This was our first full day in the bustling metropolitan city of Madrid, the capital city of Spain. The city of Madrid has a population of around 3.5 million people while the entire metropolitan area has nearly 7 million inhabitants. Madrid is the second largest city in all of the European Union just slightly smaller than Berlin. While the city has a modern infrastructure, it has preserved many of its historical neighborhoods and landmarks. 

We ventured out from our hotel where we explored both the major shopping avenues and many small narrow neighborhood streets. It was a Saturday morning but the streets were bustling with many people out shopping, going to the theater and parks. The main avenue has wide sidewalks but there were so many people it was often difficult to walk without slowing down or going weaving in and out of the crowd. Along the way we found both homeless people and buskers wearing very oversized costumes of animals like pandas and Koala where you could tip them to get a photo with them. 

On this day there was also an enormous protest down the main street where local retirees were demanding higher retirement earnings so they could live a decent life without struggle. The protest included one contingent after another with colorful banners, flags and noise making horns. There seemed to be no sight in end to the number of people involved in the protest. 

The hotel concierge said that we should also check out the Chueca neighborhood as it was an artsy neighborhood. When we arrived there we soon realized that it was Madrid’s gay neighborhood named after composer and author Federico Chueca. The Chueca neighborhood is known for its lively atmosphere, many street cafes and boutique shops. It is also considered a very inclusive neighborhood regardless of one’s sexual orientation. During gay pride every year the neighborhood features famous and not so famous gay artists’ works. 

Everywhere we went in the center of Madrid the streets are filled with beautiful vintage buildings with ornate architecture. Many of the historic buildings in Madrid were built during the reign of the Hapsburgs (Reigned from 1516 to 1700) using brick facades with ornate interiors, but the most common buildings today are from the late 19^th-Century when the city expanded dramatically. These buildings line many of the streets are around eight stories tall, butted up side by side with plaster facades, ornate ornamentation and many balustrades. The streets and buildings are very regal and elegant looking. 

Back at our hotel we enjoyed a bite of lunch in the private lobby area called The Level which we are able to use based on our hotel room status. They had a huge selection of tasty looking tapas treats to choose from and we indulged in a few too many. A tapa is an appetizer or snack in Spanish cuisine and can be served hot or cold. According to the Joy of Cooking, the original tapas were thin slices of bread or meat which sherry drinkers in Andalusia (Southern Spain) taverns used to cover their glasses between sips. The measure was used to prevent fruit flies from hovering over the sweet sherry. Ham and chorizo were the most common meat used which are both very salty and would also activate the thirst. Because of this tavern owners would serve the snacks with the sherry and increase their alcohol sales. 

Our dear friends Ric and Kevin arrived this afternoon from Rancho Mirage near Palm Springs. We are looking forward to catching up with them and spending the next two weeks together exploring Spain and Portugal. Another friend, Carlos, was unable to join us as his father is quite ill and he had to travel to San Antonio, Texas to be with his family. We will miss him, but are wishing him all the best at this difficult time. 

This evening we met up with the rest of the Vantage Travel group for an orientation and to meet our tour group leader Patricia and the concierge for our trip named Lidia. There are about 100 of us on the trip and mostly retired looking. The orientation was too quick and not clear enough for people to understand. 

After the orientation we enjoyed a delicious dinner in the Melia Hotel’s dining room. They served us an avocado and shrimp salad for starters followed by a beef tenderloin with potatoes, stewed whole tomato and asparagus. For dessert they served a chocolate cake from a miniature Bundt pan with chocolate pudding inside the ring. 

It was a very early morning for us as we prepared to depart Frankfurt on a 10:50am flight bound for Madrid, Spain. We were up by 5:00am to get ready to leave and have breakfast before our taxi arrived at 7:15am to take us to the airport. We arrived early as our hotel receptionist advised but the Air Europa desk didn’t open until 8:50am. 

Once we arrived in Madrid we found a taxi to take us into the city and to our hotel for the next four nights, the Melia Madrid Princesa. We were put in a room on the eleventh floor that was part of what they call The Level. The Level is a premier floor where they have a concierge, special check in services, etc. They also have an extraordinary array of coffee and cookies, tapas, sandwiches, wine, champagne, waters, soft drinks, nuts, olives and more for guests from 1:00pm to 11:00pm. In the mornings from 7:30am to 11:00am they serve breakfast. 

