Day 6 - On the road again...

 

Day 6

We got a little earlier start today and ate breakfast at the hotel again. As I said before, the hotel in Avignon was a really neat ancient building. So the rooms were all separated down random hallways, and each one was unique. However, two fallbacks to this luxurious palace…one, no screens on the windows, and limited A/C led to a few mosquito bites from leaving our windows open. A few of us must have some sweet blood because they got us good. Another challenge was that the hot water was very limited, so we had to “polar plunge” our way to cleanliness, but I guess that just makes things feel more authentic and medieval. 

Today was a big travel day for us, so that meant 7 hours on the bus ride to Barcelona. But don’t worry, we had plenty of entertainment and learning along the way. One of the LEAP activities that comes with the Worldstrides program is a French Revolution reenactment. So before shuffling onto the bus, the kids were divided up into small groups and each given a role to play. We had the Parisian poor, peasants, the Bourgeoisie, the clergy, the nobility, and the King and Queen of France. Each group was given some background information about who they were and their role. They then organized themselves into characters and prepared for the upcoming revolution on the first leg of our bus ride. It actually got a little hostile on the bus, but as I was told, “they are method actors, and they were just dedicating themselves to the parts they play”.

The first leg of the trip took us to Carcassonne. It was a double-walled city that included a castle. We found a little open space and dove right into our French reenactment. As you can imagine, some kids got really into the roles. We had little skits, speeches, cheering, booing, begging, taxing, fighting, fleeing, and, of course, a few beheadings! The kids did a great job pretending and playing along. Hopefully, they learned at least a little bit about what happened. 

After we beheaded the convincing Mary Antonette and King Louis the XVI (sorry, Ella and Bailey), everyone cheered, and we were now ready to go into the city. Nothing like a fictional execution to start your day! 

Daniele shared with us a little history of the medieval city before we entered. This walled city was once fortified by the Romans in 100 BCE, and again the castle was strengthened throughout the Middle Ages and all the way to the French in the late 1600s. Did you know that it is named after the legend of the Lady Carcas, who rang the bell (“sonne” in French) once she saved the city from a five-year siege? That's how they got the name…Caras-sonne. According to this legend, there was a siege of the city that dragged on for five years, and the people of Carcassonne were starving. In a final act, Lady Carcas devised a plan to take the last remaining pig, fattened it with the city’s last bit of grain, and threw it over the city walls. The enemy, seeing such abundance, assumed the city was still well-provisioned and decided it was hopeless to continue the siege. They withdrew, and the city was saved. You know, you might want to try that with that neighbor you don’t love. Just chuck some fatty pork over the fence and see what happens… I’m sure they will move out immediately (and if not, you’ll at least have something to talk about at the summer cookout). 

Once inside the city, the kids had some time for lunch and shopping at the small market shops. I decided to purchase the group tickets to tour the actual castle with some of our remaining fundraising money. Daniele worked his magic and got us a great group rate even though we didn't have a reservation. So following lunch, we were able to spend about an hour walking throughout the castle. Kids imagined trying to defend the city from invaders or what daily life might have been like within the walls. It was another cool experience. After the castle tour, we headed back to the bus to finish our remaining 4-hour drive to Barcelona. 

We began this portion of the trip with Daniele and a few of the kids teaching the rest of us about Hannibal and his elephants, Gaudí, the Pythagorean theorem, Columbus, Franco (the Spanish dictator), and the EU. Did you know that America was named after explorer Amerigo Vespucci, who followed Columbus in discovering the “new” land? Did you know that the European Union has 27 countries (of a possible 52), and they each can design their own side of the Euro coins coming from that country? Do you know why America began using the “$” symbol to represent our currency? Spain was so wealthy at the time that Americans used the two-pillar and S-shaped ribbon (which is on the Spanish flag) as a simple symbol to represent our own money. Interesting stuff. 

Once we arrived in Barcelona, we drove straight to dinner. Which was great, we were all so tired and hungry from all of the bus riding and napping we did today…whew. After unloading, our Spanish-speaking students gave us some key phrases that we will need for the next few days. They did a great job reminding us all. For dinner, we had Tapas. Tapas is a traditional Spanish style of dining where the meal is delivered and eaten in small, shareable portions. It was perfect for us, because we all had different options we could eat. Our tapas included a Spanish tortilla, patatas bravas, nachos, a tuna salad-like dish, as well as Spanish chicken kebab and calamari. This might have been our best meal on the trip! The kids have gotten better with family meal time and are starting to ditch their phones without us asking much (yay!). This means we actually listen to the things they talk about, but it's worth it… sometimes ;). 

Guess which kids asked Daniele how to say “hey, good looking, what you got cooking” in Spanish? I’m not sure what the plan is here, but we’re all waiting to see what happens. 

After dinner, Luis, our driver for the last 3 days, dropped us off at the hotel. Our hotel is in the modern area of Barcelona. Which means good wifi and warm showers…trust me, when traveling with 18 middle school kids, that stuff matters. 

We will get to sleep in a little tomorrow, as we don’t hit the road here until 9 am. Looking forward to a busy day exploring the beautiful coastal city of Barcelona. 

Buenas Noches!