More Updates!

Hello again from Spain! This past weekend was another full of exciting excursions in both Spain and Portugal. First we went to Palos de la Frontera, Spain, the place where Christopher Columbus stayed before leaving for the New World.

This picture shows the well where Columbus filled barrels with water before his trip. It no longer has water in it, but it still has great historic significance.

Columbus went to mass here before leaving on his trip. Seeing all of these places reminded me of how my life would have been so different if Columbus had never discovered the Americas.

This is the chapel where Columbus spent the night before leaving on the excursion. He apparently prayed all through the night. I would have been prayin' too!

My roommate Erin and I are here at the La Rábida monastery. The monks had pull with Queen Isabel, so they were key in convincing her to fund Columbus' expedition. Now the place is run by 10 monks or so. The flowers there are very pretty!

Here are life-size replicas of the three ships that made the trip: the Santa Maria, Pinta, and Nina. They really are quite smaller than you'd think they be. It was hard to imagine that up to 40 men might be living on one ship!

Here I am standing on one of the ships. While I was there, I couldn't help but think of The Pilgrim replica in Dana Point. I felt like I was re-living our 4th grade field trip again. :)

Speaking of Dana Point, this picture looks like the Dana Point of Lagos, Portugal. We stayed on this beach for two days and it was glorious.

It was fun to see all the ships nearby. The water, though, was absolutely freezing! I guess that makes sense since we were at a northern Atlantic beach, but still.

The mini-vacation was great, overall. Now I'm finishing up my last week of school, and we end our stay in Spain with some trips in Madrid, Toledo, Segovia, and Alcala de Henares. I'm looking forward to traveling one last week!