We met extremely early in the morning at the bus station in Segovia. From there, we took a bus to the Moncloa station in Madrid. It took probably about an hour and fifteen minutes to get to the station. Most of us were asleep so none of us were sure how long it took. After that, we got off the bus and followed the signs to the metro connected to the bus station at Moncloa (all of this is under ground). The teachers had already bought metro tickets for us so we just swiped them and walked through. We got on the train (NOTE: hug your purse or backpack or whatever on the metro rides. This is one place where pickpockets can easily steal your stuff and then get off because you are packed in tight and there are many stops along the way.) and headed to the stop at the Plaza de España. From there, we walked to the Palacio Real, or the royal palace, where the kings and queens of Spain had lived for many centuries (now, they use it as a place to conduct meetings and business for government officials).
We then headed to the Plaza del Sol, which was huge and had a lot of shops around it. We continued walking and saw the spot where all roads start.
We headed to the Plaza Mayor de Madrid, which most of us agreed we liked less than the Plaza Mayor de Segovia.
We decided into groups and then each of the professors took a group around the city, where we saw the house of Cervantes and of Lope de Vega.
After about an hour, the teachers let us go off on our own. My group headed to El Prado after we ate lunch in one of the parks.
El Prado has the older paintings, while the other museum in Madrid, la Reina Sofia, has the contemporary art.
I preferred el Prado, mostly cause I prefer the Renaissance and Classical art. We got to see Velazquez's Las Meninas and Guernica by Picasso, which I thought were really cool. We then walked around and shopped a little before heading back to the train station to head home.
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