A bit earlier than planned, I’m back in the UK. Arriving at the crack of dawn gave me time to kill. So it was coffee and people-watching for a bit, as the ebb of passers-by gradually increased as Heathrow woke up. I made the most of my unplanned London trip and found a cheap last-minute front-row ticket for the Lost & Found Orchestra, which turned out to be something pretty special....
Finding the top of San Pedro seemed like a good option for my last day in Spain. Lacking minor things like fully accurate directions shouldn’t get in the way. Unfortunately, time ran out again…I came close but ended up settling for some hefty boulders providing a pretty spectacular view of the valley. Overall a good farewell to living in the Spanish hills. Well, minus the menacing cows that prompted a detour....
Discovering I planned to go sightseeing in Madrid, my Spanish teacher went on another of his wonderfully rambling tangents. Today it included an art book, my map of Madrid, touched on communism (he’d argued with a classmate about it on Monday) and somehow jumped to the sacred status of cows in India. Never a boring time in Spanish language class. This time the weather in Madrid was beautiful and I took his advice of both going to Sol and touring the Parque del Retiro with its formal gardens, fountains and shaped trees....
Going into Madrid, my bus was surrounded by huge white flakes slowly falling from the sky. In retrospect, a warning. Madrid itself was snow-free and my first order of the day was getting a “Bocata de Calamares” (squid sandwich) for lunch. I’m told the tasty baguettes filled with deep-fried squid are something of a Madrid specialty. And very easy to find in the city! Then onto the Museo Reina Sofia gallery....
Clonk, clink, clonk, clong! The sound of cowbells followed my afternoon on Madrid’s country trails. Aiming for high(ish) places, I took Guadalix de la Sierra’s Ruta 7, a loop from the village to the mountain San Pedro and then back via a second village. Doable in an afternoon, I was told. Translating a guide to the rutas armed me with a hand-drawn map and directions. Unfortunately, there are more branches in the trail than in the guide and in several places, the path isn’t clear....
Learning a new language is far more varied when a lot of your practice is with kids. Can I say many useful conversational pieces in Spanish? No. Am I (comparatively) well-versed in dinosaurs and their features? Yup. Besides what good is Spanish when English is so highly valued? Finding a local Spanish course might be proving difficult a nightmare, but I’ve already been offered work teaching English at a language school....
Spain: sun, sea & sand, right? I’m staying near the mountains north of Madrid and it’s sunny, but cold, cold, cold. Some of the surrounding mountains already have peaks tipped with snow, apparently a taste of things to come!