Cultural activities

When we visited England in October, we had trips to the cities of Liverpool and Chester. In June, when the English students came to Pamplona, we showed them around Pamplona our hometown and we also did excursions to San Sebastian and Olite. 

On Tuesday afternoon after lunch we all met at the main door of our old school building. Maristas has had schools in many different places in Pamplona over the last 100 years or so. We moved to our fantastic new school  in the year that most of us were born. Before that the school was in the centre of Pamplona in a fantastic building which is now empty. All of the English and Spanish students met with some of the Spanish parents and brothers and sisters. We were the official "guides" for the trip  and we had prepared our little speeches in class with our English teachers. We walked towards the centre of Pamplona and took photos next to the statue of the Running of the Bulls. From there we went to the bullring. The English students were very  impressed because they had never seen a bullring before. We walked down the most famous street in Pamplona, Estafeta, and the English students bought some typical souvenirs of Pamplona, like the famous red neckerchief that we wear during the fiestas of San Fermín, the patron saint of Pamplona  We also went inside the Town Hall, which is where the fiestas start at 12 o’clock on the 6th of July every year. From there, we walked through the narrow streets of the old part of Pamplona to the cathedral. 

Our school is called Colegio de Santa Maria, the English school is Saint Mary of the Angels and the cathedral in Pamplona is the cathedral of Saint Mary.  It was built during the 14th and 15th centuries and contains a lot of historical and artistic treasures. It is very interesting because the facade is neoclassical and the temple is Gothic. The last restoration of the cathedral was in 1992. 

On Wednesday, the 14 English students and 14 Spanish students went to San Sebastian with our teachers. San Sebastian is a beautiful city on the coast less than 100 km from Pamplona. The English students were all very excited because they were going to go to the beach. The Spanish students were not so  excited because we thought that it was too cold to go to the beach. The English are crazy! They swam in the sea. It wasn’t sunny but most of our poor English friends got sunburnt and by the end of the day they were all pink. Before Going to the beach, we went to the aquarium which is next to the port in San Sebastian. 

When we visited England in October we went for a day to Chester Zoo and saw lots of interesting animals. In the aquarium San Sebastián, what we all liked most we the two sharks who are called Txuri and Contxita. We saw them very clearly because there is at 360° glass tunnel in the middle of the water.

After lunch on the beach, we went in the wooden carriages of the Funicular to the top of Monte Igueldo. At the top, there are two interesting things: a beautiful view and a fairground. Our favourite attraction was the bumper cars. We took lots of photographs.

On Thursday all the students of sixth of primary from Maristas and the 14 English students went to spend the day in a town called Olite. Olite is famous for its castle or Royal Palace. The teachers and the guides told us many interesting things about this castle  which is very important in the kingdom of Navarre. But most of all we enjoyed running up and down the steps and playing hide and seek. In the afternoon we went to the park and played altogether.