This morning, 27^th May, 2010, the students of Tourist Information visited El Museo Evaristo Valle.

It was 11:30 in the morning when we took the public transportation towards this fabulous museum located in Somió, a neighborhood of Gijón. The museum consists in a 1 722 000 square feet garden space and three buildings: a modern building built in 1971 for the temporary exhibitions, a 19^th century palace that house a wonderful seashell collection and Valles’s paintings, and a small building dedicated to educational activities.

This private museum welcomes students of all ages, especially kids; it opens Tuesday - Friday, from 10 am to 1 pm. Admission fee is just 1.80 Euro.

A typical visit begins just off the old palace, where a Biologist explains the students the different trees, flowers and bushes of a typical English garden. Next, you walk around the property in a wild adventure, watching, classifying and drawing trees and birds (there are more than 40 bird species and 120 tree types in this land!). To finish,  Ms Alina Brown, will greet you to a guided tour inside the different exhibition rooms that keep Valles’s paintings.

And thanks to this asturian artist, Evaristo Valle (Gijón, 1873-1951), we had the opportunity to learn more about the past of our region. Evaristo painted scenes of rural life, mining and fishing; he also drew drawings and portraits.

The visit ended with a loud applause and sincere thanks to the Museo Evaristo Valle Foundation.

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On Wednesday, 28^th April, 2010, the students of Tourist Information and Catering visited Burgos.

Burgos is situated in the north of Spain, between the Cantabrian Mountain Range and the Iberian Mountain Range. The Cathedral of Burgos is the third largest cathedral in Spain, with a gotic style. Other important touristic features are: “El Camino de Santiago” (Way of St. James), a pilgrimage about faith, and travel to one’s self; “Monasterio de Silos”, with its monks and their Gregorian singing; and “La Sierra de Atapuerca”, where a few decades ago scientists discovered remains of different homo species, that is to say, they made discoveries on Human Evolution.

Gastronomy is also very popular in this region. “El Queso Fresco de Burgos”, a type of fresh white cheese; and “La Morcilla de Burgos”, made of meat and blood, are very well known. And because we are students of a catering school, we have arranged a visit to Mahou – San Miguel, the biggest beer producer in Spain, and we learnt the ins and outs of this market.

We would like to thank the staff of Mahou – San Miguel for the excellent welcome.

A representative of this company accompanied the students to a two-hour guided tour, which ended with a beer tasting menu, followed by free snacks and sandwiches.

After this great experience, the students of Tourist Information organized an on-foot tour around downtown Burgos, visiting the cathedral and the river walk. Each student gave a commentary to the other students, both in English and Spanish. María, Laura and Jenny, our friends from Finland, are doing their practices in Hotel and Hospitality Management here in Gijón, and they joined this excursion.

The students of Catering also visited a cheese factory.

What a wonderful day!.

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