April 7, 2010

Dear Children,

What an adventure we have had in Spain as we traversed the Spanish countryside in search of Maldonado cousins and interesting sights. It was a steep education as we arrived, as we tried to learn the road system and how to communicate in the little towns that we visited. Staying outside of Madrid, in Alcalá de Henares, in a condo owned by friends of mine who were assistant directors of my Study Abroad in Spain, created extra enjoyment but also a bit of extra confusion. In other words, no English speaking hotel clerks or concierge to give us help and directions in our language! Nate was on overload as he tried to interpret for the whole group of us. I am sure his head was about to burst after the ten days as the little bit I tried to help communicate was enough for my brain.

Let me start from the beginning: The last week as we prepared to leave, we were on watch to learn if our flights would be cancelled due to the British Airways strike. It took a lot of vigilance as we wished to be the first to know so we could quickly arrange a different booking through the airline or train or any way to get down to Spain from London. I wish we had known how easy it would be so we could just sit back and let them to do the work all along. The day before we were to fly, our flight from London to Madrid was indeed cancelled but when we called, they put us on a later flight on another airline.

Upon learning that we would be in Heathrow Airport for a long lay over, Nate suggested we take the “tube”, the underground subway system into London, to see a couple of extra sights and possibly enjoy a double-decker tour bus ride around town. That idea excited all of us and made the inconvenience worth it. Morty connected with Brian Bybee, who is at school at Cornell, and he and Rachel made plans to meet us in London. So, it was fun to look forward to the accidental bonus.

On Friday, March 26 we all gathered at the LA airport and celebrated Adrianne’s 21st birthday in the airport terminal. Katie had made Boston cream cupcakes and then arranged for a friend to pick her up so she could go to one of her favorite places in Southern California, Tito’s Tacos. She brought back tacos for everyone and that is when the eating began and it never stopped!

We were delayed at the Heathrow airport so our time was VERY short in London but we caught a glimpse and ate at Wagamama, a noodle place that Nate had tried in London before. It was fun to catch up with the Bybees as we ate. Brian is trying to convince Nate to apply to Cornell for their Masters program. It sounds like Nate would be a well qualified applicant with his experiences and “practice” GMAT score!

Our re-booking caused us to get to Madrid much later and in the dark, and boy, were we in the dark! The rental car was so much smaller than we expected and due to it being Semana Santa in Spain, there was nothing more available. It took a packing miracle and a very uncomfortable ride to our town, Alcalá de Henares, to transport seven people and all of our luggage there. We got lost so many times that we didn’t arrive to the piso until 4:00 am and it took an international phone call to get rescued by the people who had the key to the place! They were very nice and gave us lots of tips on maneuvering the roads.

Our first day we attended the ward sacrament meeting, toured Plaza of Cervantes just minutes from our place and walked the streets of Madrid between the Prado and Puerta del Sol. Morty got some great shots of the beautiful fountains and statues at night. They are very beautiful; I had forgotten what an enchanting city even big-city Madrid really is. Nate and Katie were able to buy tickets to the sold out Real Madrid soccer game so that is where they headed for the evening while we enjoyed exploring Madrid by foot. Grandma had decided to stay back and rest from the previous day’s travel and the London exploring which was a smart idea since the next day was packed also.

One of the first cities that I visited 35 years ago was Toledo so I wanted to start with that. It is one of the oldest cities in Spain and home of El Greco. We got lost several times trying to circle the city to find parking close enough for Grandma to walk to the main attractions which actually allowed us to find a spot for a picture of all of us with Toledo in the background. I think all of us loved the Church of Santo Tome the best with the famous El Greco painting, The Burial of Count Orgaz, although the marzipan bakeries were high on the list for Dad and Nate driving up into the narrow roads to save some steps for Grandma was quite a fun adventure. Even more exciting was leaving the city by way of the narrowest of old cobblestone roads so tight a squeeze that we had to fold in our side mirrors! I felt like I was on Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride at Disneyland!

We enjoyed a great Flamenco show in downtown Madrid late that night (we went to the “early” sitting at 10:30 PM!) and each of us had a delicious meal. My favorite of the dancers was the man. He was very intense, well, they all were. There were quite a few dancers and several musicians throughout the show. I kept having to remind myself that I was in Spain since I would catch myself thinking, “Wow, they look really authentic!” Of course they were; we were IN Spain . . .Yikes!!!

