Vaughan Town 50/50 #11, Wednesday to Friday, Sept. 14 - 16, 2016

As with all Vaughan Town programs, they put out the schedule a half day at a time.  On Wednesday morning, I had a one to one at 10:00, free time at 11:00 and 12:00 and another one to one at 1:00.

My 10:00 one to one was with Charo.  We walked out to the gate and then left heading upstream on the river.  After about a kilometer, there is a dirt road that leads down to the Rio Tormes.  While the scenery there is beautiful, this is the lowest I have ever seen the water level in the river.

On Wednesday evening, during our entertainment hour, among other fun activities, we had some great fun with "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" song.  Here is a link to the videos I made and posted on You Tube:

Introduction of musicians    The Lion Sleeps Tonight

After the entertainment hour ended at 9:00, the waxing moon had already risen over the meeting room building.

On Thursday, I learned that there is another new company that does the English Immersion programs similar to Vaughan Town, and their two locations are Alicante on the coast and here in Barco de Avila - but at the Hotel Mirador on the other side of the Rio Tormes.  So of course, on my free time after lunch, I had to check this out.  I walked to the Roman Bridge and took this photo of the Rio Tormes.

This photo shows the Hotel Mirador across the river - it is the large building behind the trees.  Like our hotel, it is a very nice four star hotel, but it is on the main highway and in a much more suburban area.  Our hotel is very rural and is on the side of the river with the old city center, including Plazas Mayor, España and Constitucion.

Here are a couple more photos of the river and Roman Bridge.

During another of my free periods, I walked back to the Roman Bridge and headed down stream to check out the riverwalk in that direction.  It obviously had been constructed during the boom years and had been neglected since the financial crisis - but it is still a nice place to walk.  It continues from the Roman Bridge to the modern bridge used by the highway.

On my walk back to the hotel on Thursday morning, I noticed many low clouds, all of which were lower than the mountain tops.

All good things must come to an end.  Here is a photo of our Spaniards - they work so hard, taking classes, speaking one on one and at meals, participating in the entertainment and giving presentations in English.  They are truly amazing: Ramon, Victoria, Charo, Guillermo, Jorge, Sara and Luis.

And here is the full group, including PD Carmen, MC Pete, Instructors Darryl and Fernando, and Anglos Pat, David, Lucy, Jackie, Mary Ellen, Danielle and me.

And so another Vaughan Town has ended, we took the bus back to Madrid and I spent the night at Hostal Andorra after spending the evening with the English Speaking Group at Cafe Via 22.

Vaughan Town 50/50 #11, Monday and Tuesday, Sept. 12/13, 2016

The schedule for Vaughan Town 50/50 programs is different from the traditional Vaughan Town programs.  Instead of arriving at the Grupo Vaughan offices at Calle Ourense 66 at 9:00 or 10:00 in the morning, we we told to be there by 4:15 p.m.  That late start means that other than talking with Spaniards on the bus, there would not be much of the traditional activities on Sunday.  We arrived at Izan Hotel Puerta de Gredos in the town of Barco de Avila about 7:30, went over some of the rules, had a group activity, and then dinner as usual at 9:00.  And we finally got to check into our rooms at 10:30 - a very different start to the week.

On Monday morning, I went on my walk and went the two kilometers into town.  Now that I am walking more than ever, I had time and energy to explore the town center - something that I had only briefly done on prior trips here.  On my way back to the hotel, I was greeted by this horse, one of six who were in this field several hundred meters before reaching the driveway to our hotel.

The hotel is set back from the road.  After going through a gate which is closed at night, there is a second open gate way in the stone wall.

After going through the gateway, there is a smallish building on the left.  This is used by Vaughan Town as our meeting room.  The good news is that activities there do no disturb the other hotel guests.  The bad news is that when some Vaughan Town participants are not there at the start of a scheduled activity, it is harder to find them.

