moorish, and Jewish cul-tures coexisted during the Middle Ages, the city is famous for its sword making. Be sure to visit the gothic Primate Cathedral of Saint Mary of Toledo (you can’t miss it) and the home of painter El Greco. There are plenty of tourist spots to hit in Spain’s southern region, which includes Córdoba and Granada, but be sure to attend a flamenco performance in one of Seville’s tablaos, where you can grab dinner or drinks—and where the performers are so close that their passion is practically tangible. Madrid’s surrounding area offers dozens of delightful small towns, but Rosenberg recommends visiting the village of Chinchón with its dirt plaza and traditional bullfights. One of Tur-ley’s favorites is Cuenca, a city lined with cobblestone streets and known for its casas colgadas, or houses hang-ing over steep cliffs.
Top: Annalaura S. Solomon (’14), Alyson K. Astle (’14), Jessica F. Pitcher (’13), and Kimberly M. Jones (’14) pose in front of Toledo, a popular subject for painters—including one of the city’s own, El Greco.
Above: Whitney Wing Staples (BA ’13) (front) and Carson J. McKinlay (BA ’13) “tilt” at the same windmills Don Quixote mistook for giants in the classic Spanish novel.
Below: Halfway between Madrid and Valencia, the UNESCO heritage town of Cuenca offers picturesque views of brightly painted buildings and houses clinging to cliff walls.