Most mornings we hoped for an early start but succeeded in getting mostly a Spaniard’s start since we were up very late on Spanish time the nights prior! When in Spain . . . ! This day we were headed to Miranda del Castañar with a brief stop to visit my favorite castle in Spain, the Segovia Alcazar. Even though the sun was out, it was chilly when we arrived in Segovia. It reminded me of the many side trips I took as a student where we arrived on cold mornings to most of our destinations but sat in the sun as we waited to aboard the bus to go home. We drove by the Roman Aqueduct that is so prominent and preserved in that town and then up into the town on tiny winding streets, ignoring all parking lots signs at the bottom of the town so we could get Grandma closer, and lucked out to park right by the castle, the Alcazar. It was as beautiful as I remembered. Donning English headsets, we all had fun touring inside the castle and then I really remembered an often felt coldness as those castles and cathedrals are “stone cold”! The views from the castle windows were magnificent and the detail of the preserved ceilings and woodwork were amazing. It was raining so we were lucky to be touring inside.

We made the decision to skip Salamanca and catch it on our return trip so we could travel on the back roads to Miranda del Castañar before it started to get dark. We passed the beautiful walled city of Avila (must see that up close again on some trip in the future!) and drove through many quaint little towns on our way. The anticipation was great. I wanted everyone to love Miranda del Castañar as much as I did. When we drove into the same Plaza de Toros that the bus had dropped me off at 35 years ago, I was so surprised that I did not recognize it. I guess I thought that if it hadn’t changed for centuries prior to my first trip, it wouldn’t change in the last 35 years.

Well the town has gotten a bit larger, but still under 500 people live there, and it has hotels and inns that it never had before. It is such a beautiful town and surrounded by the most picturesque countryside and natural parks that it has become a popular “rural” town for tourists and hikers alike who want to escape city life in Spain for a vacation.

Nate did a great job of finding excellent accommodations in Miranda. We were just outside the city wall and our rooms were very comfortable and modern. I warned everyone to make sure they showered before leaving Alcalá de Henares as we couldn’t be guaranteed a good shower in Miranda. Well, the wonderfully hot, strong showers were most welcome considering we had gotten used to very luke warm showers in Alcalá!

A couple of weeks before we left, I had mailed a letter to the family of José Gutierrez (Abuela’s cousin with whom I visited on my trip long ago) with no street address; just addressed it to Miranda del Castañar. He was very old back then and I knew he had passed away. I filled it with pictures of family that I met in Spain and hoped that whoever opened the letter in such a small town, that someone would recognize one of our relatives and pass it along to someone who knew the family. After unpacking at the hotel we went walking around town. Although there were probably many Semana Santa visitors, we stuck out as major outsiders, not Spanish and couldn’t speak much Spanish, except Nate. I carried an envelope of those pictures with me and told anyone who talked with us, who we were. It was getting dark so we called it a night and started the same routine in the morning as we took walks in this beautiful town to get to know it better.

Dad and I went for a walk in the morning where I led him to the street where I had taken one of my favorite pictures of the town years ago. The town is such an incredible sight with its centuries old walls and towers. On our way back we passed a man leading a burro out of town. That is exactly what I saw before but many more (and not any of the cars we saw around the town). We found a wonderful bakery just opening their doors. It smelled so good and oh their stuff was warm and delicious. Almost every morning of this trip, Dad went walking and found bakeries to bring us back a fresh supply of pan (bread) each day!

On another walk around town we ran into a man who recognized the picture of José and he took us to someone else, who led us to someone who took us to the home of José where one of the sons, Andres, found us. As we approached the home a neighbor said something about my letter and I knew we found the right spot as I couldn’t remember exactly which home it was. We talked and talked there in the street and more extended relatives or those who felt like family to our cousins, gathered. It was great but hard to communicate. When asked to speak slower, they just repeated at the same speed over and over again or had someone else repeat it at the same speed!

