CHS Blog

When the opportunity came up for our family to travel to Spain with CHS, we could not pass it up. It is our son’s senior year and a chance to travel with the CHS group was something we had been looking forward to for quite a while. We left school all excited about the journey ahead. We traveled overnight and arrived early in the morning in Madrid and hit the ground running.  We loaded up the vans and headed for Toledo, which is one of the oldest cities in Spain. While having some free time to grab lunch, we quickly realized that not a lot of people spoke English, so Google Translate and high school Spanish became our friends. It was exciting in many stores as they tried a few words in English, then we tried some words in Spanish and we had success. (Amazing how that works when you really want to shop or eat!)  It was so cool to see the students using their Spanish to communicate, try local cuisine and really immerse themselves in the beautiful Spanish culture. After lunch, our wonderful tour guide took us to a beautiful, gothic church with over 700 stained-glass windows.  We toured the Jewish section of town where, occasionally, you would see tiles in the cement walls and ground with Jewish symbols.  We rode a zip line called Fly Toledo which went over a large gorge after a lot of walking, enjoyed our first gelatos of the trip, had dinner, then some of us went to a local rooftop restaurant to watch the sunset. It was amazing looking over as the cathedrals and historic buildings there all started to light up. 

On Friday we were in Cordoba. We went into the Mosque-Cathedral of Cordoba, which was brimming with history. The cathedral is officially known as the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Assumption. We learned from our guide the history of Spain and how the building was originally a Mosque, but when the Christians took over Spain, a cathedral was built inside the Mosque. The outside walls are still the walls of the original Mosque, but the church was consecrated as a Christian cathedral so it can no longer be used as a Mosque. Cordoba is a beautiful town with stone walls and cobblestone streets.  In the evening, we attended a horse and flamenco show at The Caballerizas Reales (Royal Stables). As we left the show, we ran into one of the Holy Week processions with solemn music and a large float with statues of the crucifixion.  It was quite emotional to see this very large float with statues of the crucifixion moving slowly through the street with so many people silently watching.  These are moments that were completely unexpected and there were many of them. Even while strolling back to our hotel, we noticed a sweet smell in the air and we realized we were walking under trees with fragrant orange blossoms. It was a smell some of us immediately recognized because we had purchased this very scent while in one of the quaint little shops during the day.

Saturday we were off to Seville. As we drove through the beautiful countryside, we would see huge black metal cutouts of bulls on some of the hillsides. We googled it while on the ride and found out they were originally an advertisement for the Osborne Group in 1956. Now they have become a national symbol of Spain. Some are 14 meters tall; some are 7 meters tall and there are 92 of them on hilltops and roads throughout Spain.  We arrived in Seville, and then were off to a tour of another beautiful cathedral. The craftsmanship of these cathedrals is absolutely breathtaking. You could spend hours just looking at the beautiful level of detail in every part of the cathedral. Everywhere we looked we wanted to take a picture to try and capture the beauty. There were statues of soldiers carrying a coffin in this church. At first, I didn’t understand what significance that had. It is not something normally seen in a church setting like that. We were told the coffin contained the remains of Christopher Columbus. In each church there were so many stories about the history of Spain and how the specific cathedrals were impacted during the shifting times of control throughout history.

One evening, as we were waiting for our reservation for dinner, we sat overlooking the beautiful water and parrots started flying overhead and one landed in a nearby tree. It was like a scene out of the movie Rio and we could not believe we were seeing this in real life. Dinner was an open-air restaurant overlooking the water and part of the city. It was a beautiful place to watch the sunset while dining and discussing the adventures of the day. On the walk back to the hotel we had to stop for Churros of course. A sweet ending to the day!

