Spanish mobility 13.1.-17.1.2014
The Finnish team in Spain was Birgitta, Ida. Laura and Juha. We started our journey to Spain from Kestilä by car on Sunday. I drove my car to the airport parking place and since it had not been so cold. I didn´t reserve a place where you can preheat your car. I should have done so. I´ll tel you later. We met Birgitta at the airport, so our team was complete and ready to go. We flew from Oulu to Helsinki and from there to Madrid in Spain.The distance between Helsinki and Madrid is 2946 km and the flight time is about 4 hours and 30 minutes.
We arrived to Madrid twentyfive past eight at night. Then we took a taxi to the bus station. We got on the bus and there were no problems, we had bought our tickets via internet in advance. The journey to Merida began. The roads were in good condition, perhaps we slept a little on the bus. The bus arrived to Merida about three o´clock in Monday morning. The Spanish families were waiting there for us to come and take the students with them.We had reserved a taxi to go to the hotel in Merida, but the families insisted to take us to the hotel by their car. I was amazed about their hospitality.
On Monday we visited the village Arroyo de San Servan. We went to the town hall and met the mayor.
Then we went to visit IES Tamujal, our partner school. We had a tour in the school and we visited our brother classrooms. We had a welcoming meeting at the school. We listened to music, saw dances, had a presentation about
Stereotypes (about Spain). The school band Tamujo was great. Our friend Nico played the quitar and Laura sang wonderfully. It was a pleasant surprise. During the show Ida and Laura seemed tired. I learned later that they hadn´t slept at all, they had had fun with the families.
We went to a a restaurant to eat paella, traditional Spanish dish. Then we had the Comenius meeting at the school. After that we planted the trees at the school yard. We left Arroyo de San Servan and came back to the hotel in Merida. We had dinner in a local restaurant with Cibran and Fer. Monday was a very interesting day.
On Tuesday we visited the cheese factory in Casar de Caceres. We had to put on protective clothing before entering the factory. We learned how the cheese is made and that the process is a smelly one! We tasted some cheese and then we had a lesson about the Torta del Casar. It´s a cheese made of sheep´s milk and the coagulant used in the cheese making process is from a wild thistle. The cheese has to ripe for sixty days. It´s consistency is creamy and the taste is a kind of bitter and salty, not bad.You have to get used to the taste. People are proud of the cheese. It has been given a protected origin status.
In the afternoon we visited Caceres. It´s an old town and it still has the ancient walls. It has a medieval setting. We got to know the medieval city and we visited some interesting places. The medieval city was fantastic. Late in evening we got back to Merida and had dinner in the same restaurant near our hotel.
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Puerta Palma, Badajoz |
We went to Badajoz on Wednesday. There is the Alcazaba fortress. It´s of Moorish origin. The citadel is near the River Guadiana. There are buildings in the citadel, for example palaces and church that was a mosque once. We had some time to shop in Badajoz. We went to a department store called El Corte Ingles.
We had the official dinner on Wednesday night in a small restaurant. We got our certificates and we had fun.
On Thursday we stayed in Merida. Merida has been an important city in the Roman empire. There are many important ancient monuments there. At first we went to visit the Parlament of Extremadura, Parlamento de Extremadura. We had the chance to go and sit in the meeting room. There was a huge mosaic on the wall. We visited the Roman amphitheathre and Roman theatre there. We also saw a Roman house and it´s floor made of mosaic.We also visited Diana´s Temple. We went to a Roman museum, but we could stay there only for a short while. In that time I saw a Roman street and remains of Roman houses and statues. It was fantastic.
Our bus left Merida at quarter past one on Friday morning. We came to Madrid about five o´clock in the morning. The flight to Helsinki left ten past ten. Four and a half hours later we were in Helsinki Finland. We arrived in Oulu at half past eight in the evening. It was really cold in Oulu. The temperature was about -22 degrees Celcius. I had decided not to try to start the car, because of the coldness. So I had called my daughter to come and pick us up from the airport.
The Spanish meeting really was unforgettable, the places we visited were great. High five to our Spanish partners. What a week!! Juha A