The main building with reception, the bar, dining room and some guest rooms (my room was on the top floor) is about 100 meters from the meeting room building.  There are also two large buildings with more guest rooms and a building with the pool, spa and fitness facilities.

The 50/50 program has both an Emcee and Program Director as traditional Vaughan Town programs, but also has two English instructors.  The Spanish participants get four hours of instruction per day.  That means there are no phone conversations or conference calls as in traditional programs.  That also means instead of six hours of one to one conversations, there are only two hours per day.  Hence, we English speaking volunteers are free about four hours per day, in addition to the siesta break after lunch.  The 50/50 schedule also includes a break at noon and at 4:45 with coffee, juice and snacks provided by the hotel.

Because of the extra free time and my walking more, one thing I discovered in town early Tuesday morning was one part of the riverwalk that goes from the Roman bridge upstream.

On Tuesday, all of the horses were out to greet me.

Here is a sample of our schedule.  We still have idioms and phrasel verbs to explain to the Spaniards (at the top in orange).  The Anglo names are listed at the bottom left and if you follow the lines across, the green marks on the right mean you have free time or the name of a Spaniard for a one on one.  My schedule had a one on one and one hour of free time.  All of the Spaniards and Anglos were together for the presentation workshop during the first two hours of Tuesday morning.

During the Tuesday siesta, on my return from town, I noticed that there were some ostriches at the Rancho el Barco next door to the hotel property.  They also had horses, chickens, mules and other animals.  This picture is from the road that goes into town and was with the maximum zoom on my phone's camera.  I decided that I needed to get closer, so the second photo was taken from the other side of the large stone wall in the first picture.  The entire hotel property is surrounded by this wall which is about eight feet tall.  I had to step on a stump and then climb part way up the wall with the phone in my mouth - this was the only way to get up over the wall to see the ostriches.  Well one of them did not like this and he charged at me and the eight foot tall wall.

Patrick, one of the Anglos, needed to get some new shorts, so he asked me to scout the town for a store with sporting goods.  I found that there was such a store and across the street there was also a China Bazaar store which would have things at a much better price.

I also discovered that there was a bus station with regular bus service to Salamanca and Avila, the two nearest larger cities.  On the hill above and behind the bus station, there is a nice plaza with great views of the river and mountains, and there is a castle.

I got the chance to walk around the castle, but it was not open that afternoon.  It is quite impressive.  My understanding is that the town is called Barco de Avila or boat from Avila, as this was as far upstream that boats could travel on the Rio Tormes.  Our hotel is called Puerta de Gredos because it was at the gateway to the Gredos Mountains.  Through that gateway, farm products, animal furs, silver and other minerals came to Barco de Avila to go by boat, and conversely, finished products came upstream from the cities for sale to the farmers, hunters and miners.  Thus, the need for a castle to defend this valuable location.

From La Linea de la Concepcion to Madrid, Sept. 7 - 9, 2016

On my last day in La Linea, I went out early for my walk and walked to the big beach on the east side of the city and tried to capture the sunrise.

On my way back to the hotel, I came across this memorial to a local Flamenco musician.

I took a taxi to the train station in Algeciras at midday and then walked across the street to the bus station for lunch at the cafe there.

I caught the 3:00 train to Madrid, arriving around 8:30.  I rushed to the Hostal Bruña, checked in and left my luggage, then walked to Los Rosas, arriving around 9:30.  The ESG (English Speaking Group) was still in session, and I grabbed a beer and joined in with the discussions.

Then it was back to the Hostal - I grabbed a slice of pizza on Calle de Fuencarral.  Saturday morning, I was up early and took a long walk around Retiro Park - every time I go, I find new sections that I did not know existed.  Retiro is a fantastic park to explore.  Later, I texted my sister Helen with photos of my mid morning coffee.

