Class 8d in England

1^st day - bustrip and sea voyage

  

The trip started on the last day of the Withsun holidays. Four buses stood in line and there was a lot of shouting and chatting. Everbody was excited and said good-bye to their parents. The pupils looked for their bus and carried their baggage to the buses. Everybody hoped their suitcases were on the right bus.

  

Then the bus trip started. The teacher wanted to take the passports of all pupils, but he got a surprise: someone had taken the wrong passport along - the passport of his mother. The student called his parents and we had to wait for them. After this incident the trip went well. We stopped just one more time at a service area in Belgium. But there the owner of the shop thought that a few pupils were trying to steal something and she shouted at them. On the rest of the bustrip some of us played cards, listened to music or chatted. When we arrived at the Zeebrugge port, we had to get our tickets. A security man explained us the ship rules. He said they would throw us over board if we were too loud. On the ship we went straight to our cosy little cabins. Some pupils played at the slot machines. In the evening there was very good disco dancing, where everybody danced like mad. At 10 o'clock everybody had to go to bed. But not all of us slept, so the teachers had to check on it for quite a while.

  

2^nd day - Chester

 

When we got up everybody was in a hurry to get to the breakfast place. But when we got down on the green deck, the restaurand was still closed. But then a few minutes later it opened and we checked out the very big buffet: there was any food you can magine...  fruit, rolls or juices, and, of course, English breakfast, toast, bacon, sausages and beans !! Then we had to leave the ferry. It took quite a long time.  When were allowed to go off board, we had to go through a check point. There an officer checked our passports and at last we met outside the customs building! We had to wait for a long time for our bus. When it finally arrived, our busdriver told us that his bus had been scanned with a new device, and they had found alcohol!! - But it was only the alcohol in the aircondition. At last we were ready to go and visit the Humber Bridge. This bridge, which spans the Humber estuary, is only a few kilometers away from Hull. It is 2220 meters long and 28.5 meters wide. The bridge was opened by Queen Elizabeth in 1982. For 17 years it was the longest rope - bridge in the world! The distance between the towers is 1430 meters.

 

After three hours on the bus we arrived in Chester. There we went on a guided tour around Chester. The guide showed us a lot of things like a castle or a park, which had been paid for by a rich family of Chester, the Grosvenor family. Then we walked along the idyllic River Dee and we had a look at some old framehouses of different styles. At last we took a walk on the city wall; it is about 5 meters high.

  

Then we were allowed to walk around the city of Chester on our own. There were plenty of things to do could do, but almost everybody went to McDonalds. After we had had our burgers and drinks, we strolled through the city streets, and checked out some shops, for example the fanshop of Liverpool FC. Then at 6 pm it was time for our first meeting with our host families. So we went by our bus to the meeting-point at the “Wheat Sheaf” pub. There was a woman who arranged the host families to us people. Our host parents were a woman and a grandmother. and a dog, and a cat. We were allowed to go out until 10 pm. So in the evenings we went out and  turned the city upside down. We always checked out the local supermarket. There we bought things like coke or chips or the like. But the best thing was that some boys and girls from our class lived near our street. So we could meet every evening to talk, walk about in the city etc.

  

3^rd day - Manchester

  

On Tuesday our coach took us to Manchester. We were all excited to set off to visit the Manchester Stadium. At 8 o'clock we had to go to the meeting point on a car park next to a pub. In our family we were 4 girls and every morning we walked to the meeting point. So we got up at 6 o'clock, because we had only one shower and we had to take turns at using the bathroom - and this always took a long time !! The blond girl needed the most time. ;-)

  

Half way to the meeting point we met our friends and then we walked together to the meeting point. There we had to wait for an hour because our bus driver had to drive the other class to the train station. Their bus driver had to take a 24-hour-rest on that day. We were sightly upset about the situation. The lady from the pub invited us to come in to be protected from the rain that had started. Finally our bus arrived.

   

An hour later, we approached the Imperial War Museum North. This building was opened in 2002. The shape of the museum symbolizes the destruction of the earth by war. Inside the building the focus is on the effects of war on the civilian population. We weren't concentrated because we were all looking forward to the Old Trafford Stadium.

  

At last our teacher said:„Let's go to the stadium!“ We all cheered. We got back on the bus and drove the 3 minutes to the stadium. It looked big and we took photos of it. We stood on the car park for a few minutes and we couldn't wait to go in. Our teacher got the tickets which we then put on a our „VIP“- neckbands. Then we were allowed to go in. The stadium was huge: 76.000 spectators can sit and watch the games. We sat in the stands where the guide explained some facts about the stadium. We were a bit disappointed because the pitch there was a brown desert. They had just sown the grass for the new season. Apart from that, the stadium was very clean and well maintained. Then we were allowed to enter the holy district – the players' lounge and the changing room. The players' lounge is equipped with comfortable furniture and a bar. After that we peeped into the changing room of the Manchester United Players. The cabin is big and the players' football shirts are hanging on the wall around the cabin. There were Rooney, Park, Owen, . . . The boys ran to their favourite player's shirt and everybody was taking photos like mad and we were happy.;-) Then we went back outside to the stands and we were allowed to sit in the manager's and the sub's seats. When the guided tour was finished we had a couple of minutes to check out the Manchester United fan shop. The boys bought shirts of their favourite ManU players and were very proud of them. Unfortunately we had to go. The stadium was very impressive and now it's only a beautiful memory. :)

