Studienfahrt nach England 2002
The first day we left Gerstungen on10 pm MET. That was Saturday May 4th.
At the first moment many of us were very surprised because of the double-decker coach, which would bring us to Wales and maybe back to Germany. The following 10 hours our group,consisting of 37 pupils and three teachers, spent in this double-decker coach until the arriving in Calais (France).
After a very long, sleepless night we had passed the Channel at 8 am GMT. And so we left the ferry at 8.30 am GMT. The following time information`s are all in local time.During the first hours we wondered that on the British island the sun was shining because we Gerstungen in the rain.On Sunday we traveled to Windsor Castle. This is the biggest Castle in Britain and the second home of the royal family.In this year we had good luck because the flag on the first tower (of the castle ), which you can see here,was hissed. This means the Queen was there at this moment.
After our visitation to Windsor our journey went on until we arrived in Bath.
Bath is a very old city. It was built by the Romans. They used the hot springs for a bath (today it`s called a thermal). They named the thermal bath after the female God „Sulis Minerva“ . The mentioned hot springs have a constant temperatur of 49øC.
The third day in Wales we were in the capitol of this country,Cardiff. We visited the old castle and had a guided tour. Our tour guide showed us the government buildings, Cardiff Castle, the millennium stadium and the harbour of Cardiff. Cardiff Castle isn`t only one old building. it consists of two parts. The one you can see from the shopping centre of the city, it is a kind of wall, And another smaller castle, which is inside of the other in a little park. From the street you can see a small red line on the wall around the castle, witch borders the oldest wall parts of the castle. The wall passes into a castle, that has many very different styled rooms. Marquess of Bute III was the owner of the castle in the Victorian time. He was very rich and asked a architect to design every room in a different age of time. For example he had to design one room in the style of the middle age and another in the Arabian style like a fairy tale world.
The second named castle was a fort from the Normans in its origin. Around the fort is a ditch. Hostiles would fall into, if they attack the fort. Furthermore the guide told something about the millennium stadium. This day there was an 3rd division Play-off football match in it.
The afternoon we spend in a welsh life museum in St. Fagans. There we could see old reconstructed welsh houses. Showmen made history nearly alive.
Late this evening we went to cinema and saw the movie ?About a boy?, in English, of course.
Wednesday we visited Gower. This is a small island on that we visited the beach city Swansea. In foreign ages was it an important iron industrial city. We all were very lucky to see sunshine at this morning. While we traveled to Swansea our coach started to ?jump? a little bit (because of a broken gearing). We arrived the beach in the lunch-heat and had a very good time at the beach. Some of us saw a small shark Swansea is a famous city for having little holidays, there are long beach way an a lot of very good Ice- coffees . The afternoon we could expand Cardiff for our own.
Some of our group had the chance to speak with some American this evening,too. For practising and understanding the English language was is very good.
Tuesday started with a little bit rain, so we had to change the program a little for this day. At first we visited ?Big Pit?. This is a museum about coal mine just like the salt mine in Merkers but smaller. We went into the mountain like we know it from Merkers. But there it was very dark, dirty and wet. Furthermore most of us had big problems with the low passages in the mine.
After that tour we drove to another very special museum in Merthyr Tydfil. This is a house of a famous family named Tudor. The guides played the role of the butler and other people, who lived with this family and worked for them. They wore the clothes and spoke the English language of this time. At first it was very difficult to understand this old English.
Our last day started, like the others before at 7 o`clock in the morning. The following time every small group had their last breakfast with the englisch families. After that it was „time to say good bye“ and any of us left cards with the best wishes for the family and a little thank you for the nice time.
For me it was a very special time in a very big house with nice people and great experiences . Most of the travellers had the same opinion like me . They all were surprised, caused of the very big houses in opposite to the imagined terraced houses.
We met at half past nine in the morning, because the coach was in a garage. Expecting the best we started to the second bus stop and had to mention that our coach was even broken. Every stop seemed like a „jumping forward going“.
Nevertheless the drivers decided to go to London. We had a very funny time in the main shopping zone of London. Everybody looked at the white German coach, that smoked like a burning fire, while it started at a crossing. We saw the Piccadilly circus, the Harrots, Big Ben, the houses of parliament , hyde park and the typical red busses. After the short guided tour through the city, we visited Madame Tussaud`s .
Picture: Whoopi Goldberg and Patrick Stuart at Madame Tussauds.
All pupils enjoyed the time at Madame Tussauds. It`s a little bit of visiting stars you can see in television, football-matches or on stage..
We left London in the early afternoon and drove to Dover. We took the ferry back to Calais and were back on the Continent at 10 o`clock p.m. (MEZ).
After a short, beautiful week in Wales we left our drivers „DJ Coach“ and „Willy“ in Gerstungen at 8 o`clock in the morning.
C. Schmidt