BRISTOL 2017
A group of students from IES Nicolás Copérnico spent the firts two weeks of July 2017 in Bristol (England). Our plane landed in London and we took a bus to Bristol.
Students stayed at host families and attended English classes at BLC during weekdays. We want to share our wonderful and unforgettable experience with you!
This was our first contact with Bristol. After our first morning of classes, we went to see its cathedral, located in one of the sides of College Green.
These are some photos of BLC. It was very close to St Mary Redcliffe Church, really different from our churches in Écija, but really beautiful.
After classes, we went to visit some interesting places in Bristol. Next to the aquarium we found this huge ball. Below, you have quite a peculiar bridge and some beautiful views of the river Avon.
Then we visited the MShed Museum. It is next to the river Avon and has some interesting pieces related to Bristol history. After that we saw the Arnolfini museum.
On Saturdays, we had our long trips. The first one was to London! Some of us had not seen this great city before and we loved it! We saw the London Eye, Westminster and the Big Ben, Buckingham Palace, St James Park, Trafalgar Square, Piccadilly Circus, Chinatown and the British Museum.
This is Clifton Suspension Bridge, one of the typical landmarks of the city. It was designed by the famous British engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel, who also designed the SS Great Britain, the first steel ship which crossed the Atlantic Ocean moved by a propeller.
On Monday afternoons we had some trips outside Bristol. One of them was to Oxford, where we visited Christ Church. We went into The Great Hall where the Harry Potter movies were filmed. These are some other places we saw there.
Back at Bristol, we visited these places after our English classes.
– Red Lodge (a typical house of 17th-century Bristol, when the city was crucial in the trade between Britain and its colonies in the New World).
– Bristol Museum.
– Cabot Tower (on one of the highest points of the city, therefore the great views).
– The Georgian House (another typical house owned by a XXX, a wealthy plantation owner. Again, part of Bristol’s trading history with the British colonies).
On the next Saturday, we visited three places in one day! Salisbury, Stonehenge and Winchester.
First, we went to Salisbury, where we admired its beautiful catedral (quite famous worldwide since it appears on Ken Follet’s Pillars of the Earth).
We also visited the Church of St Thomas Becket there.
Not far from Salisbury is the worldwide-known Stonehenge, an incredible megalithic landmark. It was so ancient and inspiring!
Finally, we went to Winchester, where we saw King Arthur’s Round Table.
Our last visit before coming back to Écija was Bath, a really nice city. We saw its cathedral, the Roman Baths (from the outside), the King’s Circus, The Jane Austin House (from the outside), the Royal Crescent, the Assembly Rooms and the peculiar Pulteney Bridge.
It began to rain while we were at Bath, typical British weather! However, we didn’t complain. In two days we were going to switch from 13º C to 45º C!
Finally, a couple of pictures of Cabot Circus, one of our meeting points after our daily visits.
After all these wonderful experiences, we left Bristol. This is a picture of us at its airport, while waiting for our flight to Faro (Portugal). Once there, we took a bus to Écija.
This trip was an experience we’ll never forget! Thanks to our teachers, Juan Jesús Aguilar and Inma García, to David and Pedro Fernández (in charge of Lis Education) and Andy (one of their leaders), for offering us this opportunity to widen our view of the world, its people and its different languages.
THANKS!!!