  

Finally we had time to hang out in the Manchester city centre. It was shopping time! But before we could do that, the teachers made us walk through a small section of the MOSI (Museum of Science and Industry). Then we were free! We were allowed to explore the city on ourselves. But first, we went to Mc Donald's for burgers and drinks. Then we got lost in the huge Arndale shopping mall. Some of the shops were familiar to us but others don't exist in Germany. Some of the people in the Manchester streets were dressed up crazy, they wore funny clothes and we made fun of them. We could speak German and the people didn't understand us. This was a lot of fun and we laughed like hyenas. After 2 hours, we had to go to the meeting point in Manchester where the bus was waiting for us. On the way back to Chester we chatted a lot about our „adventures”. We were exhausted and some of us were sleeping on the bus. At 7 pm, we were back at the meeting point and then we walked back to our families. It had been a great day in Manchester.

  

4^th day - Liverpool

  

On Wednesday we went to Liverpool by train because our bus driver had to take a rest on that day. We met at 8 o'clock at our usual meeting point in front of a pub. There we waited longer than necessary, because 2 girls were already at the station and the teachers didn't know that. So we arrived late at the station. One of the teachers bought the tickets for the train, but when we got on the platform the train had already closed doors and was about to leave. The teachers weren't happy about this because we were late for the first museum. In Liverpool we visited the Maritime Museum. It is a museum about the sea, about voyages, famous ships, emigration etc. The museum has different departments; the best for me was the smugglers exhibition. One display shows a box with a mirror: when you open it, it looks as if it's empty.

   

After that we walked to the Beatles Story museum on the other side of the Albert Docks. I thought it was the greatest museum in England because it was very interesting and we saw all about the Beatles, for example their success story, their old instruments. After the Beatles museum we went to Matthew Street. That's the street where the Cavern Club used to be, where the Beatles played 300 times. And on the bricks of the building you could read the hundreds of names of the bands who had played there. On the other side of the street we went down 4 stairs into the “underground”. There we found a pub which looked exactly like the original Cavern Club.

  

Finally we walked to the Walker Art Gallery. The teachers wanted us to look at one department. We did it, but it was very boring and after 15 minutes we were allowed to go shopping in the big shopping street. That was a lot of fun because 4 boys put on girls' sunglasses and pink woolen hats and then they looked gay.

   

Two hours later we met in the shopping mall and walked back to the station. The train took us back to Chester in 40 minutes and then we went by bus to the meeting point in front the pub. Finally we walked to our family and in the evening we went to a supermarket with the friends who lived near by.

    

5^th day - Wales

  

On Thursday we took a bus tour around of the north of Wales. Our first stop was in the little village of Prestatyn. From here we walked on the beach for about one and a half hours. We looked for shells and some of us had wet clothes after the walk. The weather was windy, cloudy and a little bit chilly. The waves on the sea were high and beautiful. The walk was brilliant. After the 5-kilometer walk we found our bus in Rhyl. The next stop was the medieval town of Conwy. There we took a walk on the town wall and we saw “the smallest house of the Britain”. A woman was sitting in front of this house. She sold the tickets to go inside. After the visiting we had a lunch break. Most of our classmates had fish and chips for lunch. It was delicious. The seagulls wanted to eat our food and attacked us. Later we walked around in the town and we did different things. Some of us ate ice cream and others bought souvenirs.

  

Then we went on to Caernavon where we could visit Prince Charles' castle. Some did this and the rest, who didn't feel like visiting again, hung out in the town. The journey continued through the mountains of Snowdonia. Suddenly we saw a waterfall on a mountain side. The bus stopped and we took a walk along the waterfall. The ground near the stream was very wet and soft and everybody got wet feet. Some of us walked uphill in the waterfall. Some pupils took pictures of each other when they jumped from rocks. They had a lot of fun. Others climbed in the waterfall and jumped from stone to stone. Some of these fell into the water and they got soaked. The way to the waterfall went across a goat meadow and there was a lot of shit to step in. Then the return journey started, but we had one last pee break in Betsy Coed. Most of us went to the toilets. We were lucky because we didn't have to pay because we weren't 16 yet. We ate ice cream again and bought sweets. During the return journey some slept and others played cards. After that day we were tired. It was a good day.

  

6^th day – Chester, York, Hull

  

We left our host families in the morning. At the meeting point we said goodbye to our host families. Some even hugged each other. The next 3 hours we spent on the bus to York. We arrived there at 11.30 am and took a walk on the town wall. After that everybody was free to explore York, to buy food for the return journey, and to enjoy the buskers (street musicians). After 2 hours of walking about we met  in the shadow of the impressive York Minster. There we took some group pictures of our class. Then we set off on our last bus trip in England back to Hull where we visited The Deep, which is a sea water aquarium. At 7pm we went back on board of our ferry - The Pride of Rotterdam. The ferry was much bigger than the first ferry. We spent the evening dancing and watching football - it was the first day of the World Cup. The crossing was a little bit rough. Some of us were a little bit seasick.

  

7^th day - Return Journey

  

When we got up, we rushed down to the green deck to get our breakfast. It was a very big buffet. The food was good and it smelt good. You could eat English breakfast - with sausages and beans, too. Then we took our backpacks from our cabins and waited at the meeting point for leaving the ship. During the 8-hour-coach trip back to Achern we played cards or slept. Or we listened to music. Most of us were tired, so we were happy when we arrived at Achern.