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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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Yesterday, 21^st April, 2010, the students of Tourist Information visited the village of Llanes and part of the eastern coast of Asturias.

The eastern coast is made of calcareous rocks, specially limestone, a common sedimentary rock that is very susceptible to solubility processes in water that leads to karstic landscapes. Because of this characteristic, Llanes surprises the visitor with a great number of caves and a flat coastline.

The students organized an on-foot tour around downtown Llanes, visiting the most important buildings and touristic attractions of this gorgeous village: the Casino, the old Tower, the House of Culture, Church of Santa María de la Asunción, and the spectacular “Cubos de la Memoria” in the port of Llanes.

After lunch, the students visited “La cueva del Pindal”, a natural cave situated in a scenic location: right in front of the sea, in the middle of a cliff. In 2008, “el Pindal” was named a World Heritage Site by UNESCO, and thanks to the explanations given by the tour guide, the students could learnt about its paintings, geology and the so-called Cro-Magnon’s lifestyle.

The trip ended with a nice walk to the ruins of Tina, a destroyed medieval Church located near the border with Cantabria.

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Today we celebrated the English Tea party.  It all started with a presentation on the History of Tea and Modern Tea today.  After we all sat down to drink tea and eat traditional food that British people normally eat with tea like scones, biscuits, cakes, mini sandwiches and tartlets.  Also we drank pineapple and orange juice, and for those who weren’t sure about the tea there was coffee too!

It was a very fun and interesting party and we would like to thank everyone that organised this for us including those who did the cooking and served us our tea!

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Today, 17^th March, 2010, the students of Tourist Information and Travel Agents visited Belmonte de Miranda, a small and lovely village situated in central Asturias.

Every time there is a trip, two of the students take care of the passengers. Bai, our student from China, and Manuel were responsible for the day. “First, we greeted each passenger and then we gave a short commentary about the trip. We also took care of the hand luggage and we checked that each passenger had the seat belt fastened, just like a flight attendant does.”

During the journey to Belmonte de Miranda, the students of Tourist Information gave commentaries about places and features seen through the window.

The first stop was “Río Narcea Gold Mines” mine, an open air mine where gold is extracted. The second stop was a new touristic complex. Zentral Club consists of four apartments built inside an old hydroelectric power station and a green area. The apartments are equipped with the latest amenities, such as plasma TV and WiFi; always under a modern and elegant interior decoration. Later, the students visited Roberto Pérez López, Mayor of Belmonte de Miranda since 1979. Mr. López explained the students the importance of Tourism and how it is improving the area.

After lunch, the students visited “Las Cruces”, an interesting crossroad which is located somewhere between Belmonte de Miranda and Grado. And why a place like that is so interesting?, “Las Cruces” is interesting because of its famous bread, made of “escanda” cereal.

Are you open to suggestions?. Visit Belmonte de Miranda, a place where you can enjoy your weekend. With style.

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17th February, 2010, the students of Tourist Information visited the village of Candás.

The trip started at the terminus train station of Gijón, 10 am. The 18 students and the teacher took the train line to Candás. Lola, the tour guide for the day, greeted them and gave a brief  commentary about the village.

In the first place, the students visited “Casa Bombita”, a bakery located in the heart of Candás. Casa Bombita is a family run business where “Bombita” and her husband work hard to preserve a tradition: les marañueles.

Les marañueles are a type of biscuit from Candás, Luanco and Avilés. They are made of four basic ingredients: flour, cooked butter, sugar and eggs. Lemon or anise liqueur flavor is optional. Les marañueles are cooked in an oven and are presented in different sizes and shapes: small flowers, large spirals, in eight… that you can dip in coffee or chocolate milk. Their smell and taste is unique!.

Next, the students visited “El Centro de escultura Museo Antón”, a fine arts museum full of paintings and sculptures made by Antonio Rodriguez (Candás, 1911-1937), also known as “Antón”.

This museum is located near the port and consists in 3 floors. The third floor holds offices, a private library and a small conference room. The second floor is devoted to sculptures. “Mi güela”, “Antroxu”, “La Señora Isabel” are the most famous. The first floor shows paintings and watercolors.