Sunday, we attended part of a Palm Sunday mass at a small but gorgeous local church. It was so beautiful to see the processional of palms as the congregation walked around the outside of the building. We then went to the Royal Alcazar Palace which had beautiful gardens to stroll through with ponds, fountains, and flowers. Then it was off to a theatre to see a Flamenco Dance Show. After the show, I immediately looked up how many calories you burn doing flamenco for future reference – not enough for more gelato… too bad. Seville was very crowded because of Holy Week celebrations and parade processions. Getting around was a challenge but we were all up for it! It was awe inspiring to see the huge, somber processionals with thousands of people walking dressed in traditional dress from the medieval times. The tradition is a form of Penitence and include small children to older adults.  They are called the Nazarenes of Spain. There were huge religious statues on floats with people solemnly carrying them through the city with incense as they went along. There were many people in traditional costumes carrying huge crucifixes through the procession. The processionals go on for many hours and people carry the floats for 7-8 or even 13 hours through winding streets with thousands and thousands of people in the crowds along the streets. Some floats have over 100 people carrying them. They are that big and heavy.  

Monday we were off to El Caminito Del Rey for a hike along very high cliffs with narrow wooden walkways actually pinned to the steep walls of a narrow gorge in El Chorro. There were some regular hiking trails that led to the wooden mountain walkways. The views were spectacular but a little intimidating. There is a suspension bridge that goes across the gorge that we walked over and then like a beautiful mirage, stairs leading us back to the regular earthbound trails! Whew, we made it! That evening the adults stayed at a hotel overlooking the mountains and the water. The rooms were built into stone relics.  It was a very quaint place to stay. The area was very rural with the beautiful mountains and the water flowing below. The students and some chaperones stayed about a mile or so away at a B and B and the boys all got to stay in a yurt on the property.

Tuesday, the students had a full day of horseback riding and electric mountain biking. The adults headed off to Málaga to check into the B & B and have some free time. 

Wednesday, we were up early to meet for a 7-mile bike tour along the coast in Málaga. It was beautiful and thankfully flat ground to bike on! Especially after the student’s busy day the day before. Later we had a tour of a fortress and then a cathedral tour where we hiked up a tower and got to take pictures of the beautiful city and then watch a virtual reality show of the cathedral in old times. We had some free time and then we went on a beautiful sunset cruise. What a beautiful way to end the day. 

Thursday, we headed back to Madrid. It was about a 5-hour ride which gave everyone time to talk, catch up, play trivia games, sleep or sing, depending on which van you were in! We arrived in Madrid, checked into our hotel and met for our final dinner of our wonderful journey. 

Friday, we met for breakfast and headed to the airport for our trip home having built deeper friendships and reflecting on so many special memories. 

This trip went by so fast. It was a great experience for many reasons.  We saw a lot and really got to experience many parts of Spanish culture. We certainly saw a different view of Holy Week then we see here in the United States. Some people commented that it changed their view of Holy Week forever. I know that it changed mine. It has always been a special time of reflection for me. Seeing the rituals that have been followed for hundreds of years, the reverence the Spanish culture has for Holy Week, really touched my heart and my celebrations of Holy Week will likely be different going forward. 

I have to thank John Naeher and Paula Greer for planning this trip. The amount of work, heart and talent that it takes to have so many moving pieces is a gargantuan undertaking.  They never missed a beat. Mr. Naeher is a combination of everyone’s favorite Uncle and Willy Wonka. How many times did I turn around to see him with Cliff bars for the kids/adults to snack on, bags of Tootsie Roll Pops, Twizzlers, Frozen Treats when it was a hot day. Then he would have fun awards at some of the dinners with prizes. Cowboy hats for all the students to wear to the horse show. As someone who is usually the planner of the family trip, I had a deep appreciation for what went into it. The other special part of this trip was really getting to know some of the other parents and students better. Students we had seen at school for years, in plays, playing sports, passing in the hallways at school, but had never really gotten to know. We got to have many conversations about all different topics, we laughed, enjoyed meals together, had GELATO and more GELATO,  and were sure in our knowledge that if we were ever on the Amazing Race show, trying to navigate Seville during Holy Week was really great training.

Debbie DeBlasi, PTL President