On Sunday morning we started our trip. We had to get up early because the meeting time at school was at 5.15 am. Then Uwe, our coach driver, drove us away from Germany and further through Belgium. Then he brought us to France and from Calais we took the ferry to Dover. We were on deck for a long time and looked at the beautiful view, for example the white cliffs of Dover. We finally arrived there in the afternoon. From Dover we drove about three hours to Worthing. We waited for our host parents at the bus until we were picked up by them. They welcomed us very nicely.
On Monday morning Uwe drove us to the city centre. There we did a city hunt for about one and a half hours. Some answers to the questions could easily be found but other questions were very hard. Afterwards we went onto Worthing Pier and then had some time to buy our lunch and eat it at the seafront or in a restaurant.
It was Monday afternoon. We drove to Brighton, better said the Brighton Pier. While we were driving, Uwe showed us many beautiful meaningless buildings. Still, it was a funny ride with the bus. At first, we were allowed to visit the Pier. It was full of gambling machines. If you went further, you could see a rollercoaster and box cars. On the pier some of us disappeared. As soon as we were all together again, we followed the teachers towards the Royal Pavilion. Having arrived we got divided up into different groups. Each group went around with a teacher. It was stunning in there because of all the majestic stuff with Indian background. We were all impressed, and, of course, we took selfies:). After the visit to the Royal Pavilion, we had time for some shopping. So we made groups again, but this time, they were smaller. Our meeting point was Brighton Pier again. Before we could drive back, we had to walk back to Uwe. This took us about half an hour. At the end of the day, we all were completely tired. It was a day we won’t forget:)
Tuesday, 11 o ‘clock: We arrived at London Eye, we walked to the next tube station to meet our tour guides, who gave us a tour through London. Our first stop was at “The Statues of Parliament Square‘‘, the newest statue of the twelve is the statue of ,”Millicent Garrett Fawcett‘‘, which was added in 2018. The park is beautiful, so I would recommend visiting it.
Our next stop was at “Westminster Abbey‘‘, where the coronation of King Charles III. Took place on 6th May 2023. Unfortunately, we hadn’t got tickets to go inside, but the details outside of Westminster Abbey were nice. There were 10 statues above the Abbey ‘s Great West Door. These 10 people were Christians who had given up their lives for their beliefs. The 4th statue from the right shows a German man, whose name is Dietrich Bonhoeffer. He was born in Breslau/Poland on 4th February 1906, and got killed by the Nazis on 9th April 1945.
Our third stop was at the famous “Buckingham Palace‘‘. We walked through a park to get to Buckingham Palace, lots of people, pelicans and pigeons were there. When the King/Queen is there, the Flag “The Royal Standard‘‘ blows on top of Buckingham Palace, and if he/she‘s not there then the ”Union Jack‘‘ Flag blows up there. The long and bright red colored street is called ”The Mall‘‘ and goes from Buckingham Palace in the West to Trafalgar Square in the East. The Mall is 930 meters long.
In the afternoon we visited the “National History Museum in Kensington‘‘. We took the Tube, the Piccadilly Line, to the tube station South Kensington. In the museum, we had time to go wherever we wanted and most of us went to the Earthquake Simulator. But there are some other cool things too. After we had finished our visit to the museum, we had time to buy ourselves some snacks and drinks. Our bus driver Uwe picked us up and we drove back to Worthing. That was our Tuesday in London.
On the 4th day in England we went to the Seven Sisters.
In the morning we drove 2h from Worthing to the cliffs near Eastbourne. The plan was to walk for 3h from Beachy Head, which is one of the seven cliffs, right on the edge of the cliffs to the beach below. At the highest point there is a vertical drop of 164m down to the ocean. It was very windy up there, so you could lay yourself into the wind without falling. Because the path always goes up and down it was quite an exhausting hike. We took a little break at the lighthouse. From there we walked a steep path down to the beach. Along the path signs displayed interesting information about the cliffs, for example how the ice age formed these cliffs and how much the cliffs have eroded and moved back during the past 100 years. From there we walked back with no rest in between.
After that we could relax on our bus ride to Arundel Castle.
In the afternoon of the fourth day, we went to Arundel Castle.
After we had visited the Seven Sisters, we drove 2 hours to the castle. The plan was to stay there until six o’clock, but the castle already closed at 5 o’clock, so we had to hurry. In the castle it was very narrow. If you fear small corridors and rooms, it isn’t a good idea to go into the towers. But if you go up there, you have a beautiful view of the castle grounds. After the castle, we visited the gardens. They were beautiful! All around you were flowers, little fountains, trees and wide patches of grass. But we didn’t have much time in there, so after a couple of minutes we left the grounds. We had to wait for one hour, because our bus driver Uwe wasn’t allowed to drive earlier. In this hour we split up in little groups and walked through the small town Arundel.
After that long and nice day we were glad to drive back to our host families.
On our last day in England we went to London again.
On Thursday morning we had breakfast with the host families for the last time before we met at the meeting point with our packed suitcases. We took our bus to London and drove for two hours. Then we walked a bit and took a small boat across the Thames. After we had left the boat at the Tower Bridge, we visited the Tower of London, which was very exciting and cool.
We were in the Tower of London on Thursday. There were lots of people and we saw the crown jewels. And the biggest diamond came from Africa. It is as big as a fist. We saw the guards, who looked very interesting. There was a building with lots of ravens and the myth says that if the ravens leave the building, then the kingdom dies. After that we had enough free time to have a group meal and go shopping on Oxford Street.
As soon as we came out of the Underground Station, we were in the middle of Oxford Street. Some of our first impressions were big, long streets with many shops and also much traffic. It was mostly really crowded. After a small check that no one got lost we were allowed to go through Oxford Street in little groups on our own. A lot of the shops there we have in Germany too, e.g. H&M, Flying Tiger, New Balance or McDonald’s, the only big difference are the prices. If you convert them to Euro and compare them to German prices, they’re more expensive. General impressions were also the wide streets, attentive and helpful shopkeepers who helped us a lot finding nice souvenirs. But at some point they can be really intrusive, strange and bother you when they want to sell you something you don’t want to buy. The Underground Stations were well connected and it was the best way to travel through London because it quickly gets you to a place far away, compared to the traffic which was really heavy. Some of the shops we were in were e.g. Tesco Express, Lush, McDonald’s and different souvenir shops. At 6pm we all met again and took the Jubilee Line back to North Greenwich where our bus driver Uwe was already waiting for us. At about 8pm we started our way home and drove to Dover from where our ferry brought us to Calais. Some special facts at the end: There was a Disney Store in which you could buy different Disney figures or other Disney fan stuff. In Oxford Street there are more than 300 shops and it’s 1,9km long. In the evening we drove from London to Dover. Once there, we went through custom control, which we were lucky to get through very quickly. It went so quickly that we even had to wait for the ferry to Calais. From the ferry, you couldn’t see much of the cliffs and the sea. We sat there together in small groups and played something or talked. After the ferry ride, we got back on the bus towards Neustadt. It was nighttime and most people were asleep. At 4 o’clock we had a driver change near Cologne and had to say goodbye to Uwe, who had driven us all week. At home we were expected and probably all slept for a while.
