After the long road to Spain and our arrival at the hotel, we met our friends from Portugal, North Macedonia and Spain and we talked about the memories which we had created in Portugal.
On the next day we were ready to create new unforgettable experience. Our first stop was The Royal Site of San Lorenzo de El Escorial where we learnt a lot about the Spanish history. This incredible place combines several buildings - a monastery and a Spanish royal palace. We saw the second largest library in the world with wonderful ceiling with gold decoration of the seven liberal arts - Rhetoric, Dialectic, Music, Grammar, Arithmetic, Geometry and Astronomy.
After that we visited the center of Madrid where we visited The Santiago Bernabéu Stadium, Puerta del Sol which is Madrid`s most famous and central square, Plaza Mayor which is situated at the heart of the city and we walked to the Plaza de San Miguel where we found the market with typical Spanish dishes and drinks as Sangria wine, my favorite- Chocolate Palmera and different types of tapas and paella.
On the second day ours groups visited the cheese factory “La Rosa Amarilla” where we learnt a lot about the cheese production there, how they store the cheese, the various stages of ripening of the cheese and its placing on the market and also, we had the opportunity to try it.
After that we visited a small village called Chinchon with remarkable spirit and atmosphere.
On the next day we visited the winery “Bodega Alcardet” at Villanueva de Alcardete. We walked around and saw how the wine is being produced, distilled and bottled. They pressed their greatest pride - the wine with little golden particles and showed the specific way to open a bottle of wine with sword.
After that we visited The Royal Palace of Aranjuez and the largest and beautiful gardens which I had ever seen. The night was special, because we went to a special restaurant to watch the traditional Spanish dances - flamenco which was accompanied by singers and guitar players. It was really incredible and influential experience.
During our free time we had the opportunity to visit Madrid`s zoo where we met many exotic animals as giraffes, dromedaries, zebras and etc. We were watching two breathtaking performs- the dolphin jumping fesand and the parrots playing and singing. We visited the aquarium and saw the lovely aquatic creatures there.
One of the most interesting meetings was the one with a representative of the Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Services of Madrid. They introduced us to their local policies for development of the economy and the opportunities for cooperation between the countries
After last lecture for Spanish wine and cheese production we learnt a lot about the different ways of growing grapes, the different ways to produce them into wine, the most suitable soils on which Spanish grapes are grown, as one of them impressed me particularly, it was the soil of a volcano.
In the end each of the participants teams presented wines and cheese from his country. We could exchange many new ideas and specific approaches to the production of wine and cheese in the different countries
