Tour to Barcelona 3rd to 7th of May:
47 students and 5 teachers were part of the travelling party on the trip to Barcelona which took place from the 3rd to the 7th of May. The trip began with and early start on Friday morning with the coach leaving the school at 1:30am and departing Dublin airport at 6:45am. On their arrival in Barcelona the students headed for Las Ramblas. This is Barcelona’s most famous street and it is both a tourist magnet and a window into Catalan culture, with cultural centres, theatres and architecturally intriguing buildings lining its sides. Following lunch the students were given a guided walking tour around the city before heading to the iconic building La Sagrada Familia. The day finished with the trip to Salou to Hotel Calypso which was to be the base for the duration of the trip.
Following breakfast in the morning the group headed to Tarragona a town with a mix of medieval and Roman architecture and is one of the most attractive in Catalonia. Two historical sites were visited the Amphitheatre and the Circo Romano. In the amphitheatre there were two types of activities the struggles of the gladiators (munera) and the struggles or beasts hunts (venationes). In addition, this was also a place where ajusticiaven were condemned to death. In the afternoon everyone went cycling between Salou and another local town Cambrils. Following the exertions everyone returned to the hotel and students were given the chance to cool down by the hotel pool.
On Sunday the next port of call was the theme park Port Aventura Adventure Park. There was a wide range of activities on offer here and one of the top attractions was the Dragon Khan roller coaster with eight inverted loops. Students thoroughly enjoyed the experience and were exhausted by the time we left at 7pm in the evening. On the final day we headed back to Barcelona and in the morning had a guided tour of Espanyol soccer club. A brief video was shown first before a tour of the stadium which included visiting dressing rooms, also seeing where the press conferences take place, before being brought down to the pitch. Then it was on to Las Arenas Shopping centre where everyone had the opportunity to engage in some retail therapy.
The final stop on the tour was to the Cosmo Caixa Science Museum. This amazing museum, which opened in 2005, has been heralded as the finest science museum in Europe. It has an enormous variety of content and an innovative layout, turning it into one of the most modern museums of its kind. The exhibitions are distributed throughout various rooms, including the Amazon Forest, the Geological Wall, Planetarium, etc. Visitors are invited to interact with many of the scientific experiments, making the whole experience richer and more entertaining. It was then on to the airport for the flight home before arriving back at ECC at 3am on Tuesday morning. Everyone that travelled really enjoyed the action-packed trip which catered for a diverse range of interests. The lovely warm weather also greatly assisted and made things very enjoyable. The students were excellently behaved and were a credit to the school. A special thanks to the teachers who ensured that everything ran smoothly they were Mr. Iain Wickham, Ms. Aileen Walsh, Ms. Bridin Kelly, Ms. Aine Sheeran and Mr. Nathan Byrne.