Germany by English students

GERMANY 29.09.09- 03.10.09

1st day

We set off to Frankfurt in the afternoon. Two of our students had never flown before so within first minutes of our trip to Germany, they felt like the adventure had already begun.At Frankfurt airport we met up with the Bulgarian group and then we were all greeted by a German teacher who guided us to the coach, which took us to Sandhausen, straight to an Italian restaurant where all the other parties were at different stages of their dinners. It was such a great pleasure to see familiar faces, and to students who were new to the Comenius project it was the first chance to meet students from various different countries and to practise their German!After dinner we went to the hotel for a good night of sleep…

2nd day

After a delicious German breakfast, early in the morning, we went to Friedrich-Ebert Gymnasium, which was our hosting school. The first thing we noticed was a huge number of bicycles in front of the school. It seems that this is the most popular means of transport for German students!

At the school we were greeted by students and teachers and we had a short presentation of Sandhausen.

Shortly afterwards, the teachers went for a meeting and students went to observe some of the lessons. After that, the students participated in 2 activities.

One activity involved practising the project songs of all parties

In the other the students had to paint the flags of all countries participating in the project.

We finished the morning at Friedrich-Ebert Gymnasium with a delicious lunch in the colourful school canteen, after which we set off by train to Heidelberg at Necker River, which we absolutely adored.

We all liked the beautiful, compact Old Town, with the gorgeous ruins of Heidelberg Castle, which are among the most important Renaissance structures north of the Alps and which can be seen in the photo in the background.

However, there was much more to see. For example, the Old Bridge, Church of Holy Spirit (the biggest regional Gothic church built from 1344 to 1441) and Jesuit Church. The students took part in a quest search where they had to find certain places in Heidelberg which was good fun and an opportunity of getting to know other students. Afterwards, in our free time, we had a chance to do some small shopping in the most famous street in Heidelberg - the Hauptstrasse. Finally, we had a fully deserved dinner at a German Inn in the heart of Heidelberg, where we were able to taste different types of traditional food. We loved it, especially Frankfurter Sausage, Salty Pretzel and Schnitzel.

3rd day

The third day of the German Comenius Project was about sightseeing as we went to 3 different places, each of them extremely interesting in different ways.

First, we went to Maulbronn Abbey, founded in 1147, which is the best preserved medieval Cistercian monastery complex in Europe. The monastery is a UNESCO Heritage Site and is really breathtaking.

Next we went to the castle in Bruchsal with impressive Mechanical Music Instruments, where we could admire more than 400 exhibits of self-playing musical instruments.

And this is us before entering the museum - the whole group including teachers and all students…

Moreover, we were able to play some of the instruments which can be seen in the photo below…

The final destination of the day was Speyer, beside the River Rhine, with the astonishing Speyer Cathedral, which covers 134 square meters with a highest point of 72 meters.

This building was added to the UNESCO World Heritage List of culturally important sites as one of the best examples of a monument of Romanesque art in the German Empire. However, the only part of the cathedral that is still the original is the Crypt (in 1689, the cathedral was almost totally destroyed).In the Crypt there are graves of a few medieval German emperors and kings who were buried there between 1039 and 1309.

Although the students found the whole day interesting, when evening came they decided to do something less challenging and they went to play ….

Finally, we had dinner in Wiesloch. We had a German buffet and that means we ate, ate and ate until we simply could eat no more! It was delicious!!!

4th day

On the last day of our visit to Germany we had a meeting at the Town Hall with the Deputy Mayor, who gave us a presentation about Sandhausen and took us for a tour around the town.

The German music teacher played the organ to us in one of the churches, which was a really amazing experience because we felt like we had a private concert there.Later on, the students had rehearsals and afterwards, to break the tension before the concert, they participated in classes of traditional German dance and drama activities in which they had to represent their home countries, using gestures but no words. Most of the students found the drama activity quite challenging, but they all seemed to enjoy it and were able to present their work at the beginning of the concert on the same day.

Finally, the main part of the project began - the concert! The German party opened the event with some songs and music played by the school orchestra. Afterwards, it was time for all countries to present their programmes. The concert took place in the community hall and it was a wonderful experience. Everyone enjoyed themselves and appreciated each other.

Our group in the concert.

At the end, everyone went on the stage and sang a song together, which ended the concert in an atmosphere of real international unity.

Afterwards we had our last meal, as a whole group of eight countries, together, and then some of the groups started to depart for their home countries. It was sad to see them go but, on the other hand, we all knew that we will never forget what we experienced and that we might meet our friends in the future…

Day 5th

After an early start to the day, we arrived in Birmingham around midday, not believing that this part of our adventure was over.