After a few snacks to tide us over we headed out for a walk to learn a little about our location in the center of Madrid. The main street in front of our hotel is called Calle de la Princesa and is lined with a shopping mall, shops and restaurants of all types. Similar to places all over the world these days, we came across many homeless folks silently begging with signs asking for money. 

We then came upon a huge well-maintained park called Parque del Oeste or Western Park which was once main landfill for the city. The park includes all sorts of monuments, a rose garden, fountains and more. On the street adjoining the park is the 150-foot-tall Arco de la Victoria or triumphant arch in honor of the 1936 Battle of Ciudad Universitaria, part of the Spanish Civil War. Just beyond the arch stands the Faro de Moncloa, a 300-foot-tall transmission tower with an observation deck. 

Back at our hotel we met up with a French student named Olivier from SDSU who studied in San Diego in 2008. In our travels, we have met him all over the world since then including when he was studying in Australia. Olivier has a beautiful condo in central Paris but he gets claustrophobic after being home for more than a month and gets on the road traveling. While he is away he rents his condo in Paris, mostly to Americans. Lucky for him, he has a great job in human resources where he can work remotely from anywhere in the world. He is even thinking of buying another home in the south of Spain for its better climate. 

Olivier took us to a very unique little restaurant not far from our hotel called El Jardin Secreto or the Secret Garden. It was a kitschy spot where none of the furniture matched but instead looked like it was sourced from second hand shops. Every surface of the restaurant was covered in odd stuffed animals, pottery, plants, lights, decorative objects and more. Everywhere you looked there was something new to take in. The food was typical Spanish tapas and was quite good. We had a curry chicken dish, some empanadas that we might call pot stickers and a Greek style moussaka. We enjoyed hearing about Olivier’s life, especially about Pablo, his significant other, and were happy he made time for us.

The weather on this day was cool and gray but luckily no rain to speak of except for a few sprinkles. We spent a leisurely morning in the hotel.  In the afternoon one of our students from SDSU in 2009, Marc, came from Munich to visit with us. We spent the day eating and walking our way through town. 

We first stopped at a charming café by the name of Utopia where we had cakes and coffee while we caught up on each other’s lives. It was filled with red velvet banquettes and delicious tasting cakes. The place was filled with tables of retired older women which Marc said was a good sign as these older women know good cakes when they taste them. 

We explored the city on foot wandering around the Old Jewish Cemetery where the walls surrounding the cemetery are filled with the names of those killed in concentration camps. Small metal boxes mounted on the walls record the names, the concentration camp, if known, as well as the date of birth and date of death if known. The headstones date as far back as 1272 – the oldest material evidence of Jewish life in Frankfurt. This cemetery was used until 1828 when a new cemetery was created. The cemetery itself does not appear to be so well maintained due to the fact that in 1939 the Jewish community was forced to sell their cemeteries and other properties in Frankfurt to the city. The plan had been to level the cemetery and in 1943 6,500 gravestones were demolished. Only about 175 selected tombstones of historical importance, or value from an artistic sense, were saved. Fortunately, demolition of the cemetery was halted due to bombings. Debris and rubble were dumped there instead. As a result, 2,500 tombstones remain fully preserved along with thousands of fragments. At the end of Nazi rule, the cemetery was returned to the newly formed Jewish Community and clean-up work continued until the 1950’s. 

Our next stop was the majestic St. Bartholomew’s Church known for its history as the former election and coronation church of the Holy Roman Empire. Today’s church, built in the 1950’s after suffering severe damage during the war, is the third known church on the site with the oldest dating back to the seventh century. 

We spent some time sitting in the main town square outside the city hall building watching the people go by. For dinner we found a wonderful brasserie called Oscar’s in a fancy hotel where we had a delicious dinner. The boneless lamb shank with couscous, roasted vegetables, dates and almonds was very tasty. Kent enjoyed a burger!

This was another quiet morning where we enjoyed the buffet breakfast in our hotel and caught up on emails. 

