The Spanish study trip to Santiago de Compostela in north-west Spain was great fun with many memorable experiences. Mornings were spent improving our Spanish through lessons at the Academia Iria Flavia, while in the afternoons we visited some of the beautiful and historic buildings in and around the city.
On the first day we saw the city centre for the first time and settled into our apartment with our lovely host Anna, a fifteen-minute walk from the old town. Despite catching the wrong bus, day 2 began early (and on time) with a morning of lessons – these definitely helped to improve our Spanish and were made fun by the teachers at the language school. We enjoyed lunch with our host before we embarked on a tour of the city with a professional guide; it was interesting to learn about Santiago’s importance as a pilgrimage town.
Over the weekend we took a coach to the seaside town of A Coruña. The weather wasn’t on our side, but we were still able to walk around The Tower of Hercules (the oldest functioning Roman lighthouse in Europe), with our umbrellas and raincoats. The next day we headed to Pontevedra and two towns on the coast with a group of Spanish students from the local school. We went to the beach at Sanxenxo and despite it still being cold and wet, we made the most of the seaside. I enjoyed getting to know some of the students, they were all very friendly and it was useful to test some of our Spanish out. My favourite town that day was Combarro, we went on a pretty walk around the quaint little coastal streets and enjoyed palmeras from a local bakery.
The last few days of the trip held some of the best highlights. Day five began with more lessons before we walked the last 5km of the famous pilgrimage, el Camino de Santiago. We were able to visit the cathedral and climb to the roof where we could see the whole city from above, a blast of torrential rain definitely adding to the experience! Another treat was having churros and hot chocolate in a local café before Spanish diary writing. We got to make Spanish tortilla and pasta with mussels ourselves in a cooking workshop. We also made the traditional Tarta de Santiago, a Spanish almond cake. The trip wrapped up with a salsa dancing lesson and on the last day we even made time to visit the Mercado de Abastos market before driving to the airport for our flight home.
Thank you to Mr Rands-Webb, Miss Schaefer and Miss Suarez for organising such an amazing trip.
Lara Bailey, Y10
