Daytown, Las Tablas and Madrid, Sat. and Sun., Jan 27 and 28, 2018

Friday night I stayed at the Hotel NH Las Tablas - this was paid for by Grupo Vaughan because I volunteered at Daytown on Saturday.  The deal for Anglo volunteers is that they pay for one night in the hotel and breakfast, lunch and dinner for one day if you promise to talk English for the day.  For Vaughan Town, they try to have roughly equal numbers of Spaniards and Anglos; at Daytown, there are usually more Spaniards than Anglos - in this case,there were about 25 Spaniards and 17 or 18 Anglos.  Just as at the intensive week long program, Daytown includes breakfast at 9:00 with Spaniards and Anglos at every table, then a group activity at 10:00,and one-to-ones (and some two-to-ones) at 11:00, 12:00 and 1:00.  Lunch is at 2:00, then a group activity at 3:30, more one-to-ones at 4:30 and 5:30, then a closing activity and ceremony at 6:30.  Ten hours of speaking in English ended at 7:00.  Here are the group photos, one serious, one humorous.

After saying our goodbyes, I went shopping at the large El Cortes Ingles complex on the other side of the highway.  On the way back, I took this photo of the BBVA complex lit up at night - while it is quite spectacular in the day time, it is even more so when it is lit up at night - there are four floors that cover several acres (see my photos on the Jan. 26 post - those were taken in daylight).  And the complex is topped with a tower in the shape of a sail and that is some 20+ stories tall.  That is the large rounded tower lit up in the photo.

After having room service for dinner (paid for by Grupo Vaughan), I spent a quiet night at the hotel.  Sunday morning, I had a pleasant and quiet breakfast, then worked online on my classes, before heading out to meet friends for lunch.  Las Tablas is a relatively new section of Madrid with wide avenues and many avant garde architectural designs.

As on prior trips, there were many calls for blood donors.

And as before, Sunday afternoon traffic was invited to donate in the portable donor bus in Puerta de Sol.

 There have been many changes to Puerta de Sol and the construction continues.

Maria could not make it, as her youngest son was ill.  So it ended up being just Carol and me for a light lunch of two shared dishes, a Spanish omelet with bacalao (cod) and a vegetable stew.  After lunch, we walked to Temple Debod and on to Plaza de Espana, where we met up with Carlos.  We found a pleasant cafe for coffee and dessert and, as always with Spaniards, much discussion about everything from politics to what family members are doing and more.

About 5:30, Carlos and I walked for a while, and then I took the Metro back to Pinar de Charmartin and a 30 minute walk to the hotel from there.  Another trip to Spain ends on a positive note.  I hope to have many more trips here.

Last days at Vaughan Town in Belmonte, Spain, Thu. and Fri., Jan. 25 and 26, 2018

While on a one to one in Belmonte, we came by Patricia's beauty parlor - I had to have a photo for my wife Patricia and for one of our Spanish participants, also named Patricia.

After the debates Thursday, we had some presentations - Cher works with a group of unemployed women in India and helps them make things from scrap materials.  In this case, they make these nice bags.  Cher bought seven of them as gifts for Spaniards and then held a lottery to give them away to seven lucky Spaniards.

Thursday evening, we had our last dinner together.  With the debates finished and the week over, everyone relaxed and had a nice evening meal before heading off to Bar Massimo.

After a week of wonderful weather, it rained Thursday evening - and overnight it was cold enough to produce some snow on the cars parked at the hotel.

On my walks Friday, I found some more interesting signage they have around the village and at our hotel.

And we had group photos taken, one serious and two funny - my friends who have been to Vaughan Town know all about this.

After lunch, we took the bus back to Madrid, said our goodbyes and went on our way.  It was a wonderful week with amazing people.

After checking into the Hotel NH Madrid Las Tablas for the weekend, I went back into the city center to meet with my friends of the La Tienda de las Lanas, the Friday evening English Speaking Group.  Anabel had one quiz and one game for us to use our English vocabulary.   And then it was just chatting over beer or wine and tapas.

Mont Reaga Vineyard and Winery, and more Belmonte, Spain, Wed. Jan. 23, 2018

On one of my morning walks, I did a one to one with Juan Ramon.  He is a lover and life long collector of modern art.  He has visited the Tate in London, MOMA in New York, among others, as well as being a member of the Reina Sofia Museum in Madrid and the Guggenheim in Bilbao.  We passed this interesting marker in town, as well as the far end of the central plaza.

The event everyone was excited about was the two hour excursion to Mont Reaga Vineyard and Winery.  It costs eight euros per person and was worth every penny.

We started with a glass of a young white wine that was chilled.  There was no tasting and spitting out the wine, this was all about the consumption of the wine.

The tour took us outside where they explained that they prune the vines twice per year so that there is never more than 2.5 kg of grapes on any vine - preferably less.

One of their buildings is covered with solar panels - Mont Reaga is noted for their care of the environment.

 We learned about the various stages of production.


 

They have kept many historical artifacts in the winery, including some doors that date back to 1450 before Don Quixote as well as this beautiful chandelier.

The tasting room had tables with lights below the translucent glass plates.  I learned that this is one way to judge the quality of the wine - tilt the glass at 45 degrees and the light from below will show a colored ring around the edge of the wine.  The color tells a lot about the wine.  In this case, it was orange and that was a good thing; purple would not be good (sorry about the slightly out of focus photo).

In all, we had three samples, including the Fata Morgana merlot.

I bought two bottles, one Fata Morgana and a bottle of cabernet sauvignon.

During siesta, I explored the town some more.  While there are many nice homes, like any town, there are some that need help.

There are two sections of the wall that formerly encircled the town.  These next photos were of the north side, and while the wall still goes from this tower all the way to the castle, it is not in the best condition.

In contrast, the wall on the east side is in great shape, in spite of (or maybe because of) the many houses that are built right up to the wall.

Of the three gates I have found, the Chincilla is in the best condition.

After wandering for an hour, I finally got back to our hotel.

Vaughan Town Days 2 and 3, Belmonte, Spain, Jan. 22 and 23, 2018

Unknown to most of us, Monday was market day.  A hundred or so vans came to town and put out their wares for sale.  Besides all kinds of clothes, small appliances and household goods, there were even dry goods from grocery stores (toilet paper, paper towels, etc.) even though there is a full service Dia supermarket in town.

I continue to find areas in the hotel where the old ruins have been preserved and the hotel keeps getting bus loads of tourists in to see the ruins of the palace and the town.

In one of the rooms with the ruins, there is a model of what the town used to look like.  Our hotel is the palace on the left and the castle is in the center rear.

Puerta de la Estrella is one of the gates I have walked through and which is in the mockup.

There is a very large and ornate cemetery behind the hotel.

The old and the new, traditional windmills are next to cellphone towers and electrical power lines.

Those windmills are on the hill behind our hotel - from there, you can look back to see the castle, again note the contrast with antennas and towers.

For all of my one on ones, I have gone for a walk with each Spaniard.  Besides getting me to my goal of 15,000 steps per day, this also gets me to see more of the town.  While it is not a large town, I continue to find new things.  On Tuesday, that included finding the other remaining gate to the old walled town, Puerta de Almudi.

And Tuesday, I also was able to get a better view of the castle.

And we continue with one-to-ones, plus entertainment - and I am one of the coaches for the four debate teams.  My team has to argue against the new British law which requires all cigarette packages to have no advertising or logos - all must have the same font and color, and government prescribed messages on the back.  This will be an interesting debate.