Monday was a super exciting day for me as I got to play “tour guide” around the city that I love.
We started our morning by meeting at the train station where we yumped (jumped) on the train that was heading to Principe Pio, a train station / mall / food court of sorts. We went directly to see part of the “Green Ring” (learn more about that here). I told them that later in the day, we would get to relax by the river but on the south side of Madrid.
Our adventure continued with an uphill hike to the Templo Debod, an Egyptian temple in the center of Madrid. We had to start off with lots of exercise because we had plans to eat Churros a little bit later in the day. From the Templo Debod, we continued walking until we reached the Plaza de España. The Plaza de España has been under construction for many years as it was another project to make another green space in the city center. Plaza de España has the monument dedicated to Miguel de Cervantes, the author of Don Quijote.
We then walked to the city center to the famous Chocolatería San Ginés to enjoy some delicious chocolate con churros and porras. I’m pretty sure that we ate our weight in chocolate con churros and porras, but it was well deserved after our mini morning hike.
After eating, we adventure on the Madrid Metro to visit the school I worked at during my sabbatical, Colegio Montpellier, during the school year 2019-2020. Upon entering, we immediately got split up into 3 groups to partake in some of their English classes. It was so fun to see the students I had in middle school now at the high school level and interacting with my current students. Our BHS students worked together with their students to solve riddles and answer trivia questions. Both sets of students were so excited about this meeting. Once class finished, we toured the school as it is a school for ages 3 all the way to high school. Needless to say, our students were impressed and now have a better appreciation for their elementary school teachers – ask them about it!
We made our way back to the center for a couple of hours of free time to get some shopping done, eat lunch and enjoy some snacks. Around 6pm we headed down to Madrid Río to have a typical Spanish afternoon. The park was full of people walking their dogs, hanging out with friends and family, exercising, enjoying some snacks together and doing some interesting sparring. We walked immediately to the zip line area of the park and we got to see our BHS students revert to their younger selves. After sitting around that area for a bit, we kept walking as some of them wanted to see a really cool looking bridge. They found some crazy slides before getting to the bridge and that’s exactly where we spent the rest of the night. No phones, no worries, just having fun.
A quick walk (30 minutes) later, we were at the Delicias station waiting for our train to take us back to Villalba. 30k steps later, everyone was back in Villalba recharged from a super fun and relaxing day.
BHS Spanish Exchange Blog 
Leave a comment