Category Archives: Hispanic Heritage

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.

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.

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.

Trip to Olite (Navarra)

Navarra is one of the oldest of the kingdoms that make up Spain. It has a wonderful mix of history and nature, not to forget the food. Just before New Year, BLC spent a few cold days in a foggy Navarra to inspect the area and scout out the Bodegas.

Foz Arbayun is the biggest gorge in Navarra. A great introduction to the Spanish Pyrenees, it will stay on the itinerary, with some spectacular scenery and “buitres Leonado”.

The area is home to a number of monasteries and classic Romanic churches. Having looked at a number of these, a trip to the foothills of the Pyrenees led to a combination of the two. A night in the monastery of Leyre, known for its services with Gregorian chants. This will give the opportunity to listen to these in both an evening and a morning service.

The area also has unspoilt medieval hilltop towns such as Ujue with its beautiful church and views of the Pyrenees.

The plan is also to fit in a visit to Pamplona, famous for its bull running. Here you can follow the route the bulls take, or have a coffee in the cafe frequented by Hemingway. As always there is more, such as the fortifications and the bars with the typical pintxos.

And so to Olite. This was the main residence of the kings of Navarra. The palace is notable for the several towers. Apparently there are views. In December the fog hid these! With its small unspoilt medieval centre Olite is a pleasant place to pass the time. We investigated some Bodegas to find one for a tasting but even the losers in this competition have wines that are worth trying and can be found both in the town’s bars and restaurants as well as in the bodegas and their associated shops.

We don’t only think about wine! The nearby area of the Roncal Valley is famous for its cheese, Ujue is known for its caramelized almonds and we also found a seller of local honeys.

A visit to the Bardenas Reales, one of Spain’s deserts, showed it to be interesting but  we will leave it for another trip as this won’t be the best time of year to visit.

Lots to investigate, great people to talk with!

Salud from Sherryland!

        

Just back from Cadiz, Spain, the area where sherry is produced. What a privilege to take some of our Spanish students on this cultural immersion. A joy for the wine lovers, history lovers and culture lovers

Sherry, we called it Jerez in Spain is a fortified wine only produced in this part of Spain, the Sherry triangle, and covers the towns of Jerez de la Frontera, Puerto de SantaMaria & Sanlucar de Barrameda.

This time we stayed in a lovely converted convent, Monasterio de San Miguel in Puerto de Santa Maria. A place full history, this is an excellent base to explore the area.

To learn more about sherry visiting a couple of bodegas is a must. To really appreciate it, one has to taste the different wines, fino, oloroso, Pedro Ximenez just to mention a few, as well as my favourite one, Palo cortado.

This area of Spain is well known for their Andalusian horses. A horse riding performance is only possible to watch in Jerez and Vienna. We did not only go to a performance but went on a “calesa” (carriage) ride.

Cadiz, claimed to be the oldest city in Western Europe, was reached by ferry from El Puerto.

A culture pot, Founded by the Phoenicians, every other civilisation helped to shape this city full of character, light, sun and welcoming people.

In Sevilla with our fantastic guides Emma and Aidan we moved to the times of Jews and Moors living together. At Los Reales Alcazares palace Christian traditions and Moorish architecture get put together. This mixture of cultures could be found in a lot of aspects of Spanish life, and a good example is in the Spanish cuisine that we sampled on numerous occasions.

What a fantastic experience! Thank you everyone for making this trip so special!!