Articles from this Category
16 July 2019
We had a leisurely start with breakfast of warm bread, cheese, tomatoes and fruit in the apartment. With a free walking tour booked for 1000, we didn’t have much time afterwards but had to walk uphill to the starting point near Clerigos Tower, which I learnt was the tallest building in Porto (surely not, perhaps […]
15 July 2019
Leaving Spain I walked to Atocha station a little before 0700 only to miss the bus to Madrid airport by seconds. That was the bus that I hadn’t counted on taking but it was running late. It was a short wait till the bus I had planned on taking at 0720. The good thing was […]
14 July 2019
On my last full day in Spain, I take a daytrip to Toledo, the historic capital of ancient Spain, or more correctly the Visigothic kingdom around the 7th Century. I had booked the fast train departing at 0850 and the return at 1725, at a highly discounted price. The journey was only 30 minutes each way […]
13 July 2019
Today I return to mainland Spain after my week of school in Tenerife. I took an early bus to Tenerife North airport, 30 minutes away, getting to the terminal around 0900. I settled into the lounge airside and had my own muesli with a few other bits. The location gave me a good view of […]
10 July 2019
After school today, I checked out the waters that had been beckoning me over the last few days. I had hesitated because the weather wasn’t exactly hot hot. I tested the waters in the sea nearby. With the black sand/rock the water wasn’t as cold as I had expected. But I thought I’d leave it […]
9 July 2019
In the afternoon, after school, I made a trip to La Orotava. This is one of several old town on Tenerife but it is the nearest one to Puerto de la Cruz. In fact, it is just on the hills behind Puerto. I had to walk uphill to my bus station to catch the bus […]
8 July 2019
I started my second week of Spanish studies at the Don Quijote institute five minutes walk away. Like their sister-school Enforex in Salamanca, the 4h per day was split between two teachers. One teacher was awesome and could help students understand Spanish grammar with comparisons with French, German and Italian (the respective students’ native tongues). […]
7 July 2019
I have Spanish classes here at the Don Quijote school, a sister-school to Enforex where I spent my first week. That would take up all my weekdays, meaning that today, being Sunday is my only chance to go further afield. It was a tough choice between going to Masca or Teide (the highest mountain in […]
6 July 2019
Today I move on to Tenerife in the Canary Islands by bus and flight. I like to think of the Canary Islands as Africa in Spain or Europe, since it is just off Morocco and Western Sahara, My bus to Madrid airport leaves at 1100 so I had time to kill. I had finished all […]
5 July 2019
It’s my last day in Salamanca today. In the evening, after class and swim, I wandered out into the pedestrian streets. There was music from a band with traditional Spanish music. I call them wandering minstrels. While I had seen them from afar from previous days, this was the first time I could enjoy them […]