Hardly fell anywhere when we were there in late February and early March of 2015.
As promised (but of course much later than intended), here is the second of our now three part series about our trip to Spain. The main purpose of the trip, as you probably know, was our participation in Diverbo’s Pueblo Inglés program in La Alberca, Spain. But we also had a few days to see the sights of Madrid, Toledo, and Cuenca (Spain, that is!) In the interest of getting this post published before we forget what we even did, it will be heavy on pictures and lighter on text. If you are cheering that fact, I don’t want to hear about it. This post will focus on Madrid.
We flew non-stop from Quito, Ecuador to Madrid (10 1/2 hour flight) on Iberia Airlines. Since it was a night flight and we advanced six hours in time, we had a nice sleep and arrived in the early afternoon. After checking into our hostel in the historic center just blocks from Plaza Mayor and Puerto del Sol, we enjoyed a self-guided walk in the brisk but clear early evening.
When I think of Madrid, I think of plazas. It seems that at every turn, a sidewalk or narrow street opens up into a plaza. I loved the surprise of it. Probably the most famous plaza is the Plaza Mayor.
On our first full day in Madrid, we went on a “free” guided walking tour (we were expected and were glad to tip our guide). This is a really great way to get your bearings in a new city.
Tatiana, of ogotours.com was our guide on the 2 1/2 hour tour of Madrid’s historic center.Bart Simpson did not go on the tour with us but Lauren from New Zealand did. We met in Puerta del Sol which is kind of like the Times Square of Madrid.The bear eating from a strawberry tree is the symbol of Madrid.Restaurante Sobrino de Botín is said to be the oldest restaurant IN THE WORLD, established in 1725. Their specialty is suckling pig. Many famous people have eaten here including Ernest Hemmingway who had his own table. Apparently, he was quite the glutton and was said to have eaten an entire suckling pig by himself to impress a date! Prices were a little steep for us but we were still able to tour the restaurant.
We did eat here, however. The Museum of Ham is not a museum at all but just a really great place to get ham (of the Iberian sort) sandwiches for very little money.You can also take care of any and all your cured meat needs.
Speaking of food, you can eat just about anything your heart desires in Madrid but eating with friends makes it all taste so much better.
Some Huevos Rotos (broken eggs)Jamón and ChorizoPinxtos (tapas of the Basque region)This meal was eaten in the late afternoon. Not sure if you would call it lunch, snack, supper, or what? But dinner would not have been until after 10 pm so I know it wasn’t that.
Mexican restaurant in MadridChurros and Chocolate at Chocolateria San Gines, probably the most famous place in Madrid to get your fat and sugar fix!Churros taste like a lightly sweetened donut in the wrong shape but are perfect for dipping into your cup of very thick, rich, pudding-like chocolate. I do believe we had to lay down after this “snack”.
Besides the walking tour, we sprung for a two day unlimited pass to ride the Hop On Hop Off double decker sightseeing buses. After riding both routes and listening to the audio at least two times, we felt a little more comfortable with the layout of the city center, the history of Madrid, and how to get where we wanted to go. Here are some pictures from those rides.
Because of our limited time, we did not tour the Palacio Real or the Museo de Prado but will definitely do so on our next visit. However, we did enjoy the free admission at the Museo Sofia on Sunday afternoon as well as walking through the beautiful Parque Retiro.
The Reina Sofia Museum is housed in a building that, compared to others in Madrid, seems kind of plain. However, the artwork inside is anything but. We especially enjoyed the Pablo Picasso and Salvador Dali works.Parque Retiro is the “Central Park” of Madrid. We had an incredibly beautiful afternoon to enjoy a small portion of this oasis in the middle of Madrid.This is a juniper tree. What?!Children dancing to a little band. Sunday afternoons in Retiro Park are meant for families. There were magic shows, boat rides on the “see-ment pond”, skating, biking, music, food, etc.
Near our hostel was a little alley that was adorned with these wonderful mosaics.
For next time: Our third and final post about Spain, featuring the cities of Toledo and Cuenca – two very easy day trips from Madrid.
