OUR EXPERIENCE IN DUCHCOV The Spanish report

DAY 1: MONDAY, MARCH 5, 2012 We arrived at Duchcov about 22 h. Our hostess, Mara, picked us up at the train station and took us to the hotel Casanova, where, after a typical dinner, we retired to rest after the long journey. DAY 2: TUESDAY, MARCH 6, 2012 At breakfast we were introduced to the other colleagues and began the day with a visit to the two institutes in Duchcov, one of them a high school and the other for training courses. The story of the day for us was to see the students of the school going around wearing house slippers, since due to the snow and the rain they leave their muddy boots in the basement and spend the morning comfortably with sneakers or sandals. After visiting the centres, accompanied by the local teachers, we went to one of the few remaining factories in the city dedicated to handmade porcelain objects. Then we were shown the castle, now museum, of Giacomo Casanova, where he stayed during his time in the Czech Republic. After a typical lunch with colleagues, we visited another museum, this time dedicated to mining and archaeology. Then we met in the Gymnasium to hold the working meeting, where we described the activities that each school had done during the first quarter and planned the activities for the remainder of the school year as well as the visits for next year. Dinner was at the hotel, accompanied by the teachers. DAY 3: WEDNESDAY, MARCH 7, 2012 We got up at 6 in the morning because there was planned a visit to the beautiful city of Prague. The tour began with a series of visits to the most famous synagogues in the Jewish quarter, where we saw the names of all the Jews who died during the Second World War in the Czech Republic. These visits were quite moving, especially the tour of the Old Jewish Cemetery. During the rest of our stay in Prague we were free to visit the most significant monuments of the various districts of Prague. We could also taste typical Czech cuisine.

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We returned to the hotel by train, accompanied by our Italian colleagues, where we organized a Babel-like meeting trying to speak in both Spanish and Italian, English and even in Slovenian. DAY 4: THURSDAY, MARCH 8, 2012 This morning we were surprised by the snow, which was received with great enthusiasm. We went to visit the mines of the town of Most, where it was explained how they were carrying out the ecological recovery of the area through an artificial lake. Then we saw another way to reuse the space of an old mine, to build a racetrack. The lunch of the day was provided by our host country, and in addition we had free time in a mall to buy presents to be brought back to Cartagena. In the afternoon we were pleasantly surprised in a small family winery, very rustic, where we were invited by the owner to different varieties of wine, including a kosher wine, made by the family. As we left, the Director of the Czech Centre handed us a few souvenirs that had been prepared for the countries participating in the Comenius. We keep some very dear memories of that night because we were entertained at dinner with traditional dances of each country, together with typical sweets and a large case of wine that the winery owner had kindly donated to us and which had been valiantly brought back by our Spanish colleagues. DAY 5: FRIDAY, MARCH 9, 2012 With great sorrow in our hearts we said goodbye to everyone and to this very welcoming experience and returned to the port city of Cartagena with our suitcases full of good memories of the visit and of our endearing fellow Europeans.

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