Busy, busy though... I didn't even have time to do a blog post yesterday, and time is quickly running out this morning too!
Woke up to an absolutely beautiful final day...
Mom and her little one in the backyard of the hotel.
Another beautiful day in Spain.
For lunch, we had tapas.
We had our closing ceremonies and the volunteers and students were presented with their certificates...
80 hours of volunteer service over six days!
We both thought it was a really good program and we both enjoyed it, and would certainly consider doing it again. Lots of fun, and we met a lot of interesting people.
Once again, here is the information page for volunteers... https://volunteers.grupovaughan.com/
So, the bus was a bit early showing up, and if everybody was ready we could actually head back to Madrid an hour earlier than expected. So we all hopped on the bus, and set off. But in between the hotel and the town of El Barco de Avila, we noticed that the bus didn't seem to have enough power... like the speed was being limited.
We made it to town where the bus driver pulled over and tried a couple of things, but couldn't get any improvement. He ended up having to call another bus, so we had an hour of free time in the town.
This was quite all right with Ruth and I, as we hadn't had much time to see the town over the week, and we quickly hopped off the bus to go do some exploring!
There is a 13th century castle in El Barco de Avila.
Unfortunately, it is only open from 4pm to 6pm daily.
Scenery along the way.
The castle.
It's a beautiful area!
The newer bridge across the river.
Looking up at the castle from the river.
In the distance, you can see the older bridge.
We decided to head over there.
We got our feet a bit wet crossing this weir.
The old bridge.
The Rio Tormes.
Looking back towards the newer bridge.
A small 13th century chapel, with some newer homes.
Inside the small chapel.
There are a lot of storks in this area!
Old doors on the church in town.
The replacement bus showed up, and we headed back to Madrid. We're glad that we had that extra hour to explore the town!
Didn't take any photos from the bus.
Arrived back in Madrid, and did the short five minute walk to our Airbnb. It's the same place where we stayed the two nights prior to the language course.
Then, we were meeting someone for dinner! Caroline is a Canadian, originally from Walkerton, Ontario but she has been living here in Madrid for almost 20 years! She was doing some research on a trip she and her husband have planned, and came across our blog postings for the fantastic 10 day hike we did in Albania in June of last year.
She then noticed that we were in Madrid, so she sent us a note asking if we had time to get together. we love meeting blog readers, so we were quick to arrange to get together for dinner.
We went to a Syrian restaurant that was recommended by Rose, one of the other volunteers.
Thanks Rose, the food was delicious!
After dinner we went for a walk.
The famous leaning towers in Madrid.
Kevin, Caroline, and Ruth.
Back at the Airbnb, relaxing with Romeu the cat.
But, there is no time for relaxing this morning! We have to get on the metro just after 9am and make our way to the Atocha Train Station where we have a car rental booked. We are going to drive to Valladolid (about two and a half hours) but we will also likely stop in Segovia along the way just to have a look around. We have a hotel booked for tonight in Valladolid.
Sunday, we will arrive at our two week stay in Galicia. We really enjoyed the volunteer program, but are also looking forward to getting back to our own schedule of exploring and the Galicia region offers some great hiking opportunities so we will be doing lots of that!
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Good deal on the popular and highly rated JBL 5 Bluetooth Speaker.
And in Canada...
No comments:
Post a Comment
There are more comments on our facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/TravelwithKevinAndRuth