From London to Cardiff… and from Madrid to Barcelona

Mónica Bruck, Head of the Middle & Senior Humanities Department, reports:

Monday, December 10th: Westminster Abbey, Trafalgar Square and other Highlights

The day started with an early breakfast for the rugby boys who then had to attend a training session. At around 11 o`clock we all left on a walking tour from Westminster Abbey to Trafalgar Square. A group of boys decided to visit the amazing Abbey, the place of coronation of the English monarchs.  They visited the tombs of Mary Queen of Scots and Elizabeth I. Mary Stuart had been beheaded on the orders of her cousin Elizabeth. The former´s son, James I, followed Elizabeth on the throne. They also saw Sir Isaac Newton’s  tomb and the tomb of the famous baroque composer Henry Purcell, among other highlights. Then we continued the walk to Buckingham Palace and The Mall to Trafalgar Square.

In the afternoon we visited the Natural History Museum with the students that had missed the previous visit. This museum is proof of the Victorian spirit of collecting, cataloguing and interpreting the natural world. The main museum building, “inhabited” by dinosaurs, enormous whales and all kinds of earthly creatures is as much a reason to visit as its world famous collection within.  The rest of the boys were given time to explore Piccadilly Circus and Oxford Street up to Marble Arch.

That evening I accompanied a group of students to the theatre to see “War Horse”, an award winning play about the wonderful relationship between a sixteen year old boy and his horse during the First World War. The boys really enjoyed the play. We had dinner and then returned to the hotel to get ready for the next day rugby and volley matches and the trip to Cardiff.

Tuesday, December 11th: Let’s Play Some Sports!

We were all forced to rise early to get ready for the hotel check out and our trip to Epsom College to play the first matches. We arrived at noon for lunch and then the bus took us to what proved to be a magnificent school with an enormous campus.  It is a private boarding school of around eight hundred students aged thirteen to eighteen.

BDS won the volley match (Congrats, volley-boys, you certainly did it!), but unfortunately the rugby team fell against a tough opponent.

Want some details?

Volley Match: BDS beat Epsom 3- 0. (25-18/25-20/26-24) The match was entertaining and played with enthusiasm by both teams. It was played intensely at a very high level. Our team found it hard to score at times because they had a very good defense. The players that best performed in our team were Ezequiel Ibarra, Manuel Cazachkoff and  Tomás Vitale, according to their coach, Roberto Fiondella, who was of course very proud.

The rugby match came out 37- 14. The tries of BDS were made by Federico Russo and Francisco Zunino, as reported by coaches Pancho Pavicevic and Ignacio Saint Bonnet. At the end of the match the Headmaster of the school gave a present to Francisco Zunino and Nicolás Rainuzzo for their excellent performance.

We arrived at Cardiff at around 8.30 pm. We are staying at the Sports Wales National Centre. After dinner the boys went to the different gyms and played squash and other sports, making the most of the sports centre.

Hope you’ll enjoy the photos! More news coming up shortly…

Mónica Bruck

To read about the girls’ tour in Spain, please switch to the Spanish version of this post.