This summer, some of our Fourth Formers had a fun-filled trip to Spain, improving their language skills and embrace all that Madrid has to offer
On Sunday 29 June, 26 Fourth Form students and three members of staff boarded the hyper-fast fuel injected turbo Bakers bus that took hills like a snail on a leaf. A decade later we were dropped at Bristol Airport, excited about our trip to sunny Spain. Some of the girls had packed as if they were going to Ecuador for a month but, aside from that, it was an easy and relaxed transfer through security and onto the plane. Two hours later we began our descent into Madrid with the glare of evening sunlight piercing the cabin windows. A (fast) coach took us to “La Finca”, a family farmhouse north west of Madrid’ and, before we knew it, we had organised sleeping arrangements, eaten a light supper of salad and sandwiches, and were cooling off by the pool at 11.00pm after our long trip.
Our schedule from Monday to Friday saw us having breakfast, followed by an hour and a half’s lesson, with the afternoon taken up with an excursion. We visited a number of interesting places, including the huge monastery of “El Escorial”, where all the Kings and Queens and Spain have lived from 1584, and the Valley of the Fallen, a mausoleum built by prisoners of the Spanish Civil war and where the dictator Franco is buried. As well as this, we enjoyed a trip to the 200 year old intact Roman Aqueduct at Segovia, a tour of the Real Madrid Stadium and a day at the Warner Brothers theme park. Our Spanish mentor Jose accompanied us throughout the week and he was an instant hit with everyone, impressing us with his ability to do just about anything – amazing basketball and football skills, razor-sharp insect/lizard catching abilities and enthralling magic card tricks. Our final day was spent swimming in the rock pools at “La Pedriza”, a beautiful national park in the Madrid Sierra Mountains.
During our stay we were well taken care of at the house by Margarita, her husband Vicente and their daughter-in-law Almudena. Margarita and Almudena made us some fantastic food, including delicious, home-made Paella which we wolfed down on two occasions. Vicente also brought out two of his horses, Kiko and Dal’, on a couple of evenings for some of the girls to ride.
In a nut shell, the trip was a superb success. It offered the perfect balance of linguistic and cultural learning and fun, switch-off time – all in an amazing setting with home-made authentic Spanish food to boot!