Travels with Sherpa Tom: Off to Spain and Vaughan Town in Belmonte, Nov. 4

On Thursday, Nov. 4, I flew from Phoenix to Newark and saw a beautiful sunset as our flight approached Newark.

In spite of hours in the plane, I still managed to take more than 10,000 steps for the day.

The overnight flight was from Newark to Madrid. I got to my hotel, unpacked and took a short nap. Then I walked to Cafeteria Via 22, Calle Cartegena 22, for the regular Friday night meeting of the English Speaking Group, also known on Facebook as La Tienda De Las Lanas: https://www.facebook.com/groups/109047092491065. It was great to visit with old friends I had not seen for nearly two years.

Saturday I spent several hours strolling in and around Retiro Park, watching people, checking out the flowers and just enjoying a lazy day before heading to Vaughan Town.

My sister Helen would love all the pastry shops in Madrid.

I had to sample some cheesecake with my afternoon coffee from the pastry shop across the street from the hotel.

I can never get away from my mother - Alma was a unique person.

I returned to Retiro Park after dark for more people watching and exploring. A delightful way to end the day.

Post Covid changes for Vaughan Town included no tapas gathering on Saturday evening. Instead, we met an hour before the bus left Sunday morning so that all participants and staff could be tested for Covid. And then it was finally on the bus to Belmonte in the province of Cuenca, and the Palacio Infante Don Juan Manuel hotel, our home for the week. As always, we had our half day schedule to follow.

Being a morning person, before breakfast Monday morning, I was out exploring. Belmonte is on the Route of Don Quixote and there are three windmills on the hill behind and above the hotel.

Across town we could see the Belmonte Castle. Several people walked there and toured the castle.

Bar Monserrat opens at 0600 each morning, so I was a regular customer for my morning coffee. They still have an old style mens room, no toilet, just a hole to squat over.

Like many Spanish towns, Belmonte has Market Day on Mondays, when many traveling vendors come to town and sell their wares at the market - but only on Monday and only on the market area.

Besides being on the Route of Don Quixote, Belmonte is also on the route of Brother Luis de Leon, a famous teacher and writer.

Our son and his wife have cloth pouches with plants growing on their fence - I saw the same thing in Belmonte, but it was plants growing in repurposed beverage bottles.

This is one of the three windmills on the hill above our hotel.

One day, we had a picture hunt - much like a scavenger hunt, we had to locate these items and then using the members of our group of five, act out the scenes and take a picture of each scene. Then Thursday evening, after the Spaniards had all done their presentations in English, we got to view all the photos. It was a most enjoyable activity.

Tuesday evening after dinner, we had a quemada.

We had a visit to Mont Reaga vineyard and winery for a tour and sampling of wines.

On some of the one on one sessions, I took several Spaniards to the artisanal cheese shop. I bought a kilo of their manchego cheese, as did a couple of the Spaniards. They also had other local products, including honey.

On Thursday afternoon, the culminating event of the week was the Spaniards making presentations in English.

In Belmonte's Plaza Mayor, they have a statue of brother Luis de Leon.

Vaughan Town ended Friday with the certificate ceremony, a tapas lunch and goodbyes.

Instead of taking the bus back to Madrid, Lola, Federico and I rode back with Juan to Madrid. Federico was going back to his home so he let me and Karl stay in his very nice apartment. Saturday morning, I used my cellphone and the tele-medicine abilities of eMed.com to take a Covid antigen test in the apartment. eMed then submitted it to United Airlines so I.was cleared to reenter the USA.