Later, the students visited the canning industry museum. The exhibition shows the process and machinery involved, explaining characteristics, techniques and it also tells the visitor about the canning industry stages in Candás, now sadly deprecated.

The trip finished with a special meal at “El Portalón” restaurant.

Out there, however, in the street, in songs, on the web and in the press you can read / hear a million and one más + adjective + que expressions that seem to have been made up on the spot and that run the whole gamut from corny, absurd, witty and ironic, to cringe-makingly crude and absolutely hilarious. Here are a few choice insults for starters.

– Eres más pesado que una vaca en brazos. You’re ‘heavier’ than a cow in arms, in other words, a very large pain in the neck.

– Eres más inútil que un cenicero en una moto. You’re about as useful as an ashtray on a motorbike.

– Eres más vago que la chaqueta de un guardia civil. You’re lazier than the jacket of a Guardia Civil. Nuff said.

– Eres más largo que la infancia de Heidi. You’re longer than Heidi’s childhood.

– Tienes más pelígro que una piraña en un bidet. You’re more dangerous than a piranha fish in a bidet.

– Tienes menos detalles que el salpicadero de un Seat Panda. You’ve got fewer ‘details’ than the dashboard of a Seat Panda / You’re an inconsiderate s.o.b. This is a play on words as detalles are details but tener detalles means ‘to be thoughtful, considerate’.

– Eres más basto que un Petisui de morcilla. You’re more unrefined / uncouth than a black pudding-flavoured Petit Suiss (Petit Suiss is a popular make of fromage frais).

– Andas más perdido que un pulpo en un garaje. You’re more ‘lost’ / out of your depth than an octopus in a garage.

– Eres más feo que el parto de Mick Jagger. Poor old Mick. You’re uglier than the birth of Mick
Jagger.

Feel like adding any more? There are hundreds ….

FITUR is the largest tourism trade fair in Spain. It is celebrated every year at IFEMA, Madrid, lasting five days between the months of January and February. This year 2010, it was celebrated between January 20^th-24^th. FITUR holds several different halls dedicated to cities, states and countries in the world. This year FITUR celebrated its thirtieth year of existence.

Everybody wants to be by FITUR although we live delicate moments in our economy: tour operators, travel agencies, hotels, transportation companies, official tourism boards, and us!.

The students of tourism (Tourist Information, Travel Agents and Hotel Management) of the school CIFP Escuela de Hostelería y Turismo de Gijón visited Madrid, from January 20^th to 22^nd. The students of Tourist Information were responsible for the trip and organized all the paperwork involved, besides they provided commentaries about downtown Madrid.

The on-foot tour around downtown Madrid consisted in a visit to the Royal Palace, Almudena Cathedral, Sabatini Gardens, Central Square, Sol Square, Prado Avenue with El Prado Museum and Thyssen Museum, and finally, Cibeles Square.

On Thursday 1/21/2010 we visited FITUR. There are so many things to see and to do there that I am going to give you six simple but obvious pieces of advice:

1. Get a detailed map of the halls and a daily schedule so you won’t loose any important meeting, give away or performance.

2. Be smart and make a list of the booths you want to see. Don’t waste your time, it is almost impossible to see everything in one day!.

3. Do not take loads of brochures or your back will hurt quickly. Pick the essential information and be good with the environment. Once at home, please, recycle the paper you don’t want to keep!.

4. Be polite, ask for information first and then ask for a free gift. Do not take the cap, pen or t-shirt first!.

5. Each country or state has a special day during the trade fair. That day, their booth is full of politicians, important people and the media. Don’t forget to take your camera with you, you never know if you will see that famous actor!.

6. Gastronomy is a very important touristic attractor. Nearly all the booths offer free tapas at lunch time. You don’t need to purchase food in the public restaurants or take it from home. You can eat for free!.

I have to admit that the trip to Madrid was well worth it. Thank you FITUR for such a great time!.

Greetings,

Manuel.