It was quite the trip. Despite an obscenely early start to the Half Term holiday, we arrived in the Spanish capital full of hope and excitement, and we were not disappointed. On the first evening as the students settled into their hostel rooms with the MFL staff, I went for a little reconnaissance mission into the centre of the city. Seemed nice enough. Like London, with more tapas. I soon stumbled across a lovely looking restaurant and wondered what it would be like to eat there, half expecting the travel company to have booked us into dodgy looking eateries offering Spanglish food (Spanish food for English students) for our evening meals. 

But no, the very next night, that is exactly where we ended up, trying tapas and thoroughly enjoying it. The whole trip was like that, full of nice surprises and new experiences, which surely is the essence of what a school trip should be. 

In a similar vein, the flamenco night in an exquisitely-decorated restaurant with colourful lacquered walls in a Moorish style, was both authentic and intense, and I am sure I was not alone in being relieved that it was a genuine event for Madridistas, rather than one of those terrible evenings aimed at tourists when dancers try to get you to join in. Maybe Mr Velasco has the snake hips to do the Flamenco, but I was more than happy to enjoy it from a distance, as I'm sure were the students. 

The next day was a more hands-on affair, as the students had a very good go at making churros, squeezing and cooking the batter and learning about the colonial origins and history of the churros and chocolate dip.

In case you were unaware, Madrid also hosts a football team who are quite successful, and boy, did they make a meal of it. To be fair, the Bernabéu is an amazing stadium. If Gavin Slater of The POSH happens to read this, and why wouldn't he? I would like to reassure him that his annual guided tour of Peterborough United is 100% times better! However, the students seemed to enjoy it, but I for one was disappointed that there was not a tour guide to ask what the score was against Barcelona at the weekend, or why they boycotted the Ballon d'Or Ceremony!

By way of comparison, the tour of the infamous Las Ventas bullfighting arena was a surprise hit for many of us. As an avowed opponent of blood sports, it was fascinating to hear about bullfighting, presented in a historical and social context as a way of honouring the bull, rather than an blood thirsty exercise in animal cruelty.  Again, being forced to reconsider your preconceptions is surely part of the trip experience. Unlike Real Madrid, the tour had an engaging human guide, some cool VR experiences in which Mrs Peiro Hernadez was gored by a virtual bull, and did not end up in an overpriced gift shop. It was a great building, too.

We also visited the sensational Prado Art Gallery to spend a short, but spectacular time, admiring some of the greatest works of art, and it was great to observe students standing in front of art masterpieces and then in the gift shop afterwards choosing postcards of their favourite works. Goya’s depiction of the devil; El Greco; Bosch’s 'Garden of Earthly Delights'; Caravaggio. What's not to like?

We also visited the Royal Palace which was considerably nicer than our own royal residence, and the fabulous El Retiro Park which used to belong to the royals, but was subsequently ‘gifted’ to the people of Madrid. The students were great, always open-minded and good-natured, and confident in trying out their language skills, especially when it came to gelato and sweet shops.

As an outsider, I wonder if the students know how lucky they are to have such enthusiastic Language teachers, who are willing to make such a huge effort to widen their horizons, in every sense of the word. This is a long way from what learning a foreign language used to be, and all the better for it. 

Thank you to Miss Thompson (Trip Leader), Mr Velasco and Mrs Peiro Fernandez.

Mr B Zaidi