After embarking on our once-quarterly Bing trip, we are
officially 2/3 of the way through the spring program – only further proof that
10 weeks is a period much too short for studying abroad!
Our 3-day Bing trip took us to the northeastern region of
Spain, to the provinces of Aragon and Navarra. We boarded th bus on Friday at
the crack of dawn – well it was actually 8am, but it felt like the crack of
dawn – and had a long trip to the French/Spanish border where we would walk a
portion of the beginning of El Camino de Santiago.
Yes, the camino had returned. While most of us had packed
away our boot and trekking backpacks and had a compostelana as proof of our
voyage, we became pilgrims once again. The mountainous region was incredibly
beautiful and quite different from the landscape in Galicia. We learned a bit
about the historic landmarks in the region, including the ruins of an old
pilgrim hospital and an international train station no longer in use, and the
fact that we no longer had to carry backpacks or endure rain and hail made the
day much more enjoyable.
We then visited el monasterio de San Juan de la Peña, where the old
monastery was built into the side of a mountain.
(We visited another monastery the next day – hate to break
it to you BOSP, but really, when you’ve seen one monastery, you’ve seen them
all).
The next town we visited was Olite – a little town not too
far from the place my host mother was born! Our plan was to take part in some
of the patron saint festivities going on that day, but the beautiful weather
form the day before had turned into gloomy rain all day long. Instead, we all
spent the evening chatting away, watching the Chelsea vs. Munich soccer game
(holla Chelsea!) and enjoying our sweet castle-turned-hotel. I can now check “spend
the night in a castle” off my bucket list!
The next morning we visited a wine museum to learn all about
the process of making wine – this region of Spain is known for the high quality
wine it produces – and to taste one of the signature wines of the region. Thank
you, Bings!
We had an absolutely amazing lunch and made our way to our
last stop of the trip – a visit to the river Duero to walk along a romantic
path that the Spanish poet Antonio Machada frequented with his wife. Once
again, the inclement weather didn’t allow us to take the intended path, but we
did manage to get a breathtaking view of the river.
A weekend of being wined & dined by Stanford is always something to appreciate and this trip was one more piece of my Spanish tour. Thank you Stanford <3
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