Día 9, Madrid, España
All good things have to come to an end my friends, but do they really? 😋
We started our day with breakfast at the cafe next door to our hostel with some delicious, buttery soft croissants. Ernesto showed up and we started our day two walking tour of Madrid. It was so nice to learn so much history from a madrileño. It was a pretty cold morning and after about 45 minutes we took a quick chocolate and croissant break, yup two croissants in one morning!!
We then braved it on the metro to head to our first museum tour of the day, The Reina Sofia. We got to see the famous «Guernica» by Pablo Picasso and Ernesto knew so much history behind Picasso’s work that it made us appreciate the cubist piece of art even more.
After the museum we had an hour for lunch. Most went for pizza while others had some mini bocadillos. 
After lunch we got back on the metro to go to Retiro park to use the row boats!! It turned out to be a beautiful day for the row boats or for a nice walk around the man made lake.
After the boats it was time to head to the Prado museum but we realized we were almost an hour late for our appointment!!! We figured that we probably wouldn’t have enough time to visit the museum and make it to dinner on time so unfortunately, we did not get to the Prado. Luckily there’s always next time! So we all ended up walking towards the Gran Via to do some last minute shopping. 
We ended our night with dinner and an amazing flamenco show at Cardamomo.
I must say that this was an amazing trip and from talking to my students I really do believe they had a great time! I hope to do this again in 2020!!
Día 8: Madrid, España
We are running out of days too quickly!! We had a sad start to our day with our despedidas at Plaza Teresa. Our students would not get on the bus because they wanted to spend every last second possible with their new friends. Saying goodbye was not easy and I think they were all happy that our bus was late. Adiós Burgos and until next time!! Many of our students want to come back this summer and some of the Burgos students are talking about coming during our Christmas break. It seems like many beautiful friendships were made on this trip. 
After about a half hour they started boarding the bus because the Burgos students had to go to school. We were now on our way to Madrid. The bus ride was pretty quiet with many sleepy kiddos!!
We arrived in Madrid and went to our hostal, The Hostal Gala, a 2 minute walk to the Gran Vía and many great stores to shop in for last minute gifts. We had some time to shop since our rooms we not ready and we met back at the hostal at 2pm to meet out tour guide, Ernesto.
We first walked to the Palacio Real where Ernesto gave us an amazing tour of the gardens and of the Palacio itself.
It was a long tour and I think Ernesto could tell by our slow moving bodies and blank stares!! He is such a great tour guide for first even noticing our less than energetic selves and secondly for suggesting that we go out for churros and chocolate!! We all agreed!!
Once we arrived at the churrería we realized that dinner was in 45 minutes, but we talked ourselves into having dessert first, yum 😋
We walked a little after the churros yo burn off some calories and to get ready for dinner. It was a very cool spot and I loved that we had or own private room!
Día 7: Salamanca, España
It was 21 years ago that I was last in Salamanca, the city where I studied abroad for the semester. It brought back so many fond memories being there today. I remembered the streets I walked every day to get to school and to stop off to get a delicious chocolate. We started our day with a tour of the cathedral and students got to climb to the top of the tower…Ben and I decided to not climb the hundreds of stairs to get to the tower so we stayed nice and safe on the ground!
We then took a walk to see the inside of La casa de las Conchas and got a great group photo. 
We all then headed over to the beautiful Plaza Mayor. 
We were all given about two hours to explore, eat and shop!!
Once we regrouped after our free time we net back at the Plaza Mayor and walked over to visit La Universidad de Salamanca, the oldest university in Europe! Can you find la rana?? If so, you’ll fall in love in school!!
It was finally time to depart the golden city to head back to Burgos to get ready for our despedida at La Pizzería competencia. The whole group was there, the LHS students, the Burgos students and their teachers. We were all very fortunate to hear Danny’s toast. Gracias Danny!! ¡Hasta pronto Burgos!
SraGillen 