If you were hoping and expecting to read about life in Cuenca, Ecuador, we’re sorry for the deep disappointment you must be experiencing. But we think we can help. Our friends Lance and Kathy Mentink write a wonderful blog about their life here in Cuenca and their most recent post was excellent. Why don’t you head on over to Rambling On to see what experiences the Mentinks have had recently. Go to http://lance-kathy.blogspot.com/
What We’ve Learned: We did more in Spain than we thought we did!
What We Need to Learn: Don’t procrastinate in writing a blog – it only gets harder!
It has been more than five weeks since our last post but only one week since we’ve come back from Spain. And in that time, we’ve had to do all the things everyone does when they return home after an extended absence – shopping, laundry, catch up on the news from the neighbors, etc. But we also helped plan and implement a surprise birthday party for our dear friend Brenda, went to several musical rehearsals, ate out with friends, attended a concert, blah, blah. Yeah, we know. Such a life!
What a face! Brenda was really surprised to find 27 people in her apartment, waiting to eat sandwiches and cake. I think it was a memorable birthday for her!
If you are a new reader and are expecting to read all about our life in Ecuador, please read our previous 15 posts. And stay tuned because we will get back to our life here in Cuenca in a couple more posts. Our plan is to devote this post to our Diverbo Pueblo Inglés experience. The next post, which we hope will be within the week, will be about what we did in and around Madrid. After that, back to the southern hemisphere and life in the jewel of the Andes – Cuenca!
You must be asking yourself: What is Diverbo and why would you call a town English? (Pueblo=Town; Inglés=English) Let us enlighten you. Diverbo is a language instruction company that teaches English to Spanish speaking children, teens and adults in Spain and to Germans in Germany. Pueblo Inglés is an eight day English immersion program for Spaniards who wish to improve their English. The students pay many, many Euros in order to spend many, many hours in English conversation with native English speakers like us. We received free room and board in a lovely rural resort for more than a week as compensation for our “expertise” and ability to converse in English. We paid for our airfare to Spain and for lodging and food before and after the program. For more information about Pueblo Inglés and their volunteer program, go to http://www.diverbo.com.
We didn’t always eat in such a cavernous dining room – this was our final evening meal in a special restaurant in the village of La Alberca. But we always did eat great food and enjoyed each other’s company.
We originally heard about this program five years ago while listening to a Rick Steve’s travel podcast. The caller described an intense week of conversation and getting to know a couple dozen Spanish people, their culture, and making life long friends – for free! Even back then, with retirement still a faint glimmer in the future, we really thought we’d like to have this experience.
Fast forward to the rather quiet week between last Christmas and New Year’s, at which time we explored the idea further, applied for a spaces, were accepted, bought airline tickets to Madrid, and wondered whether a) Glenn would be able to spend that much time talking with people and b) Mara would be able to eat dinner at 9 pm. You’ll be glad to know that we were successful on both counts!
Diverbo holds Pueblo Inglés events at various venues throughout Spain all year long. Our week took place in the Hotel Abadia de los Templarios, which is a four-star modern rural complex at the edge of a little village called La Alberca. We stayed in two story chalets (Spaniard upstairs, Anglos downstairs) that circle around the main dining and meeting room. Even though it was February and Spain’s version of winter, we thought it was a very beautiful spot.
La Alberca is nestled between four mountain ranges in the Salamanca region of Spain. Most days it was pretty windy and cold but it was winter, after all!We were called “La Alberca 951” because we were the 951st Pueblo Inglés group. We had just arrived and had no idea what to expect.
Okay, Glenn and Mara, you went to La Alberca, it’s in Spain, it’s pretty, but what did you DO? What is Pueblo Inglés really about? Well, our day began with mandatory buffet breakfast at 9 am. I know, sounds rough, right? We made sure that we always had two English speakers and two Spaniards at our tables of four. We were instructed to always speak English and to make sure the Spaniards always spoke English. The morning and early afternoon were mostly spent in one to one conversations with each other. Every hour we were assigned a different Spaniard. By the end of the week, we had met individually with 22 different people, each with unique stories, backgrounds, and language skills. But also by the end of the week, we had 22 new Spanish friends, as well as 22 new native English speaking friends.
