Today we went to La Granja, which is located about 25 minutes away from Segovia. The weather was cold and rainy. Fortunately our first destination, the Palacio Real, was inside. The Palacio Real used to be the king and queen of Spain's summer home from 1741 to 1971. The palace is modeled after the Palace of Versailles in France and it has some artifacts that were made in France, however, almost everything within the palace was made in Spain. Within the palace there are many Flemish tapestries from the 16th century. There are stunning paintings on every wall in the Palace of former nobility and on the ceiling there are famous frescos from the 18th century. Sadly in 1918, there was a fire in the palace that burned for 2 days. While the caretakers were able to save most of the paintings on the walls, there were a few rooms where the frescos had burned off.
After the Palacio Real we went to the glass factory. The glass factory was built near the palace because so much glass was needed for the Palacio Real. They acquired their glass making technique from the French and gathered their materials from northern Spain. Inside the factory, there are many types of glass in the form of art and cups. We were able to visit a workshop where they currently make glass - they use an oven to heat the glass and multiple workers to form each piece. In another part of the glass factory's museum we saw different parts of the old factory machinery. After seeing all of these amazing things, the weather was finally warm and sunny, so we were comfortable as we waited for our bus back to Segovia.
In general it was an incredibly informative and fun day for everyone!
Hoy, la clase visitó el Palacio Real y la Fábrica de Cristal en La Granja, un pueblo cerca de Segovia. Muy temprano, tomamos el autobús a La Granja y hacía mal tiempo. Estábamos muy aliviados a llegar al Palacio Real después de caminar en La Granja. En el Palacio, vimos muchas cosas muy antiguas y exquisitas. Estaba las tapices, muchas pinturas, las estatuas, los muebles, y los frescos. En unas partes del Palacio, no hay frescos porque hubo un incendio en al año 1918 que destruyó unas salas. Después del tour, caminamos en los jardines del Palacio. Vimos muchas fuentes – hay veintiséis fuentes en los jardines. También visitamos el embalse que suple agua a las fuentes.
En la tarde el tiempo hacía buen tiempo. Caminamos un poco en el pueblo y luego visitamos la Fábrica de Cristal. La Fábrica tiene una parte como un museo. Allí vimos vidrio en muchas formas – el arte, los espejos, y muchos vasos. El parte más interesante era cuando observamos personas haciendo de mano los vasos de cristal. Su talento es increíble.
En el fin del día, a pesar del mal tiempo, are un buena excursión y nos disfrutamos mucho.
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