This year in the first week of our autumn holidays our school trip took us to the famous city of Shakespeare, the Queen, Sherlock Holmes and Jack the Ripper: London.
46 students and 4 teachers started their journey on Sunday evening, 20th October 2013, and arrived in the English Capital City exhausted and tired, but still very excited after 17 hours of travelling. Instead of relaxing we explored Greenwich, for example the Royal Observatory and the prime meridian, "enjoying" typical English weather. To get an idea of what we can discover the next week we continued with a sightseeing tour on the River Thames by boat. Most of us got wet again, but this did not reduce our enthusiasm. Those who could not get enough of sightseeing enjoyed a beautiful view from the top of the London Eye. The art-lovers of our group, lead professionally by Mrs Teich, observed famous impressionistic and expressionistic paintings at the Tate Modern. In the end our well-packed day program left us individual free time and in the evening we met our host families, that were our home for this week. They gave us a warm welcome and after this exhausting day full of new experiences everybody slept like a baby. Unfortunately, Tuesday morning came much too fast. Together with a guide we explored the City of Westminster and the City of London by coach, stopping at St. Paul’s Cathedral and Buckingham Palace to take some photos. In the afternoon we were able to choose between visiting the famous wax museum Madame Tussaud’s or one of two museums, either the National History Museum or the Science Museum. On Wednesday, we took the subway to Camden Town, a district full of tiny shops and famous for its big markets offering food and other interesting stuff from all over the world. Many of us recognised that spending money is very easy and it seems like it disappears without doing anything. With full shopping bags we walked to Regent’s Park and climbed up Primrose Hill to enjoy the view of the London skyline in beautiful sunlight. Afterwards, Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre opened its gates and we took part in an acting workshop, trying to feel like the Montagues or the Capulets in the play "Romeo and Juliet". Thursday: Considering our future education, the day trip to Oxford, famous for its old university, showed us some new opportunities for studying. A cute old Lady guided us through the old colleges and streets and told us interesting facts about the town, its history, students, their daily life on the campus and also showed us some of the film locations from "Harry Potter". After enjoying the beautiful atmosphere of this old university town and strolling through narrow side streets full of traditional pubs and interesting shops, we returned to London satisfied and happy. Our last day was again full of action. In the London Dungeon some of our group explored the history of London and learned something about the great fire, the "black death" and Jack the Ripper. Others went to see the interesting London Museums again. In the afternoon, we had the chance to see our favourite places of London for the last time and as a consequence, many small groups were spread all over London visiting different districts or museums, spending their last money in shops and on markets or just enjoying the last hours in this amazing City. It was a really great week for all of us and we thank our teachers and our amazing host families for giving us such a good time full of new places, people and culture!
(written by Isabell Bernhardt, Natalie Bernhardt and Anja Becher)
