Gaffney High students Anna Jones and Christine Coker are shown with foreign language teacher Nancy Jacobs (center) in Toledo while on a 10-day trip to Spain this July. Flamenco shows and riding a camel were among the adventures when Gaffney High students Anna Jones and Christine Coker traveled to two continents on a summer trip.

Jones and Coker joined their Spanish teacher Nancy Jacobs on a trip to Spain from July 9 to 18. The students visited Madrid, Cordoba, Seville, Costa del Sol, Granada, and Toledo.

On a one day excursion to Morocco, Jacobs and the students were able to ride camels.

"We were a small group, but we had a blast," Jacobs said. "The girls loved the fact that they got to travel to Europe and Africa."

Jacobs organized the trip to Spain for any interested Gaffney High students who had a B average and good discipline. Her Spanish II students worked on their language skills by ordering from menus in Spanish and communicating with local residents.

The students visited cathedrals, the Royal Palace in Madrid and the famous Prado art museum. Their sightseeing took them to see a rug maker and an old pharmacy that uses natural medicines in Morocco.

"We saw la Mesquita in Cordoba, the Alhambra in Granada which was the site where Columbus received his support from Ferdinand and Isabella to find a new route to the East," Jacobs said. "We went to former palaces and mosques from the time when Spain was ruled by the Moors. The mosques were later converted to churches and the palaces were taken over by the Christian rulers."

Jones and Coker went to the Mediterranean Sea and saw the Rock of Gibraltar.

The students got to see two flamenco shows in entirely different settings in Spain.

"The show we saw in Seville was in a theater with professional dancers with beautiful costumes and choreography," Jacobs said. "The other show was in a cave in the Hills of Granada by families of gypsies who are not 'trained' and dance and sing off the cuff."

Jacobs is hoping the students' experience in Spain will help generate more interest in foreign travel. She is planning a trip to Italy and Greece next summer.

"I hope that the word will spread and that more students will want to travel," Jacobs said. "I think traveling is a wonderful way to learn, it builds character, and it can really strengthen students as individuals."