Students from the Spanish courses in Bilbao visit Gernika

In Instituto Hemingway we care not only about language development of our students but also about cultural one. Apart from visiting typical touristic places we also want to show our students smaller but very interesting and valuable places One of them is a small town Guernica (Gernika in Euskera ), one hour away from Bilbao by train. Group of our students went there at 15th of June 2011.
Guernica is a small town in the province of Biscay, in the Autonomous Community of the Basque Country, Spain. Outside the Basque lands, Guernica is best known as the scene of the April 26, 1937, Bombing of Guernica, one of the first aerial bombings by Nazi Germany`s Luftwaffe. However, there is much more attractions to discover.
First of all students went to famous The Assembly House ( La Casa de Juntas). Is a place of historical and current meetings the Vizcayan government. The historical focus of this place is the tree (El Arbol), inside the gates of the Assembly House. The current one was planted in 2005 as a son of previous one. The oldest one is in stone columns. This the 300 years old oak is the most important symbol for Basques. It is not the original Tree of Guernica, but its oldest preserved descendant. Visiting the Casa you can also watch a short movie about history of that place in different languages. Our students of course choose a Spanish version.
After that we all were hungry and decided to taste local pintxos in one of the bar on the main street. Meanwhile, walking from one place to another we could see lots of nice parks, for example Park of Europe´s Villages.
Next stop of our trip was in Guernica Peace Museum (Museo de la Paz). Museum is very modern and interactive. Actually before we started sightseeing we were ´ evacuated´, because some group of kids activated a simulation of bombing. Inside you can watch lots of movies but the most interesting one was a simulation room. You could seat there, hear and feel like during the bombing attack. There is also a small replica of famous Picasso painting ´The Guernica´. Original one is in a museum in Madrid. Afterward we saw a mural of Picasso´s world-famous painting ´Guernica´ on a wall along from the Iglesia de Santa Maria. We took a couple of group photos and went to the train station to come back home.
International group made our trip even more interesting and we all enjoy it a lot. Thank to Instituto Hemingway we could all see a piece of history of a peace. A small place of a great significance.