In the afternoon we walked in the park that wraps around the old city center enjoying the many sculptures, fountains, lakes and children’s play areas. Many locals enjoy the park with the children or take a lunch break in the park before returning to work. The park is busy with bicycles, scooters, dog walkers, baby carriages and walkers. People of every age range can be seen enjoying the park. 

For an early dinner we decided to try a small Italian restaurant very near the main train station called Pizzeria 7 Bello. Our student Johannes said that it is one of the best places in the city for Italian food. When we arrived the very small dining room was not particularly busy but within ten minutes you could hardly get into the door. The entire restaurant only has about six large tables with stools around them and every one of them was soon surrounded by as many people as could fit around a table. No matter where you are from, you get pushed into a table with new friends. 

The menu included salads, pizza’s and pasta dishes of all types. One not so friendly waiter makes his way around from table to table taking orders and bringing food and drinks to your table. The waiter is also the cashier. The only other person we saw was a young man making the pizzas. Once we ordered, the food came very quickly and we were so happy that we got in before the major crowd arrived. The food was good and the price was excellent. For a good-sized salad, a decent sized pizza and two soft drinks the total bill was only 17 euros. We woofed down our food and made a quick exit to our hotel before we got claustrophobia. 

This afternoon we took a train from downtown Frankfurt to the small town of Heppenheim to visit with Johannes, a student who studied at San Diego State University in 2010. Just a few weeks ago (8/27/2022) Johannes got married to his long-time girlfriend, Vanessa at the Heppenheim Town Hall. 

Heppenheim is located less than an hour south of Frankfurt by train and has a population of around 25,000 people. The town, situated on a small hill, is filled with beautiful timber-frame houses painted in bright contrasting colors so that the timber frames stand out. Up on Schlossberg mountain overlooking the town is the Starkenburg Castle. 

We spent several hours meandering the winding cobblestone streets exploring the medieval buildings and the beautiful St. Peters Church at the top of the hill. We stopped at Granny Margaret’s Wine and Coffee Bar for a rest and enjoyed delicious afternoon cakes with coffee. Kent tried a chocolate cake with strawberry topping, while Mark had a creamy lemon tart; both were delicious. Germans called them cakes but they were made in a pie pan with a crust and we would probably call them a pie rather than a cake. 

We then proceeded to a beautiful residential neighborhood not far from the historic town center to Johannes and Vanessa’s home for the last two years since moving from Frankfurt. They rent the upstairs apartment in a historic 100-year-old stone house. We caught up on each other’s lives since we last saw each other in 2018, in Frankfurt, before dinner. Unfortunately, Vanessa had a weekly Spanish class to attend so she was unable to join us for dinner. 

For dinner, we headed back to the main marketplace in the heart of the old city to a very local German restaurant called The Swan Hessian Cultural Restaurant. Hessian refers to the region of Germany that we were in and the food they served is locally sourced. The interior of the restaurant was very traditional with beamed ceilings, half-timber style walls and wooden tables. There we enjoyed a local cheese with dark German bread, pickled onions and a shaker of herbs like cumin. Kent and Johannes had the local sausages with sauerkraut and dark bread. Mark tried a locally grown pork from the ribs of the pig similar to a very thick pork chop although with the flavor and texture of a ham. Everything was delicious. 

After dinner we took the local train back into Frankfurt. The trains we traveled on were very quiet, new looking and very well maintained. Each car had a bathroom on it, the seats were comfortably upholstered and the signage was completely automated on easy to read monitors. 

We were recovering from our Jet Lag and had a very quiet and uneventful day. We were late to get up and moving in the morning and spent the middle of the day walking in the park areas around downtown as well as in the pedestrian shopping areas. 

Graffiti seems to be everywhere in town from the facades of office buildings to the subway stations. The people appeared to be from all over the world. Asians, to Muslims, Germans to Indians and everything in between. We even saw a young mother with her three young children, maybe aged 3 to 8 smoking on vape pipes. So sad to see. 

The department stores and shops were filled with beautiful merchandise and the pedestrian only streets were overflowing with people. There were no signs of a recession or concerns about spending money. You would think that Covid was in the distant past as masks were few. Not even shopkeepers or store employees were wearing masks.