Andres’s younger brother, Pedro, owned the family home so he took us to his own home since Pedro wasn’t there from Salamanca yet. It was amazing. You see form the pictures what these places look like. They aren’t very wide. Traditionally, the bottom floor housed the family animals like burros, chickens, and goats and then the top one or two levels is where the family lived. As parents have passed away, the younger generation (Grandma Maldonado’s age) has renovated the homes. The home Andres and his wife had was amazing. As they gave us a tour of their home, we saw pictures of their grandchildren and we were all dumfounded at a picture of one of them that looked EXACTLY like my cousin Allison Maldonado!

Most of our cousins live in Salamanca but have homes in Miranda to come to for special holidays and escape the heat in the summer since it is in a mountainous region. Luckily they were all gathering for Semana Santa so we saw most of the children of José, Andres, Pedro and Adora and they all arrived while we ate bread, cheese, jamon and sausage with Andres and his wife. It was a great reunion and we planned to meet for lunch the next day before we planned to leave for Salamanca.

I really wanted to visit a nearby village, Villanueva del Conde, that I hoped to see on my last visit to Miranda when the priest was out of town which meant that I couldn’t look in the books like I had a couple of months earlier (I hope that sentence makes sense!). It was the town that the Maldonado family came from back a few generations. Upon learning of our plans, Pedro and his wife took us there to help us see the town records. He was very persistent to all the obstacles; he tried his best. We could have never seen the books with out them. We had to wait and ask and ask and wait. At one point Pedro said, “These are their family records we are talking about” as he had to convince people to say yes. Finally, to view the oldest records, we had to get into the church. We were allowed in but their records did not go back far enough. Like we later learned in Miranda, when the librarian tried to help us, the earliest books are kept by the priest and I guess I was just lucky to have had a few days reading the books 35 years ago.

Our relatives there just can’t really understand how I would like to just sit for hours and turn every page of all those books since so many ancestors live there. I have our generations back very far but, as a young adult, neglected to get as many siblings of each family. Now, was a mother, I KNOW how I would feel if one of my children were missing from being sealed by their record not being found! If I ever get the chance again, I will try and make friends with the priest with lots of letters and donations prior to my visit. The girl in the library did say she would try and find out some information for me so she might be a good contact. She was very nice.

Our cousins tried their best to do anything and everything to please us. Andres arranged to get the key to the cemetery until we learned that in 1950 they had covered over the old cemetery so it was no use. The minute Grandma said that she had been looking for saffron, a very expensive spice from Spain, two of the women were gone and came back with several containers that we would pay totaling about $100.00 for in the United States! After the treated us to a wonderful lunch with them on the second day, we left promising that we would stay in better communication. They also asked us to learn better Spanish by the time we come back!!! (and I would love to do both, return and improve my Spanish)

I feel so lucky to not only have been able to visit the town of my ancestors but that they were from such a gorgeous piece of the world. We have such a great heritage. It seems that everyone from this town has such a pride and love for their hometown. And rightly so, it is wonderful!

We stopped in Salamanca on the way home for a brief visit. We congregated at the Plaza Mayor, one of the main tourist’s stops and enjoyed churros and chocolate. Oh, that was good since the sun was shinning but it was still a bit chilly. Nothing compares to the chocolate of Spain; it is like a rich warm dark chocolate pudding perfect for dipping a churro! We sat outside in the plaza and watched the people. That is about all the energy we had but it was a nice rest from the travels.

Even though we had a very long day on Thursday, Friday morning Grandma, Dad and I headed to the Madrid Temple. The kids had been anxious to go to a mall nearby the temple but unfortunately most shops were closed since it was Good Friday. They did find the only Taco Bell in Madrid and had fun there.

The Madrid Temple is gorgeous. We were told that they had used local artisans to do the craftsmanship and it was stunning. One of the designers used a woven motif theme throughout the temple; in the stained glass, in the wood floors, in a marble wainscoting, and even in the gold stair railings. Although he wasn’t a church member, he used the woven pattern to symbolize the temple connecting families forever. They had lots of fabric on the walls and a beautiful style of Italian painting to look like marble. Dad and I ran into the temple president and he showed us a sealing room and told us some of the extra details. The temple uses five different languages: Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Catalan, and French. Speaking of languages, Dad listened to the session in German since we were given headsets to listen in English!

