Un viaje a Madrid
by Isobel S Y11
At the beginning of March, a group of 40 Year 11 Spanish students had the privilege of visiting Madrid with the school – whilst we spent just 4 days in the city, we managed to fill every minute with fun activities, visiting many iconic Spanish sites along the way.
Year 11 Trip to Madrid
On our first day in the city, we were welcomed to Madrid by glorious sunlight and clear skies – weather which lasted us most the weekend. After depositing our luggage in our hostel in Chueca and exploring the square for a couple of hours, our group made its way to Palacio Real de Madrid – the Royal Palace. Inside the palace was some of the most breathtaking architecture we had ever seen, with intricate designs both painted and carved into the ceilings and the walls, and more chandeliers than I could count. After a short break, we were on the move again, this time to an all-you-can-eat buffet restaurant. It was quite a tight fit for our group in the restaurant, but we managed, and after dinner, we all went for an evening tour of the local area, revisiting some areas we hadn’t been able to stop at earlier in the day and admiring the city at night. It is safe to say that nobody found it too difficult to sleep that night after having started our journey at 4am that morning – exhaustion kicked in practically as soon as we all returned to our rooms.
Saturday began with a trip to the Bernabéu Stadium, where we had the opportunity to admire the achievements of the Real Madrid football club – we found the number of trophies the club had won impressive, and overall the stadium was quite magnificent. We were also able to wander around the stadium, sitting in the stands and, to a certain extent, practicing some broken Spanish speaking with a couple of staff members in the crowded gift shop. Afterwards, we all visited the Chocolateria San Gines, where we were each given a bag of churros and a cup of rich dark chocolate, before we spread out throughout the square to wander the area and have lunch. We met back in Puerta del Sol – the square – just after 2pm, and took the metro to Las Ventas – the bullring. Our group were given a tour of the bullring, which we found fascinating – we learnt the basics of bullfighting: the meaning of the 4 different flags and the 3 main parts of a bullfight. There was even a VR bullfighting game which a couple of students and a teacher tried. In the evening, we walked from our hostel to an Italian restaurant, where we enjoyed our second dinner of the trip.
On the third day, we left at 10am to go to El Rastro Market – in groups, we were given a list of items we should find, and 15 euros. It was our task, then, to make our way through the market and find the best deals for each the items, and get to the end with as many items and as much money remaining as possible. This gave us all an interesting opportunity to practice some Spanish speaking with the street vendors. Once we’d all reached the end of the market, we made our way back to Puerta del Sol, where we split up again to find lunch and visited a few more shops.
Later in the afternoon, we all visited Retiro Park. The weather was bright again, so the Glass Palace and the fountains in the park looked especially magnificent in the sunlight – at the Glass Palace, we split off into smaller groups and explored the park. After about an hour to ourselves, we gathered again to walk to the escape room, which was both entertaining and amusing for most groups, save one group, who had a live actor playing a serial killer in their room! We eventually found our way back to our hostel, and stayed there for a few more hours, resting, before getting the metro to Chamartín, where we went bowling and had dinner. It was gone midnight when we left the bowling alley – and whilst the day had been brilliant we were grateful to get back to the hostel for a nights rest.
Monday morning was spent packing and the atmosphere at breakfast and in the hostel before we left was somewhat quieter than usual – a mixture, I think, of tiredness and somewhat sadness to be leaving Madrid. We were, however, given an hour and a half by ourselves in the square to have our last shop for souvenirs and anything else we wanted to pick up before leaving. After returning to the hostel to collect our luggage, we finally took the metro to the airport and said 'adiós' to Madrid.
I think I can speak on behalf of the whole group when I say that the Madrid Trip was an unforgettable experience – something we are all very grateful to have had the opportunity to be a part of.
