Last week, the Spanish teachers, Year 8 and some Y11 students went to the capital of Spain.
Madrid is the 3rd
largest city in the European Union (after London and Berlin). The population of
the metropolitan area is around 6.5 million. It
is one of the world's major global cities due to its
influences in science, politics, education, entertainment, the arts, media, fashion, and culture.
From the
beginning, we were excited and energized.
Here you have
some pictures to see how it was!
Madrid City Hall (it was the Post
Office building in the past). Ayuntamiento,
Palacio de Comunicaciones y Correos.
In the same square is the CIBELES Fountain (the
of the goddess in a chariot pulled by lions), symbol of Madrid & where Real Madrid Football
Club celebrates their victories.
The Instituto
Cervantes, in Alcala street, is a public
Institution created in Spain in 1991 to promote Spanish and
co-official languages of Spain and spread the culture of Spanish speaking
countries. This institution is present in 86 cities in 46 countries of 5 continents.
There is 1 in London city.
You can find many resources (courses, events,
activities, games, books, etc) to learn Spanish!
- Miguel de
CERVANTES (Spanish novelist) wrote ‘Don Quijote’ (de la Mancha). His
magnum opus is considered the 1st modern European novel.
Some of his popular phrases: "the proof of the pudding is in the eating" (por la
muestra se conoce el paño) and "who
walks much and reads much, knows much and sees much" (quien anda
mucho y lee mucho, sabe mucho y ve mucho).
The popular Plaza Canalejas. We were passing through here many times to go to
other places.
Canalejas, Banco Hispano y BBVA
Show de Flamenco en el restaurante ‘Torres Bermejas’ de Madrid. Olé, Olé y Olé el arte flamenco! We were enjoying the flamenco show, even clapping to the beat of rhythm and shouting Bravo!
Pastelería del Pozo.
One of the most historical and famous bakeries in Spain.
We tried some of its pastry!
La Fontana de Oro. Este lugar fue
recordado por D. Benito Perez Galdos en su novela ‘La Fontana de Oro’. Madrid 1994. The Spanish writer, Benito
Perez Galdos wrote about this place in his novel with the same name.
Restaurante BOTÍN en Madrid.
We visited The oldest Restaurant in
the World, 1775 (S.XVIII) that is in
Madrid city centre. It is even in the Guinness Book of Records.
The cave to keep wine bottles inside The Botín Restaurant.
Madrid has a lot of old and interesting caves, now usually converted into wine
cellars.
Plaza de Neptuno, Paseo del
PRADO & Palace Hotel. The Atlético
de Madrid football team (Fernando Torres used to played in this team) celebrates
their victories in this square.
Parque Europa in Torrejón de
Ardoz town. Teatro Griego Odeon. El Parque Europa is the largest green leisure space
in Torrejon, with 233,000 square meters. It has natural vegetation and reproductions
of the most popular monuments in major European cities.
We enjoyed this big area, visited the most famous European
monuments, played in the playground, enjoyed Spanish food in a nice restaurant
and we were also actors for a moment!
Torre de Belem in Parque Europa 
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Molinos (windmills) Holandeses in
Parque Europa
Torre Eiffel in Parque Europa
The club was founded in 1902. The King Alfonso XIII granted them the title ‘Real’ (Royal) in 1920. It has a lot won of national and international sport awards.
Campo de fútbol S. Bernabéu.The capacity is 85,000 people.
Museo (museum) del Real Madrid. We were watching and reading interesting information about the history
of Real Madrid, its presidents, football players, winning awards, old cloths,
trainers and balls, etc.
+del+Real+Madrid.jpg)
We were in
the Real Madrid football players changing room!
Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia from 1992. 20th
Century Art.
We enjoyed
looking at paintings of some of the most famous Spanish painters like Dalí, Gris, Picasso, Miró…
and specially The Guernica painting. All the students tried to paint it!
‘El Guernica’, Picasso’s
most famous work, is his most powerful political statement during the Spanish
Civil War. It shows the tragedies of war and the suffering of individuals and
innocent civilians. It gained the status of anti-war symbol. It is blue, balck
and white, 3.5 meter tall and 7.8 meters wide.
Manzanares river view from Teleférico (cable car in Madrid)
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Casa de Campo. The biggest park in Madrid city centre!
It was one of the students’ favorite places!
Casa de Campo
We enjoyed
playing and walking through this beautiful and big park!
We went to ‘El Rastro’, it is the most popular open air flea market in
Madrid. It has a great variety of (new & used) products (where you can
barter) and some antique shops. We were buying some presents and practicing
our Spanish!
At the end of
our trip many students asked for more time to visit this great capital and promised to come back in future!
Hasta pronto!
Nice pictures, especially Madrid City Hall, I have a plan to go Madrid this year, I hope i can take a picture infront of that
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