El Cid

El Cid!! I was sooo excited when Earl mentioned that we were going to see where El Cid was buried and where a monument was raised to him. Now I understand that the only person that will probably understand the significance of El Cid is Hannah Shepard, because in Senior year Spanish class we spent MONTHS translating all of El Cid's tales! It seemed like every day we talked about El Cid. It was so cool to be in Spain and to actually see it. You learn so much stuff in school that is like uh huh, yep, right... big hero, won lots of battles... cool. But when you actually see this person's grave and you see the monument to them it's a wow moment. It's a "I've actually heard about this person. I know their story, and there they are." It's really cool.

Here is the gothic styled church that El Cid's tomb is in.

I put this picture up for two reasons. One this has to be the MOST random statue of all time. I was just walking along the river and saw a woman looking out over the balcony and I almost didn't give her a second glance until I realized she was made out of bronze!! I saw it and I was like what in the world is this?? I would really like to know the story behind her... But the second reason why I put this picture up is... does that stuff that is hanging off the trees look familar?!? They lied in Savannah Georgia! It is SPANISH moss!! Haha. Although I will grant them that the moss in Savannah is grayish and kind of deadlike, and this stuff is BRIGHT green and looks very much alive... so maybe they only look similar.

After I passed the random woman statue with the "moss" surrounding her I continued my journey to find El Cid's statue and I have to say it was not in a place for you to take pictures!! It was in the center of a round about! Gah! So I had to take pictures of him from both sides of the street of course.


Here is a zoomed in verison!
I feel that it is a shame that in high school I was kind of able to translate the book of El Cid's tales which were in Spanish, and then here I was at his monument and I couldn't read any of it. I really lost a lot of my Spanish vocabulary, and I didn't realize it until I needed it in Spain!! I remembered enough Spanish to say "Me hablo pequena Espanol. Te hable ingles?" Or I speak a little bit of spanish. Do you speak english? If not then I stumbled around and tried to get what I wanted. I know how to ask where something is perfectly well... understanding the spanish person quickly mumbling and pointing in obscure directions?? Not so much. So great at asking questions... bad at understanding the answers haha. It was alright though. I felt a more comfortable in Spain with even my basic Spanish knowledge than I did in any of country. I think it's another one of those things that you learn in school... and you think yeah knowing a different language is probably a good idea, but until you really need to use it you really don't have a apperication for how important it is...

Here is Nyree and I at a cafe in Burgos. Bobby is actually there with us... he's just the one taking the picture so he's not in it. But don't worry I'll have tons of pictures up of all us soon enough when I post our Paris pictures!!