Alhama de Aragon with Vaughan Town, October 2026

We retrieved the area rugs from the cleaners and put them back into place.  We continued to find things and places where the Norway rat had been, causing more cleaning and/or tossing of things in the trash.  I donated platelets at the Red Cross on Sunday Oct. 4 and did my regular Tuesday at the Desert Botanical Garden on Oct. 6.  Patty's vegetable garden is starting out strong. 

 

 

 

On Oct. 7, I flew from Phoenix to IAD in Washington, D.C., then over night to Madrid.  Friday afternoon I did an Assessment of Prior Learning meeting from 3:00 until 7:00, then went to Cafeteria Via22 for the meeting of the English Speaking Group, a.k.a La Tienda de las Lanos.  In addition to chatting in English, we had this activity to get us to use more English words.

 

Then on Sunday morning, it was time to meet at the offices of Grupo Vaughan on Calle Orense for the bus ride to Alhama de Aragon, about two hours northeast of Madrid.  In the interest of increasing tourism them, there are new signs in both Spanish and English that tell about the history of the town.

 

 

As usual, Vaughan had a busy schedule for us, posted for four hours each morning and afternoon.

One day we had a photo scavenger hunt, with each team assigned different tasks.  Here are the photos from the Alhama Explorers, the name we adopted for our team.

 

We had to replicate a famous Velasquez painting, and we chose the Triumph of Bacchus.

 

Then we needed to replicate something from the 15th century and chose Columbus' Discovery.

 

We needed a famous advertisement, so we chose this one for Dior perfume.

 

 

 

Then we needed an action scene from a famous movie, so we chose this scene from Pulp Fiction.

 

And finally, we had to do a team photo of the Alhama Explorers.  The team was Francisco, Danny, Maria C., Jenny and me.

One day during free time after lunch, I tried to access the tower, but could not find a foot path to reach it.

 

 

The hotel advertises itself for the thermal waters.   The felkekur allows you to sit on the bench and soak your feet in the thermal waters and then walk on the rocks.  While I did use the outdoors pool each afternoon, walking bare foot on rocks did not appeal to me.

 

 

In the past, I have done short presentations about building homes with the Fuller Center for Housing and about plants and food from the desert.  This time, I did a presentation about donating blood.  It was a big hit and led to many people deciding to donate blood and to organize a blood drive where they worked.

 

Someone caught me in this candid scene, contemplating unknown thoughts.

All good things must come to an end, so we had to have a group photo after the certificate ceremony.

 

Then on Friday, it was back to Madrid, one more visit to Cafeteria Via22 for the English Speaking Group and then flying back home on Saturday Oct. 17.