Back to School in Guadalajara, Spain

Tuesday, 8 November, 2016:

Another early morning wake up as I had to travel the 45 minutes by Land Rover to Guadalupe to help teach five classes of 14 to 17 year olds in the finer points of the great game of American flag football from 8:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.

We would be dealing with about 150 boys and girls on the day so I definitely needed some sustenance before starting.

A Porra and a cafe con leche
should do the trick

Arriving at Guadalajara's
Instituto Brianda de Mendoza

Period 1 Warming Up

YOU GO GIRL!

A large Period 1 class

Period 2 game

Period 2 was smaller and fun

Period 3 got after it!

Andrea scored Period 3's winning TD

Period 3 was happy too

Period 4 only had 10 kids

All of them were special in their own ways.

GOAL LINE FADE!

Period 5 was a huge one

Our two goals were to have fun playing the games and to get kids interested enough to join the Guadalajara Stings new flag football team for children their ages.

I think we accomplished both today thanks to the school's three helpful P.E. teachers and Stings players Borja and Bastiand who were of great help!

Jesús and I agreed that he should stay home to work and be with his family today and that it would be both foolish and expensive for me to return to Arganda del Rey just to turn again for our Stings practice from 9:15 p.m. to 11:00 p.m.

Thus I had just 15 minutes less than seven hours to kill.

Time to explore.

The Pantheon in the distance

A tree covered walking path

Nice band stand

That mustache alone merits
a statue as fine as this one

Time for a late lunch

Are those baby eels I'm eating
on the left?

I pray not!

Orange Sealant

Buildings in Spain are constructed with zero space between them. When an old one is torn down, they slather this bright orange sealant on the remaining building for protection from the elements.

This bank looks strong

Who stole Neptune's Trident?

Mike Moon, was it one of your Pacifica H.S. players?

Nice church entry way

Nicer pastries

LOVE BREAD!

Brightly colored housing

Great old doors

Competition for El Corte Inglés?

Nice shapes

The Palacio del Infantada
from the 15th century

Powerfully re-built after a bombing
in 1936 during the Spanish Civil War

Outer Courtyard

Diamonds

Inner Courtyard

Today the Palacio del Infantada houses two museums. Let's take a look.

Headless but fine

Who are these guys?

Solid masonry work

A Guadalajara Stings helmet

Jewish Art

No shoes, no shirt, no service

Christ I believe

Serene in death

The Palacio has great ceiling murals

Like . . .

. . . all three of these examples

More of the Inner Courtyard

Cardinal Mendoza's Family
owned the Palacio back in the day

Tenorio Mendocino was a
great gentleman from Guadalajara

Chestnuts roasting on an open fire

It was getting really cold but our practice time was nearly at hand thank goodness!

Stings Pursuit Drill

The team gave us another great effort tonight, and I was off to a warm bed after a looooong day in Guadalajara.

Return to Madrid and Lunch with a Thacher Toad Coach/Zaragoza Hurricanes TE

Monday, 7 November, 2016:

The first news of the day from Los Angeles was not good.

Panthers 13 - Rams 10

Both juggernaut clubs are now 3-5 on the year.

Meanwhile, back in Salamanca . . .

Laurie woke up hungry in

a cold, cold ciudad

This restaurant was still

closed but she liked the toro

Our morning walk gave us a chance to see lots of examples of Salamanca's ancient walls.

Nice Window

Use any and all building materials

Colorful boulders are . . . 

. . . always a . . .

. . . good choice

Land Shark Sighting!

Salamanca's old Roman Bridge

spanning the Río Tormes

 The Camino de Santiago's

Via de la Plata route

runs through Salamanca

Why yes, YES I DO!

At the end of our morning constitutional, we stumbled upon this place that was not listed in any of our guide books . . .

The General Archives of the

Spanish Civil War

Awesome! I am ever so interested in this difficult time in Spanish history that occurred between 1936 and 1939 as a precursor of World War II.

The Archive is open Tuesdays through Sundays.

Today was a Monday.

Damn!

The Archive building

looked inviting too

Double Damn!

Laurie just kept on walking in

my moment of historical despair

Before eating, we popped into Salamanca's Closed Market for a peek.

 The mandatory butcher shop

Dried meats are a MUST!

Cheeses too

We headed back to Plaza Mayor's Café Novelty for our morning repast.

Laurie at her coquettish best

with famed Salamanca writer

Torrente Baluster

After yet another round of cafe con leches, churros and chocolate, we took one more walk through the Closed Market to our hotel.

Wine is always a good choice

So are piglets

Our Hotel was only a minute

walk from the Plaza Mayor

We got a large room with all of the amenities for a great price, we both highly recommend it!

 We can always use a strand

of garlic at La Casa Grande

Laurie was stunned at

the temperature on our walk

back to the train station

A reading of 2° Centigrade, made it 35° Fahrenheit.

Brrrrrrrrrrrr.

The train ride home was efficient, warm and happily uneventful.

We were excited to get back to Madrid as we had a lunch date with the Snyder family.

Aaron and his wife Theana are both teachers at the Thacher School in Ojai, California. Aaron is also a coach  who works with the Toads' football teams.

Last Spring, Laurie and I met with Aaron to talk about the possibility of his joining the wonderful fraternity of EuroBall coaches.

The Snyders are spending a sabbatical year abroad in Zaragoza, Spain as Theana is teaching mathematics at a high school while Aaron planned with to work with one of the two American football Serie C teams in Zaragoza, the Hurricanes.

The other Zaragoza American football team is known as the Hornets.

At first, Aaron planned on helping the Hurricanes as an assistant coach. Now he is their starting Tight End.

Such is life in EuroBall.

The Snyders after our lunch

at El Museo del Jamon

From left to right, the Snyder kids are Zoey, her twin brother Luke and then six year old brother Gavin.

It was fun hearing their stories about family life in Zaragoza. Some things were quirky, predictably, but for the vast majority they are all enjoying the Spanish lifestyle.

In the evening, our Osos Juniors had a solid practice and I was excited when the Osos were blessed to have six actual Offensive Linemen at our workout.

With the exception of one play which I screwed up, not the players, it was a really good practice!

On Tuesday I will be involved in an all-day Guadalajara Stings American football marathon.

We will be introducing/teaching American flag football for the first time to five classes of 13-16 year olds in an attempt to recruit players to our new Stings flag football program for kids.

It should be interesting as always.