While we were in a department store we were amazed at the size of the chocolate department. They had a huge department of just boxes of all sorts of European chocolates in every shape and flavor imaginable. Not sure if Germans just love their chocolates or if they were preparing for the upcoming holidays. There seemed to be a steady line at the cash register. 

For dinner we walked just a couple of blocks from our hotel to a luxuriously appointed Indian restaurant called Tandoori Taj. Every table had freshly pressed immaculately white linen table cloths with matching napkins. The light fixtures, wallpaper and furnishings were first class. We had a delicious dinner similar to something we might find at any Indian restaurant at home. Samosa’s, lamb Rogan Josh and Mango chicken curry with rice. 

This morning we enjoyed a delightful buffet breakfast at our hotel before meeting up with Jochen Bercker and another student by the name of Magnus Dorsch. Magnus lives in Hamburg, Germany and took the train into Frankfurt to visit with us for the day. Magnus works for an online apparel company headquartered in Hamburg and also took the train into Frankfurt to visit with us. 

The weather was only about 40 degrees Fahrenheit overnight but warmed to a comfortable 65 or so during the day. Many of the shops and restaurants are closed on Sundays but it was sunny and clear and the locals were out enjoying the sunshine along the River Main. 

We stopped for coffee at a local art museum café along the Main River. Continuing our walk along the Main River we reached a neighborhood famous for its apple wines. The old town filled with half-timber houses and meandering narrow streets. Each eating establishment has tables and benches outside on the narrow streets enticing visitors to stop for a beer, apple wine or something to eat. We stopped at a charming old-world restaurant with beer garden where we had pork schnitzel, apple wine, beet salad with trout and chicken salad. Over lunch we caught up on the lives of our former students from the English In Action program at SDSU.  They are thriving!

By mid-afternoon Jochen caught a train home and Magnus took us by Uber to a lovely 55-acre Palm Garden established in 1871 and opened to the public. Many of the plants are arranged in climatized greenhouses including tropical, sub-tropical and desert plants. The gardens include a rose garden, dahlia gardens, ferns, palm gardens, cactus, succulents, a butterfly house with live butterflies, lakes with paddle boats, ponds, children’s play areas and much more. 

For dinner with Magnus, we walked a short distance from our hotel to a delicious Vietnamese restaurant called Sen. From the fresh spring rolls to red curry, everything was wonderful. Magnus staying the night in a local hotel and will head back to Hamburg by train in the morning.

We departed San Diego about 9:30am bound for Dallas, Texas, where we had a two-hour layover before departing for Frankfurt, Germany. Before our plane took off from Dallas the captain came on the speaker and said that during his walkaround he discovered a leaking brake pad that needed replacing and was told it would take about 45-minutes. The 45-minutes soon became two-hours before we departed. We arrived in Frankfurt about 11:00am local time after our nine-and one-half hour flight. 

Once in Frankfurt we needed to clear the customs hall which was not too long of a wait and then on to collect our bags. We struggled to find the local train connection at the airport as we were in a terminal that did not connect with the train and had to take a transfer bus to another terminal (#1) to find the train station. After dragging our bags down several sets of stairs we finally found the correct track for our short ride into central Frankfurt. 

We are staying at the Victoria Hotel located a three-minute walk from what I call the red-light district. The neighboring streets are lined with sex shops, people sleeping on the streets and most likely dealing drugs by the look of some of the people on the street. The hotel itself is clean and the staff are friendly. We had stayed at this hotel in 2018 so we are familiar with the location close to the train station and easy to meet our past students who studied at San Diego State University. 

After a lovely lunch at a nearby traditional restaurant and beer garden called Klosterhof. We returned to the hotel where we had a short rest before meeting Jochen. Jochen is one of the students we had from the Tutor Mentor program at SDSU in back in 2005 and 2006. He is living between Munster, where he went to school, and Xanten, Germany, where his parents live. He works with his family marketing a cosmetics line online that they package and ship around the world, but mostly in Germany. 

We walked a short distance to the old center of Frankfurt with Jochen where we dined and caught up over dinner at an Italian Restaurant. We returned to our hotel exhausted but glad that we had arrived safely. We are grateful to have the opportunity to see the world and to catch up with old friends in person.