Our Trip to England

written by Lisa Burzlaff & Lieven Hofmann

It was easy to answer the question of where this year’s school trip would lead us, because our tutors - Ms. Schäfer, Ms. Nickel, and Ms. Flister - are all English teachers. Thus, it was decided that our class was going to visit the tranquil village called Grittleton in England from the 28th of September to the 2nd of October. The central theme of our trip was taken from the topic we were discussing in our English lessons: Shakespeare and his theater.

Day 1: Monday 09/28/2015

Departure was at 1:00AM and a potentially exhausting journey accompanied by the tutors, Ms. Neubert-Kropf, Mr. Schwieger and Mr. Baumeyer,lay ahead of us. After 20 hours - which we spent on the bus, on the ferry, or with breaks - our assumption proved to be right. We arrived tired and hungry on the grounds of Grittleton House & School, a private school in England housed within a castle. After dinner, we were able to withdraw to the castle annex.

Day 2: Tuesday 09/29/2015

Our first stop the next day was Bath.

At first, we were allowed to explore the little town by ourselves. Particularly striking was the typical English architectural style, but also the seemingly redundant amount of chimneys. The numerous parks in the city were wonderfully suited to relax and take a break from our earlier walking. Besides sightseeing, we also got a little bit of contact with the ever friendly, and also very funny, residents of Bath.

Later in the day we went to visit the Roman Baths (0). The complex was very beautiful and interesting. In addition, an exhibition inside the Baths was an ideal source of further information for the most interested students in our class.

Day 3: Wednesday 30/09/2015

On Wednesday, we went to visit Stratford-upon-Avon, the birthplace of William Shakespeare. The first stop was a little church called Holy Trinity Church (1), where Shakespeare was baptized. Following some individual leisure time, we attended a two-hour theater workshop, which was probably the highlight of all of the organized activities during the trip. Although there was an organizational misunderstanding in the beginning of the workshop, everyone had fun proving his or her acting skills performing Shakespeare's comedy "A Midsummer Night's Dream."

Day 4: Thursday 01/10/2015

Strengthened from the English breakfast we had this morning, we went on our next trip to the most famous university city in Europe: Oxford. Again, we first explored the city independently before visiting another of England’s great churches. To our surprise, the vast majority of our leisure time in Oxford was spent seeing students attend class.

The Christ Church, which we visited afterwards, is a unique joint foundation of college and cathedral. It is one of the largest on the Oxford campus. All in all, the Great Hall (2), which serves as the dining room, and the Christ Church Cathedral (3), which is also the College chapel, were extremely impressive.

On our way back, the majority of our class were able to satisfy their urge to play Laser Quest or billiards. If those activities did not prove to be satisfying, then one had the chance to either eat pizza or watch the sunset.

Day 5: Friday 02/10/2015

Well rested, as we should be on an organized school trip, it was already 7:45AM and London was calling. Upon arrival we actually had full eight hours of free time.

Almost immediately, we were given numerous opportunities to get rid of our paper bills and coins, whose proportions were still very questionable to us. There were the historical sights, even more price-intensive tourist attractions, diverse markets and the various clothing stores, which most of us probably visited.

Since our feet, legs, and back did not hurt enough after those eight hours, we went to visit Shakespeare's historic Globe Theatre. On the so-called "Groundlings" we watched the play "Measure for Measure" from 7:30PM until 10:30PM. In retrospect, it was very interesting to get an insight into Shakespeare's theater, but also very exhausting to stand firm on both legs for the three full hours. Nevertheless, all students survived and arrived unharmed back at the bus.

After five days in England it was now time to say farewell to an extremely diverse, multicultural, and bustling city, as well as to a country that has much to offer and embodies history itself.

The leisure time in particular made it possible to better get to know the cities, recreate their lifestyle, or even consider and view them from a different perspective.

This only leaves us to say that this trip has been a very beautiful but also extremely exhausting last joint trip during our time at high school, as we have tried to take as many impressions away as possible - whether it was by day or at night.

Lisa Burzlaff & Lieven Hofmann