Our trip to London
Almost half of the 11th class was in London from 13th to 18th September. I am going to tell you about our trip.
Sunday and Monday
Our trip started from our school in Pirna. We went by coach and travelled the whole afternoon and night. In the early morning hours we reached our ferry in France.
We had to go through a passport control and after that we had some free time to brush our teeth. On the ferry some of us changed money, others just wanted to sleep. After about an hour we arrived in Dover. We left the ferry and our coach driver Daniel took us to London.
When we arrived there we first visited the Tower of London. We saw the crown jewels there. They looked so amazing. Everywhere was glitter and gems. But not only the jewels, the rest of the Tower was pretty cool too. For example the old armours looked very interesting. Every piece of metal was either golden or silver. Someone must have spent a lot of work, time and money to build them.
After the Tower we walked along the river Thames to St. Paul´s Cathedral. Some of us even went on the top of the huge dome and saw London from above for the first time.
The cathedral was built very splendedly. There were golden ornaments and paintings all over the walls and the ceiling. An organist was playing while we were walking around.
We met in front of the cathedral and walked over the Millenium Bridge. The Harry Potter fans were amazed. But there is something interesting for “normal“ people too. An artist from London painted chewing gums which were spit on the bridge. They looked like tiny little stickers on the floor. I really liked that. When we arrived on the other side of the river Thames we had some spare time. Most of us were very interested in finding free wifi or something to eat. Then our coach driver took us to our drop-off points where our host families picked us up. I think we all slept very well that night because we were extremely tired.
Tuesday
Our group assembled at 8 a.m. The coach was ready for us. We were stuck in the rush hour traffic jam for a while but then we finally met our tour guide Annett. She told us some interesting facts about London and its history while we went through the city. When our sight seeing tour was over we split into two groups. The first one would go to the London Dungeon, the other one to Madame Tussauds. The Dungeon was dark and scary but we learnded some cool facts about the dark history of London and the actors there made some hilarious jokes too.
The other group took some nice pictures with their idols and favoutite stars. They also watched a 4D Marvel film.
After that we had some free time. Everybody had a Tube ticket so we were able to get from one point to another in no time. Going by Tube was an adventure itself. Nothing can go wrong down there but sometimes I was a little confused because the tunnels seemed to have no end.
In the evening we met in front of the Lyceum to watch the musical “Lion King“. It was amazing and very emotional. The singers had incredible voices and the costumes were great too. That evening was very nice.
After the musical we walked back to our coach and were taken to our host families where we finally got some sleep.
Wednesday
On Wednesday we spent all the time at Windsor Castle. First we had to pass a security zone to get into the castle itself. It was like at the airport. We were all given audio guides and discovered Windsor in small groups. Some of us even walked to Eton to see students wearing Hogwarts like school uniforms. There was just one bad thing about that day: It was raining cats and dogs. But hat was no big deal for us. We had fun and experienced the weather everybody is thinking about if someone says: “London“.
In the evening we had the possibility to shop some food for our journey home in a supermarket.
Thursday and Friday
The weather on our last day in London was great. The sun was shining and there were only a few clouds in the sky. That was good for us because we wanted to visit the London Eye. But before that we saw a 4D film. There was shown London with some of its attractions, mostly the London Eye. There were real soap bubbles, rain and snow. I think we all enjoyed that. After the film we we went to the actual London Eye. The view was overwhelming. We saw so much of London from up there and took many nice photos. After about half an hour everything was over and we had free time the whole day. In the afternoon we all met in Greenwich and went on our coach to the ferry. Daniel drove all night and we tried to get some sleep. That did not really work.
On Friday we finally arrived at our school. Our parents picked us up and we went home. I think we all had a lot of fun in London and will remember our time there as a great week. But it is also nice to be home again.