School trip to Madrid: the Prado, Toledo and Segovia (9 days)

Day 1: Journey to south-west France

• Departure from your school at the agreed time, early in the morning.
• Journey with two drivers on board and regular stops: our drivers drive for no more than 3 hours, then take a 30-minute break.
• Dinner and overnight stop in the Bordeaux area.

Day 2: Across Spain

• Breakfast and check-out.
• Journey with two drivers on board and regular stops: our drivers drive for no more than 3 hours, then take a 30-minute break.
• Through the Basque Country and Castile, arriving in Madrid in the late afternoon.
• Check-in at the accommodation, dinner and overnight stay.

Day 3: Habsburg Madrid and the Prado

• Breakfast at the accommodation.
• Walk from Puerta del Sol, kilometre zero of Spain’s roads, to Plaza Mayor.
• Guided tour of the Prado Museum (Velázquez, Goya, Bosch) (on request).
• Afternoon in Retiro Park and its Crystal Palace.
• Dinner and overnight stay at the accommodation.

Day 4: A day on foot in Madrid

• Breakfast at the accommodation.
• A day on foot without the coach: compulsory rest day for the drivers.
• Visit to the Royal Palace (on request).
• Past Almudena Cathedral and Plaza de España.
• Visit to the Reina Sofía museum and Picasso’s Guernica (on request).
• Dinner and overnight stay at the accommodation.

Day 5: Toledo, city of three cultures

• Breakfast at the accommodation.
• Drive to Toledo and view of the city from across the Tagus.
• Guided tour of the cathedral, the Santa María la Blanca synagogue and the church of Santo Tomé (El Greco’s Burial of the Count of Orgaz) (on request).
• Damascening workshop, Toledo’s traditional art of gold inlay (on request).
• Dinner and overnight stay at the accommodation.

Day 6: Alcalá de Henares, Cervantes’s town

• Breakfast at the accommodation.
• Visit to the Cervantes Birthplace Museum (on request).
• Walk through the old town and past the historic university, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
• Dramatised reading workshop with extracts from Don Quixote (on request).
• Dinner and overnight stay at the accommodation.

Day 7: Segovia and its aqueduct

• Breakfast and check-out.
• Drive to Segovia to discover the Roman aqueduct, Plaza Mayor and the cathedral.
• Visit to the Alcázar of Segovia (on request).
• Drive to Burgos, dinner and overnight stop.

Day 8: Burgos and return journey

• Breakfast and check-out.
• Visit to Burgos’s Gothic cathedral and the tomb of El Cid (on request).
• Departure around midday.
• Overnight return journey with two drivers and regular breaks (no more than 3 hours of driving, then a 30-minute break).

Day 9: Return to Belgium

• Arrival back at school in the morning.