The hotel that we stayed at was a few miles away from civilisation. All that surrounded us was beautiful mountains, lush greenery and a few nearby farms. One day I took a bike ride to the surrounding countryside and found many charming farms full of cute sheep and goats. I think we were based in such an isolated area so that we had no distractions, (Apart from the very attractive barman, Mario…).

One day instead of the usual heavy workload of  teaching English via group activities and one to ones we were treated to a mini day trip!

To a Bee museum….

Most of the group were not expecting much from the Bee museum even though the Anglos who went the previous week said that it was a fairly interesting experience!

 

 

Olive groves surrounded the museum

After hiking upthe hill to the museum we made our way into the main room of the museum ad were suprised (and slightly scared!

to see gigantic bee hives in the centre of the room!

Luckily they were behind glass… Thick glass!

 

Suprisingly, the bee-keeper who owned the museum did not speak English. This startled me because it was actually forbidden to speak English this week because It’s supposed to be an English immersion programme. I was also wondering how I was going to understand a complex talk about bees in Spanish. I know the basics but come on!

My fears were unfounded because the Spaniards on the course translated the bee-keepers talk from Spanish in to English. This was no mean feat because the talk was very complex and talked about the anatomy and physiology of the bees. The Spaniards did really well at translating (Especially a girl who was a biologist!) and I felt really proud!

Suprisingly the bees did not sting anyone, even when the Bee-keeper and a member of staff went inside the hive room! They seemed more interested in working had to create these massive bee hives, a wonder of nature!

 

 

 

An old style bee hive

 

Candeleda town

After buying far too much honey related products in the gift shop we were whisked to the quaint town of Candeleda. The town semed very sleepy and did not have many tourists so a bus load of people of various ages from all around the world and all wearing fetching name tags caused quite a stir!

 

I the centre of the square was a fountain. The man above sat beside the fountain and wet his hat in the water to keep his head cool in the summer sun! A Spanish friend of mine told me that this was quite common and proceded to do this herself!

We didn’t have much time in the town but we sauntered around the narrow streets, soaking up traditional Spanish culture! I loved the colours of the town. Everything was really delicate and pretty. I imagined that the people who lived in this town had always lived there and knew everyone, and everyones business!

 

Spot the Old Spanish guy behind me!

 

My Spanish friend Ana informed me that many Spanish streets are narrow to ensure that the street is always covered in shadow to keep the houses cool! What a good idea and something that I never though of!

 

Town hall

 

An absolutely beautiful building covered in flowers! That’s my type of building!

 

 

I marvelled at how old the buildings were, this bough above was bowing! (That’s a good tongue twister/complicated sentence for the Spaniards!)

 

Before long we then had to make our way back to the hotel to teach English to amazing friends in the sun.

 

Have you ever travelled to a small Spanish town? If so what did you notice?