Olé: DAY 1: PANORAMIC MADRID

Before the tour... With Fanny, our outstanding guide for the day (English Teacher at Gonzaga)

Ok... Here we are!!! After resting last night, we started our "Day One" at Colegio San Luis Gonzaga. We met at 9:00 a.m. and boarded a bus, with many other spanish students (they were going to visit the Congress Building). We were introduced to Fanny, our fantastic guide! She is an English teacher at the school and happened to live in the US for a long time (she is actually Italian). Her enthusiasm for the city's history and details was contagious... She was also an excellent "cutural translator" and gave precious tips about how to understand the Spanish culture and how to explain the American culture to a spaniard. It was trully an enriching and vivid "cross-cultural understanding" lesson.

After separating from the Spanish group, we boarded the "Madrid Vision" tour bus. We took the Historic/Monumental tour, which was a great start for the whole experience. Then we took a walk around "La Plaza Mayor," "La Puerta del Sol," "La Gran Vía"... We had the chance to appreciate the architectural richness of Madrid and the general ambience. Cleaner than we imagined, greener than we imagined... Apparently, the "Saturday-atmosphere" is permanent in this city: streets full of tourists and locals, people resting under the sun in "El Parque del Retiro," accordeons and trumpets giving us a soundtrack for the tour (with tangos, cuban son and italian mellodies) cafés filled with people, school kids singing "Miralá, miralá... es la puerta de Alcalá" (for a news cameraman)...

...and it was Monday!

Take a look at some of the pictures... they speak louder than words...
TOMORROW: DAY 2- Museo del Prado/Congreso (Prado Museum/Congress Building)