The rest of the day was spent in the Plaza de Cervantes in Alcalá de Henares. It was actually sunny and a few of us fell asleep sitting in the plaza; finally, a Spanish siesta! It started to get very crowed at dusk when the Semana Santa procession was to begin. They walked down the alleys and side streets before coming into the plaza. It was a very solemn march. They carried two floats, one of Christ on the cross and one of Mary. The floats are carried on the backs of many men underneath, another way to pay a “penitence” for their sins throughout the year. Fewer of the hooded marchers carried crosses than I remembered but some of them drug chains. It was quiet, slow and solemn except for the occasional singing, a band and a beautiful trio with a bassoon. That music was my favorite.

Our last day in Madrid was spent in the Prado Museum. I had forgotten how huge it is. There was much more to see than in one afternoon. There were lots of Spanish artists of course but my favorite are some of the Flemish artists. I am glad that we had headsets explaining the artwork. The last time that I went through, I had just had several semesters of art history classes. We spent the rest of the evening at the Plaza Mayor and walking around the Puerta del Sol. It was a good ending to a great week near Madrid.

When Nate took Morty to the airport at 4:30 in the morning, the rest of us got up to finish cleaning the piso and washing the sheets. We wanted to get an early start for our long drive to Barcelona. It was a 6-7 hour drive. Along the way we could see the Pyrenees in France. That made Nate wish he could drive there the next day among all the many things that we wanted to do in Barcelona. It sounded extremely tempting.

We all were a little nervous that we would have a hard time with the Catalan language in Barcelona but it was actually the most relaxing place of our whole trip, language wise, since so many people spoke English. It was the first time we had a hotel desk clerk that could communicate directions and suggestions of where to eat and what to do. It was really a wonderful treat. We started that first evening with a wonderful dinner at a restaurant with an incredible view overlooking the beach and several of us enjoyed paella. We walked the famous Las Ramblas street afterwards to work off our dinner!

Our last day in Spain was a sunny one and the temperature was mild. Grandma wanted to relax on a city tour bus which was a great way to see more of the city and learn all about it. I wish we had the time and money to have done that in each of the towns we visited. The rest of us rented bicycles to get around. It was great and so fun to just ride around where ever we wanted (much easier than walking). It was a beautiful spring day with such a happy and free feeling. Dad and I spent most of our time driving in the oldest part of the city up and down skinny alleys of stone, riding past several street musicians next to beautiful old cathedrals and buildings, and then on the wharf. We relaxed on the beach a bit and most everyone touched the Mediterranean. It was a wonderful end to our dream trip.

And then to our crazy end: after dinner and a yummy stop at a chocolate store close by our hotel (Spaniards LOVE their sweets. I guess it is in my genes!) we loaded the “Beverly Hillbilly looking” car with our luggage tied to the top and drove through the night back to Madrid to be there by 4:30am for our early morning flight to London and then home. We all did a lot of sleeping on the way home but that didn’t seem to help our body clocks. Dad and I are still struggling to get used to a normal sleep schedule.

I can’t believe how wiped out I have felt. The first place that I left the house for was my institute class and I am so glad that I did. I was able to hear a bit of general conference and so much of class related to my thoughts about witnessing the solemnity of the Semana Santa processions. There was much reverence and sadness toward the crucified Christ but the missing element was the joy and gladness of the Easter morning; the great news of the Resurrection. More of the New Testament testifies of the reality of the resurrection rather than concentrating on Gethsemane or Golgotha. Since we are studying Third Nephi in institute, I get to be reminded of the glorious appearance of the resurrected Christ to the people of this continent and how important it was to Him that they come up to Him, one by one, to touch his hands and sides as a witness and reminder of the His great act of love for each of us.

Again, this was a dream come true and to have so many family members there with us was so wonderful. Enchanting is a word I would describe of Spain; I love it! I hope we all consider how we have been changed by this trip. I love you all. Have a great week ahead as we celebrate Scott, Katie and Aaron’s birthdays, Katie’s graduation and good luck to Adrianne with her finals! Love, Mom

Update on Scott:

Scott has been very upbeat. Scott applied for a new job entitled legal assistant. It is one of the most trusted assignments in prison since it involves other inmate’s legal needs. He was excited to say that on Adrianne’s birthday, March 26, he received news that he did get the job. He feels confident in his new surroundings and the possibility to grow and obtain his long term goal, to learn constitutional law. He reported that positive letters from Kyre were the emotional highlight of the month. He feels led by the Spirit and continues to seek the Lord’s will in his life and the courage to do it.