Portugal
participants
- Show international students a bit more of our portuguese culture, history and traditions;
- Promote national visits to other portuguese cities such as Guimarães;
- Promote intercultural dialogue.
We took our international students to a day-trip to Guimarães, the most historical city of Portugal, where the history of Portugal's independece started. Known as the cradle of Portugal, Guimarães was our first capital, and the place from where D. Afonso Henriques, our first king, began his fight for our independence from Spain and later, the Reconquista, fighting the Moors and expanding the country to the south. Classified as World Heritage by UNESCO since 2001, the historical center is a mandatory visit for anyone who wants to know Portugal and the international students had the opportunity to do so, and also to visit two very important monuments: the castle, Castelo de Guimarães and the palace, Paço dos Duques. To finish the trip we took the students to watch the sunset in a beautiful place called Serra da Penha coupled with some nice snacks.
Besides the weather that wasn't as good as we expected and disturbed our plans a little, the feedback from the international students was very good and they really enjoyed the city and getting to know a bit more about the history of Portugal.
