Exploring the City:
In an effort to beat the summer heat and spend some quality time with a friend, Joni, Teresa and I sought refuge in Los Alpes - an ice cream parlor near the school where our choir rehearses. El País, one of the big newspapers in Spain, published an article about the best shops in Madrid, which we of course saw as a challenge. Joni and Teresa absconded to Horchatería Alboraya, another joint on the list, a bit later in the week. We'll see if we can't knock off a few others before we depart!
Apart from ice cream, our week was pretty full of new experiences. First up was a brief trip to the suburban community of Aranjuez. A mere 30 minute train ride from Atocha, this sleepy town boasts a royal palace that rivals Madrid's own palace in both scale and grandeur but NOT in tourist traffic. We were the first people in the palace at 10 AM, and at times it felt as if the guards were only there to serve us (well, actually, more like keep us from breaking anything, but still!).
The train station is beautiful!
The Royal Palace of Aranjuez
After the palace visit we hopped aboard the "chiquitren" - a souped up golf cart made to resemble a tiny (street legal?) train. It was nice to be out of the sun as we wound our way through the town and the large park grounds reminiscent of Retiro. We hadn't really heard anyone talk up Aranjuez, but it was a lovely place to visit for a day.
The Chiquitren
The following day brought us on a bit longer trip by bus to Salamanca. The two-hour ride (that ended up taking 3+ hours on the way there!) terminated in the city that plays host to Spain's oldest university. Even more than other cities we've seen, the streets of Salamanca's historic center seemed crammed together to the point where many majestic buildings revealed only the peaks of their spires. That was not the case for the old and new cathedrals, which lie at the edge of a square fit for gawking. One notable feature of the new cathedral is that a small figure of an astronaut is carved into the side of an arch near the main doorway. Sadly, this was an addition long after the discovery of space flight, and thus not a prescient vision of a long-dead artist.
Salamanca was nice, and definitely had a lot of history, but it was incredibly hot. This limited the amount of walking we could do, which tends to be our favorite activity in any new place, so I think we probably missed out on something. I'm glad to have gone, however, and it was just kind of cool to walk the streets and ponder how many thousands of people had done the same, in pursuit of the universe's mysteries.
Plaza Mayor
Roman Bridge
A view of the Salamanca Cathedral
We found another "Chiquitren!" Except this one was just called a train tour. How boring.
We enjoyed eating vegetarian tapas, and making many ice cream stops on this extra hot day!
Can you spot the astronaut on the cathedral?
We left Madrid's center behind once again on Sunday, on a chartered bus headed toward the annual church picnic! A couple from our church lives in a house (a house!) in Los Molinos, and graciously hosted the gathering despite having plans of their own to relocate to the United States this summer. It was a great time of fellowship, food and even singing around the keyboard that our music director brought along.
Upon our return to Madrid, we had about an hour before marching ourselves over to join María in a surprise birthday party she threw for Alex. It was our first Spanish surprise party, and we had a great time! Alex was quite surprised and, though she reiterated how she generally does not like surprises, it seemed like she was enjoying herself. Oh, and María put together a delicious spread of hummus, Spanish tortilla, a divine date pastry, chips and salsa, cheesecake, olives, chorizo and sangria. Feliz cumpleaños indeed!
As our countdown to departure begins, we are frantically trying to squeeze in as many last things as we can (both new and old!). On Wednesday we hit up our favorite recurring entertainment option and saw TWO cheap movies at Cine Princesa. American Pastoral (period piece with an interesting story that maybe worked better as a novel) was good, and Get Out (psychological thriller replete with bitingly subtle racial commentary) was absolutely fantastic. María and Alex came with us to Get Out, and then we hit up the famed El Jardín Secreto for (one last?!) sublimely sugary lemonade.
Part of our Madrid bucket list was to indulge in one last menú del dia. With the endless dining options in this city, it was no easy task to choose just one place, but we ultimately opted for El Azul. I passed this small place on the walk to one of my classes each week, and the food looked as delicious as the decor was quaint. I ordered the chicken curry wrap and Joni got the squash tart.
Maybe the best part of our time in Salamanca was the vegetarian tapas at Café Atelier. This is definitely the most creative tapas offerings I've ever seen, and Joni would probably submit that they were the most delectable as well. We had a quinoa veggie burger, a "boat" filled with tofu and grilled vegetables, wheatballs, and carrot lasagna to accompany our giant glasses of lemonade and sangria.
En la clase:
Joni and I had our last classes this week - both as Spanish students and English teachers. It was bittersweet on both accounts, and I know we are both hoping to keep in touch with Paloma and various students of our own. We made peanut butter no-bake cookies to celebrate, and were reminded again that Spaniards are woefully under-served when it comes to peanut butter consumption. We'll leave this section with a kind quote from one of Joni's students: "Thank you for your patience, and thank you for making me feel like I belong in this class. At first I felt like my level was way too low to be in this class, but you showed me I could do it."
Final Notes:
We've got our final choir concert, last weekend in Madrid, last basketball match, and last Sunday in church coming up in the next 10 + days (along with countless other things that I will find to obsess over...last metro ride, last flight out of Madrid, last visit to the grocery store and our favorite fruit stand!!!). Along with those lasts we are excited to be embarking on a month long stretch before ultimately landing back in the US. First, we will fly to Barcelona to meet my family, and travel on with them to Lisbon and back to Madrid. Then, a few days later, we will be off on a crazy trip that lands in: Hamburg, Berlin, Oslo, Sunndalsøra, Copenhagen, London, Edinburgh, Reykjavik, Washington DC and Phoenix before finally collecting our car and driving to the Midwest. It is sure to be an amazing time, and hopefully not too fraught with travel stress or worries about the future.
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