INTED 2025, Valencia and Madrid, Spain, March 1 - 9, 2025

On Saturday morning, March 1, Patty drove me to the airport.  I flew from Phoenix to San Francisco to Munich to Valencia, arriving around 6:00 p.m. Sunday.  It was raining so instead of trying to use the Metro, I chose to spend money taking a taxi to my hotel, Ilunion 3 Valencia.  My hotel was about a six minute walk from the Melia Valencia where INTED 2025 was happening.  I walked there, registered, got my name tag, then got a salad and beer to have in my room before bed time.

Monday morning, the conference opened at the nearby civic center.  The conference is very international, and the two key note speakers were from NAU in Flagstaff, AZ, and University of Oxford in England.

 

 

  

The conference then moved back to the Melia Valencia Hotel.  Besides an area for poster presentations, seven rooms were used for live presentations.  There were three 90 minute sessions on Monday and four on Tuesday.  In each session, there were six presentations of 15 minutes - enough for each speaker to give a brief overview and take one or two questions.  Lots of information presented at a very rapid pace.  

It was like having a fire hose pushing gallons of information at you.  And then it was over.  I had registered for the tour on Wednesday morning, but then skipped it because of the weather - public schools in Valencia were closed all three days.  I went to have lunch with my friends I had met at Vaughan Town in February: Carlos and Kim, and Dee and Hirchak.  We had a delightful menu del dia, then adjourned to Dee and Hirchak's apartment for more conversation and some peppermint tea.

Thursday morning, I took the high speed train from Valencia to Madrid - more than 300 kph or about 190 mph.  I had lunch with our friend Carol.  Then Friday, I visited my friends at Grupo Vaughan for coffee - it ended up being a two hour visit.

Friday evening, I went to the English Speaking Group, La Teinda de las Lanos, at Cafeteria Restaurante Via22.  I chatted with friends for a couple of hours.  On Saturday morning, we boarded the flight from Madrid to Newark - three hours later the flight was canceled due to mechanical issues.  I rebooked to flights for the next day on my phone, then left the madness to go stay in a hotel - the other 300 passengers had to get their luggage, hotel and meal vouchers and rebook their flights.  Instead, I had a relaxing day (albeit at my expense - worth every penny), then flew home on Sunday.

 

I liked it so much, I will see if VTSU will fund me again next year.