Field Trip to Valdemingómez

The day after we put on Halloween shenanigans for the kids, I got to accompany one of the 5th and 6th year classes on a field trip just outside of Madrid! While the kids were not particularly thrilled about this trip - which was to a recycling center - I was excited about riding in a bus and maybe seeing a different side of the city. And the trip did not disappoint!

Valdemingómez itself was obviously not that interesting. It could have been, if they had actually told us more information and if I had been able to talk to them and find out more about different things - the recycling process, etc. - but they already had a rather juvenile program planned with a video and some games that, even for the kids, were not particularly stimulating.

The kids playing a game at the recycling center

What was truly fascinating (to me) about the experience was, indeed, riding on the charter bus. When we were almost to Valdemingómez I decided to get out my phone and see whereabouts the city we were. I was completely taken aback when I saw that we were in a part of the suburbs which I had always thought was incredibly far away. And it's true that, by metro, it would have taken nearly an hour to get there; but by bus it took right around twenty minutes!

Some pictures around the center!

This didn't turn out super well, but the center was up on a hill and actually had quite nice views of some mountains off in the distance

This just really gave me a new perspective on how big Madrid really isn't. While there are a ton of people in its greater metropolitan area - 6.5 million and counting -  you can drive almost all the way across the main part of the city in under thirty minutes! It just reminds you how much more compact everything is in Europe as compared to the sprawling nature of many cities in the U.S.

Here is a map I made showing a few things around the city and where they are in relation to one another.