In addition to one on one time, we had diverse discussions in our “two on two” time, had telephone conversations, and were a part of several staged conference calls. Each Spanish participant had to give two five minute presentations (in English of course) during the week. Sometimes our schedule allowed us to be a part of that audience. Lunch was at two and like all the meals, was a mandatory event. Conversing with each other at meal time was especially challenging because of all the ambient noise. After lunch (around 3:30), we were rewarded for our hard work with a 90 minute siesta. If we were smart, we took naps. But as it was our only free time, we had to make choices. A couple of times we just hung out chatting with the other participants and Mara took a little hike into La Alberca.
Google Translate says an “alberca” is a pool. It is, but one of the Spaniards told me that it is the kind of pool that an animal drinks out of. Like this one.This is a map of all the historical areas around La Alberca.The pigs are famous around here because some of the best jamón (ham) in Spain is cured here.
Okay, siesta over! Back to work. Our evenings were a combination of small group community building or problem solving activities, entertainment (and boy was there some good entertainment – can’t post most of those pictures, though!), and more one on one conversations. Everything was extremely well planned and implemented by our program director, Sergio. No time was wasted and every activity had a specific purpose. Our master of ceremonies, Allan, was not only dynamic and fun, but an amazing motivator and encourager to the Spaniards and Anglos alike.
One night each country group represented at La Alberca 951 had to sing something that was representative of their area. This was the only time the Spaniards could speak (or sing) in Spanish the entire week. They blew us away with their enthusiasm.One of our group activities was a photo scavenger hunt.
Dinner was at 9 pm, usually followed by social time that for the Spaniards continued way into the wee hours. The middle-aged expats from Ecuador tried to make it to midnight! There were a couple of “party nights” and Mara made it to 1 am but rumor has it many didn’t make it to bed until three or four. We don’t know how they do it!
The first night of Spaniard/Anglo entertainment, Mara was part of a play with another Anglo and two Spaniards.
So who goes to Pueblo Inglés? As we mentioned earlier, the Spaniards that do the program are mainly there to make themselves more employable or to advance in their careers. Some of their employers actually foot the bill. There were IT and logistics professionals, executives from multinational corporations, managers, personal assistants, architects, a brand new flight attendant, a pilot, a dentist, etc. and a few were looking for jobs. Their ages ranged from mid 20s to mid 50s.
The native English speakers came from the US, Canada, the UK, New Zealand, Ireland, and the Netherlands. Quite a few were expats living in Spain, Italy and Ecuador (us!) Some were traveling through Europe for extended periods of time. The youngest Anglo was just 19 and the oldest was “somewhat older”! Most of us were middle aged. Quite a few participants had been part of previous Pueblos Inglés programs.
This was almost the entire group of La Alberca 951 (in the main plaza of La Alberca). We were just about ready to have a lunch of suckling pig!
Of course, this post has been just a tiny snapshot of the our Pueblo Inglés experience. Meeting and becoming friends with 44 people in a week that was dedicated to communication was an extremely significant event in our lives. Would we do it again? YOU BET! Is it something you might consider? If so, be sure to go to http://www.diverbo.com and read more about it and check out their schedule of Pueblo Inglés and Englischhausen (Germany) events. Maybe a trip to Spain or Germany is in your future.
What have we learned: How to say “Grathiath”, “Adioth”, and “Ethpaña”.
What do we need to learn:How to say “Gracias, Adios, and España!
Next post: Pictures and experiences from the rest of our time in Spain – more from La Alberca, Madrid, Toledo and CUENCA, Spain!
Thanks for reading to the end. Here are your bonus pictures for being tenacious!
I haven’t dressed like this since our last winter in Alaska. It was above freezing but there was a biting wind most of the days.The jamón from the La Alberca pigs was incredible. Spanish jamón is NOTHING like American ham. It’s cured for a really long time, isn’t refrigerated, is sliced very thinly, and is now my favorite type of pork!
Paula was just recently hired as a flight attendant. She couldn’t be more thrilled. Her newly improved English is going to help her so much.Chris (US) and Sylvia (New Zealand) unaware they are being photo bombed by Glenn and Mara (those are my fingers!)Mara learning the fine art of slicing jamón. No fingers were lost in this endeavor.
Los Gano de Cuenca 