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Background: Spain's powerful world empire of the 16th and 17th centuries ultimately yielded command of the seas to England. Subsequent failure to embrace the mercantile and industrial revolutions caused the country to fall behind Britain, France, and Germany in economic and political power. Spain remained neutral in World Wars I and II, but suffered through a devastating civil war (1936-39). In the second half of the 20th century, Spain has played a catch-up role in the western international community; it joined the EU in 1986. Continuing challenges include Basque Fatherland and Liberty (ETA) terrorism and further reductions in unemployment.

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By LJ
September 20th 2008

Embracing the Spanish way of life in Trujillo

Europe » Spain » Extremadura » Trujillo

Not your average breakfast room!

The next stop on our trip was Trujillo. This is a smallish town in Extremadura. I think it is fair to say we are well off the English tourist trail and we do need to use our rather bad Spanish. We are in the nicest hotel so far. It is an old convent that is now a 4* hotel. The conversion has been done well and there are some super modern lights and art work which look really good. The room where we had breakfast used to be a chapel. Impressive! The problem with such a nice hotel is that we [View Full Entry]

That building in the middle is the hotel

By Me Too
January 22nd 2008

Via de la Plata - Planing

Europe » Spain » Extremadura

Route Map

Here we go again This time not the width of Spain, but the length... Our first go at the old Camino was so enjoyable we have decided to do it again... Are you mad! Actually the delay in going back has not so much been about why we would do it again, but which route. Should we go via. * Back to the Camino Camino Frances but starting in Le Puy (1600kms+) * How about starting in Roncesvalles and going to Le Puy (800kms+) itself a pagan pilgrim site * A reverse trip Reterno * What about the coastal route? * [View Full Entry]

By e Clair
April 21st 2007

Bottom of the 9th

Europe » Spain » Extremadura » Cáceres

Spamalot
The Musical lovingly ripped off from the movie. The Laker girls were hilarious and yes, the French soldiers were my favorite. There were mini catapults for sale in the lobby that came with a whole v... [more]

I canÂ´t believe it! ItÂ´s almost time for me to go back stateside! I leave Spain in 11 days and Europe in 2 weeks. And, best of all, I probably have more work to get done now than I have had to do the past school year, but no worries. It will get done, one way or the other. Just to update you, this semester has gone so fast! I went to London for 4 days over Semana Santa (Holy Week) the first week of April. It was gorgeous weather the days I was there and I had a lot [View Full Entry]

By e Clair
March 8th 2007

Paris, San Sebastian and back again (Semester Travel Part III: el Fin)

Europe » Spain » Extremadura » Cáceres

Louvre Museum
Courtyard of the Louvre. My first impression of the Louvre was, ´´This place is HUGE!´´ And even that doesn´t do it justice. Pictured are Dionne and me in the inner courtyard where the main museum e... [more]

After chocolate in Brussles, Dionne and I headed south to meet up with fellow ISU Spanish major Kyle in Paris. We didn´t have the best of weather in Paris (it was quite windy the whole time and on and off rainy) but apparently the wind wasn´t nearly as bad as in central Europe: trees downed across rail lines, semis blown off highways, really crazy stuff. Had we planned on leaving Prague a bit later, we might not have been able to. We thought we´d take a quick look at the Louvre museum. This is impossible! We spent maybe 4 or 5 [View Full Entry]

By e Clair
December 4th 2006

Cutural differences

Europe » Spain » Extremadura » Cáceres

I thought you might appreciate some of the cultural differences I have observed here in Spain. No pictures at the moment as I have begun the first leg of Christmas vacations. I will travel with my sister Alice in Greece and Italy and then my friend Dionne through Vienna, Prague, Brussles, meet up with Kyle in Paris, and on to San Sebastian before heading back to Caceres. I hope I can carry my suitcase that far. So, on to a few observations: Cigarrette warning labels cover one third of the box. Picture coming soon... About half the population smokes. And from [View Full Entry]

By e Clair
November 26th 2006

Tauromaquia

Europe » Spain » Extremadura » Cáceres

Dionne the matador(a)
Javier the bull charging Dionne as she practices the Victoria pass.

Two weeks ago our fantastically amazing Advanced Grammer & Composition professor, also known as Javier, gave us a special lecture on Tauromaquia, the art of bull fighting. He is an afficianado and wanted us to leave Spain knowing a bit more than we did about this important Spanish tradition. The lecture started with a bit of history and the importance of bull fighting in Spanish culture. There are two types of bull fighting, rejonaer (when all the matadores are on horseback) and the more widely known type where the matadores are on foot. We learned the parts of the traje de [View Full Entry]

By e Clair
November 12th 2006

Unas semanas en Cáceres

Europe » Spain » Extremadura » Cáceres

Wild Rabbit
Chelsea and her host dad Juan Miguel with the jack rabbit that was shot earlier that morning. Juan Miguel gave me the tail.

No big travel events in the last two weeks but more culture than you can shake a stick at. Halloween is not celebrated here in Spain, but All Saints Day is. We had November 1st off from school and I went to the farm of another ISU student´s host family. We picked olives, scared sheep, and even skinned a rabbit. I did not skin the rabbit, I just watched. Oh, and it is not really a rabbit, but a large jack-rabbit of the Spanish variety. Juan Miguel, Chelsea´s host dad, got the rabbit just that morning. A professor of ours complained [View Full Entry]

By e Clair
November 2nd 2006

Granada and Córdoba

Europe » Spain » Extremadura » Cáceres

La Alhambra
Looking back at the Alhambra from the tower at sunset.

We traveled to Granada and Córdoba this past weekend. It turned into quite the adventure in many ways... We were stuck outside of Granada for more than an hour in traffic. We missed our entrance time into the Alhambra, the fabulous and enormous Moorish palace at the edge of the city, but after some wrangling and fast Spanish, our indomitable coordinator, the fabulous Toni got us in and we had our tour. My favorite parts of the palace are the gardens and patios. Every patio has a fountain and some with large fountains, cyprus trees and flowers. We ran across half [View Full Entry]

By e Clair
October 30th 2006

Re-cap

Europe » Spain » Extremadura » Cáceres

Playa y el puesto del sol
Sunset on the beach outside our hotel. Yes, those are storm clouds moving in, and it poured that night.

A brief re-cap to bring you up to date. In my defense, getting to the internet in Spain can be quite difficult and the Universidad doesn´t make it any easier. It is a crap shoot each time you enter the computer lab--sometimes the computers work, sometimes they don´t. And, even when they do, it is hard to post photos as most of the computers are slow. Three weeks ago we had a puente (Thursday was a day off so they give us Friday off too). Puente = bridge, and a good bridge it is. I went to the island of Mallorca [View Full Entry]

By e Clair
October 10th 2006

Mérida y Salamanca

Europe » Spain » Extremadura » Cáceres

Teatro romano
The original Roman theater of Mérida hosts an annual classic theater festival in July. I´ve been told tickets are gone a year in advance.

Two weekends ago the Iowa State group traveled to the city of Mérida accompanied by two Erasmus students (one from Sweden and one from France), our wonderful program coordinator Toñi, our last-minute guide (Toñi´s husband Louis) and a few Spanish students. Mérida was the Roman capital of Lusitania, the northwestern portion of the Iberian Penninsula, and has many of the best preserved examples of Roman architecture and engineering. We saw the Roman bridge that spans the river Guadiana (still in use), theater, ampitheater, circus, excavations of houses and the National Museum of Roman Art. Th [View Full Entry]

Travel Blog » Europe » Spain » Extremadura