Vamos al Puerto

Puerto de Santa María, Cádiz, Spain

Once again we visited the regions around Jerez de la Frontera, the land of Sherry. We stayed in El Puerto de Santa Maria, one of the corners of the “Sherry Triangle” the area where the wine must be aged to gain the demarcation of “Jerez DO ( denominación de origen)”.

Of course, this area has much more to it than vino de Jerez. Ever since the Phoenicians founded Cadiz across the bay El Puerto has, thanks to its sheltered waters, been an important trading centre – up to and beyond the conquest of the New World. Even before this the number of archaeological sites show how important this area has been with various tin and copper mining areas.

We learned all this on a tour of the town which visited several patios, the internal courtyards that houses in Andalucia traditionally have as cool, shady, lightwells inside the houses rather than external gardens. These are an important part of the culture and El Puerto, like Cordoba, has an annual Fiesta de los Patios where the owners plant flowers and decorate the patios and create performances in them.

A tour in the area of Jerez wouldn’t be complete without a visit to a bodega or two and so we went to Osborne and Tio Pepe. If you have travelled in Spain you know Osborne, even if you don’t think you do. All over Spain the iconic bulls, visible from the autovias on the hilltops, started out as an advert for the brand of Osborne and still represent this sherry house. On these tours we learned about the “solera” system which is used to refresh the oldest wine and allow every bottle to be consistent every year.

Despite the importance of el Puerto de Santa Maria in the trade with the new world, Cadiz has the fame and so a visit to this compact peninsular city was a must. Cadiz was, as said, founded by the Phoenicians but continued as an important Roman town. This was because it combined two important resources. The coast at this point in Spain was an important tuna fishery, but was also a major salt producer. This meant that it was possible to ship salted fish around the empire from here. Another product of the fisheries was garum, a fish sauce that was a direct ancestor of sauces such as worcester sauce and was the Roman ketchup. In Spain.

While Cadiz looks back to prehistory and the romans, much of Andalucian history is connected with the Moorish era. A visit to the alcázar in Jerez shows an interesting combination of the importance, in the history of this area, of olives oil and Muslim culture as the olive press and the baths are both present. Here, as well as in the Alcazar of Sevilla which we visited the next day, we can see the Christian dilemma of accepting the Moorish styles as the apogee of art and culture at the time with trying to remove it as a sign of reconquest and a signal that those times had passed.

Our whirlwind tour of the area finished in the Plaza de España in Seville, where for the Iberoamerican exhibition of 1929 plaques of all the regions of Spain were produced.

Carnavale di Venezia

The way to see the Grand Canal is from the water and so we had a cruise along by vaporetto. From this view we could see all the palace frontages, the four bridges and the way that the life revolves around the canals. The bridges each have their own styles from the original, the Rialto, to the newest, the Calatrava bridge, which is very modern in its style and construction.

Venice is a charming city and, like all tourist destinations shows its charm as soon as you are more than one street away from the tourist routes. Our first destination was, of course, Piazza San Marco. Here we were able to get a glimpse inside the Basilica and see the Ponte dei Sospiri.

We went in Carnavale and in Venice it is the thing to go in costume, but not any costume. Piazza San Marco is the place to be seen in your absolutely stunning costume. People parade around and are happy to have their photo taken. Masks is the other thing. There are a couple of traditional designs but along with these people wear anything from a lacy domino to harlequin style and anything in between. We ended up trying a couple of options.

We did take costumes, courtesy of the Catherine of Aragon group of Ampthill. Even if these were not as flamboyant as most, we still found ourselves an attraction, with people wanting our photo, as with the masks.

On our day of aquatic tours, we visited the island of St George, just across the water from the Piazza San Marco. Here we found that all the costume wearers visit for a session of photography with the view of San Marco as the background.

One of the “must do” trips in Venice is a tour out to Burano and Murano. Burano is traditionally the fishing and lace making island and is famous for the painted houses. The reasons for the latter are lost in the mists of time with a variety of implausible theories now available. Murano is famous as the source of Venetian glass.

