Dressed in immaculate whiteWith the uniform of a first-year midshipman, Princess Leonor entered this Thursday at the Naval Military School of Marín to continue her military training. The commanding director, the captain of the ship Pedro Cardonareceived him at the imposing gate of Charles I, which protects the weight of the history of this exceptional enclave for the Navy.
This is not the first time that the Princess of Asturias and Girona has visited the Naval de Marín. He was with his parents a few weeks ago to take measurements of the space that will be your home for the next four months. In January, he will embark on the training ship Juan Sebastian Elcano.
Leonor de Borbón y Ortiz, after having been received with corresponding honors like the Princess of Asturias at the entrance to the military enclosure, signed the guest book of the School. Subsequently, she was accompanied by the officials of the Naval Military School to what will be her new room for the coming months.
Unlike last year, when she entered the General Military Academy of Zaragoza, on this occasion Princess Leonor She arrived alone in Marínwithout the company of his parents, the Kings, nor his sister, the Infanta Leonor, who has already returned to Wales to study at the grammar school.
This is the second time that the heiress to the throne will strictly follow military discipline to learn the functioning of the armed forces, of which she will become the supreme commander in the future. “Honor, courage, discipline, loyalty” are the values of the Naval Military School that the eldest daughter of the Kings will assume.
You will often see these values in various inscriptions at the Naval Military School. “The only fight lost is the one abandoned”“Know your opponent and know yourself and you will win a hundred battles,” says another, just as motivating as “to study is to serve Spain.”
“As Commander-Director, I welcome you to the Navy and more specifically to the Naval Military School. These days, you are completing a process that will surely have required a lot of effort, perseverance and a desire to improve, values that are all necessary in the Navy, so on behalf of all of us who are part of the Navy Academy, and myself, I convey my most sincere congratulations on your admission. “Congratulations!” exclaimed the Director of the School, Pedro Cardona.
Your daily life will correspond to “strict regime and boarding“, which he will enter and, therefore, in Cardona’s words, his schedule will be “non-stop.” From today on, he will have to go to bed every day at 11 p.m. and get up at 6:45 a.m., when the battalion gets up. Like the rest of the students, they will get ready, have breakfast, tidy their room and at 7:50 a.m. they will have to prepare for a police check – they will check that they are wearing their uniform correctly.
Then Princess Leonor will go to class: five hours in the morning – they start at 8:10 – and three hours in the afternoon. They have an hour to eat and every day they have to do an hour of gymnastics. At 6:00 p.m., a military event takes place. reading the orderand at 10:30 p.m. they must go to sleep, to “ensure that students get eight hours of sleep.” If a student wants to go to bed later to study, they must ask permission.
Weekends are “more relaxed”. They get up at 8:45, Saturday morning is school and from 12:30 they can go out. Depending on their seniority and the course they are enrolled in, first-year students can return to the School at 1:30, or 3:00 for the rest. However, from the third year onwards, students have the possibility of sleeping outside.
“It’s a way to facilitate the regime they have, which is a boarding school, to help unite the group of people who enter the school,” Cardona stressed. Leonor will follow a “very intense regime, without much free time,” like all her colleagues, and therefore “there will be no exceptions.”
One of the subjects that are part of the apprenticeship of the eldest daughter of the kings of Spain is Maneuvering and Navigation. Taught by the lieutenant of the ship Loreto FontanalsPrincess Leonor will learn the vocabulary used by all those who dedicate their lives to the sea.
“I always tell them that it is one of the most beautiful professions they could have chosen and that life at sea has its harshness,” Fontanals assured journalists who went to Marín on Thursday.
The parts of the ship and how weather conditions affect navigation will be a large part of the knowledge that students will acquire at the Marín military facilities, which have a swimming pool, a planetarium with virtual reality and a navigation simulator. “We are sure that Leonor will reinforce the values and principles that the king asks us to instill in her. We are looking forward to her and I am sure that we will all enjoy her presence,” Cardona said.
Marín welcomes Princess Leonor
The people of Marín welcomed Princess Leonor into their municipality with open arms. Some remember their father’s stay in the city of Pontevedra. Felipe VI entered the Navy in 1986.in his third year, as a first-year aspirant. For the people of Merin, they believe that the presence of the Princess of Asturias and Girona in their city “will be good for Marín.”