After doing my online classes, I walked to the La Tremolina for the  Vaughan Town Tapas reception.  They used to hold these in Serpentine, a restaurant in the same building as Grupo Vaughan offices.  The Serpentine was a decent place with acceptable drinks and food - but La Tremolina was outstanding, both for drinks and food.  It is well worth the time to get there and it is less than a block from the Vaughan offices.

Sunday morning, I was out for another long walk and went by a nice bakery - I sent a photo to my sister Helen, urging her to expand her horizons and visit Madrid when she is in Europe, and not limit herself to Paris and nearby areas.

I checked out of Hostal Bruña at noon and started the walk to the Vaughan Town meeting point.  A little more than half way there, I stopped for lunch and had some nice gazpacho and huevos rotos con jamon.  And then I arrived at the Vaughan offices as the other Anglos and Spaniards started arriving for our week together at Vaughan Town 50/50 #11.

A quick foray into Gibraltar, Wednesday Sept. 8, 2016

On Wednesday, I made a quick foray into Gibraltar.  To say the least, it is much more fiscally prosperous and physically lush than La Linea de la Concepción, the city with which it shares the border.  It was a sunny and hot day, temps in the mid 90s, so I only did a limited exploration and did not try climbing any part of the Rock of Gibraltar - this is something I would try on a future visit.

As I walked from my hotel, I noticed that the traffic was backed up for at least a mile and was not moving.

As soon as I got through the Spanish departure and Gibraltar entrance inspections (less than cursory), I stepped out and saw that I was on Winston Churchill Ave.

As I continued on, I discovered why the traffic jam happened - the one and only road into and out of Gibraltar crosses the taxiway and runway of Gibraltar International Airport, an active airport which also houses the Royal Air Force.  The road was closed for the departure of an Easy Jet A-320.

I continued on and took the first turn toward the marina.  There is construction everywhere in Gibraltar, it is really thriving economically.

I also observed that the British term for sidewalk is footpath.

As big and busy as the La Linea marina was, the Gibraltar marina is more so, including even a casino on a ship.

The area around the marina is certainly high end financially.

I came across a memorial to the Gibraltar evacuations of 1940 - 1951.  A quick search revealed that civilians were forcibly evacuated at the start of WWII, first to Morocco, then on to British ships, with most going to London but some to what is now the Portuguese island of Madeira and some to Jamaica.  While many got back to Gibraltar at the end of the war, some were forcibly kept out until 1951.

As I continued towards the marina, I happened to catch a photo of this sailboat as it motored by the end of the runway that is constructed on rocks dumped into the bay (the western half of the runway is completely surrounded by water).

When I approached the port, I needed a pass to enter, so I turned and headed back into the city.  I did glance at one of the cruise ships that was at the cruise ship marina; the ferry marina is around the corner from the cruise ship marina.

I noticed restaurants of many varieties.

Did I mention that there was construction everywhere I turned?

I eventually came to this lovely little park.

The park had these amazing self cleaning toilets - it was worth one Euro to see it in operation.

Commonwealth Park just opened in 2014 and is the only dedicated green space in the city - all 2.5 acres of it.

After exiting the path, I continued to wander and eventually found Main St., a long pedestrian mall with shops, cafes, bars and restaurants.

So I stopped and had a delightful British lunch of fish and chips.

From the news, I recalled reading that Gibraltar had voted 98% to 2% against Brexit (against leaving the European Union).  Since then, they have apparently strongly expressed their desire to stay in the European Union.  I cam across these new signs where it appeared they were preparing for some event on Saturday Sept. 10, National Day.  As noted on wikipedia:  The day commemorates Gibraltar's first sovereignty referendum of 1967, in which Gibraltarian voters were asked whether they wished to either pass under Spanish sovereignty, or remain under British sovereignty, with institutions of self-government.

As I continued on, I saw remains of some of the various forts.  And as luck would have it, as I am leaving Gibraltar because of the heat, I find information about them on a tourist info sign.

Then it was back to my hotel to cool off and relax.