The way to see the Grand Canal is from the water and so we had a cruise along by vaporetto. From this view we could see all the palace frontages, the four bridges and the way that the life revolves around the canals. The bridges each have their own styles from the original, the Rialto, to the newest, the Ponte della Costituzione, also known as the Calatrava bridge, which is very modern in its style and construction.

Film screening

Spanish films in Bedford

Watching films is a great way to learn about a country and a language. A group of our students got together to watch the film Todo sobre mi madre directed by Almodóvar. It was a very social evening, it gave us the opportunity to meet and have a drink. Before the film we did activities to know about the plot and the characters. A day after the film we had a get together to talk about the film. Many thanks to all the students and tutors who attended the screening. Many thanks to @theplacebedford and the Young Film Programmers for inviting us. Everyone enjoyed the outing and the film. Gracias.

Merry christmas!

As lessons have finished for 2021 we would like to wish tutors, students and friends all the best over the festive break.

Bedford Language Centre is back in the New Year with new language courses, cultural activities and social get togethers when possible. Many thanks for your support and see you in class in January.

Thanks and have a safe Christmas.
Elena

BLC Advent Calendar Adventure

Hope you and your families are doing well in these uncertain times. We are approaching Christmas and we would like to invite you to our pre Christmas celebrations.

Please join and enjoy our Advent Calendar Adventure.

  1. Each day we will open a new window on our learning. 
  2. Each day we will have a little activity to get us into the Christmas spirit.

If you would like to join in the Advent Calendar Experience, please follow the link.

For enrollment.

Advent calendar Adventure

Welcome to our school year 2020-2021

hi teamWelcome to our new school year 2020-2021!

Hope you all had a nice break. Life is very different from what we were used to and our last term of the school year 2019-2020 finished without the traditional celebrations, multicultural dinner, paella rally…

I am so pleased with how everyone adapted to lessons online back in March and how students are asking for more online provision that suits them at any location.

This summer new activities were on offer. Alessandra took us on a tour of Italy, with culture, history and real Italian cooking.

With Elena a few “peregrinos” did the camino challenge where walks and cultural challenges were added weekly. The feedback has been fantastic, therefore we are looking into our next cultural activities. Backstage tutors are preparing cultural activities to add to our weekly provision.

The new normal has brought a new dimension to our little language centre and our students are learning languages and culture as well as technology. I know, sometimes it is a very challenging combination but we are here to learn together and to support each other at good times and bad.

This Autumn will be challenging as the days will draw in and everyone will stay at home as much as possible but tutors as much as students will be looking forward to our weekly meeting.

If you have not booked, please follow the link to do it. If you have done it, thank you very much.

We are offering new courses for total beginners… Do you know anyone interested? Please pass our contact around!

any questions

We will contact you next week confirming your course, etc….

Please if you have any queries let me know,

Thanks you and see you soon,

Elena

Carnival 2020

It has been the first time Bedford Language Centre has covered this topic. Carnival, the time of the year to party before lent, is well celebrated in a lot of countries in Europe. In Germany it is celebrated wherever the Catholic  faith is kept . The Nice carnival in France lasts for 3 weeks. In Italy each mask is linked to a town. In mainland Spain the Cadiz carnival has been going for centuries. Without doubt the best known Carnivals in Europe are Venezia in Italy and Santa Cruz de Tererife, the biggest after Rio in the world.  Alessandra gave us a very interested presentation. We also learned  about different dishes in different cities and of course we had a great time and sampled delicious food. Can’t wait for the next year! Thank you to everyone who helped on the day and to everyone who wore flowers and masks.

Happy Chinese New Year!

新年快樂

(pronounced sseen nee-ahn kwhy luh)

Today was the Chinese Lunar New Year!

Bedford Language Centre, as supporters of learning Chinese and the culture went along to London to see the festivities. We got to see the parade from Trafalgar Square to Shaftsbury Avenue.

Later there were Lion and Dragon dances in Trafalgar Square.

We tried the street food…

…and acquired a lucky dragon.

A good day out!