Studienfahrt England

Our trip to the south of England

“It was always one of my goals to travel across seas. I was happy when I heard that I could go to England in Year 11. I was very excited and couldn’t wait any longer to board the bus. Unlike many people, I really love travelling by bus.”

So everything started on 3^rd September 2017.

A crowd of excited students gathered at the local bus station in Koethen, eagerly waiting for the coach which should take us to Great Britain. After the four teachers had checked everyone’s papers we could start at 8 pm.

Most of us didn’t appreciate the long night ride, so we were really glad when we could leave the bus after we had rolled on board of the ferry at Calais port. At 9 am we headed towards ‘merry old England’.

Our first stop after a quiet crossing was Leeds Castle, a breathtaking place with an interesting history.

The only bad point about that part of the day was that most of us were dog-tired. L

We travelled on to Hastings, a great place where we wanted to stay for the following days.  

Everyone was excited again because in the early evening we would meet our host families, but everything went well, nobody could complain about anything.

Our host families were great and it was interesting to experience the English lifestyle in real life.

On day two we stayed in Hastings. We climbed up the steep cliffs of Hastings, which was exhausting but could enjoy a fantastic view from there. We visited the castle, Smugglers’ Caves and explored the numerous shops in the centre of the town and at the seaside. Trying typical English sports with two coaches in the afternoon was really funny.

(It would be a good idea to have a rugby course at school. J)

On our third day we went westward. Our bus stopped at Beachy Head, a high cliff, with spectacular views over the sea and a famous lighthouse. While some of us climbed up the cliff for an even better view, others decided to go for a little walk at the beach.

We went on to Portsmouth where we visited the area of the old port, Portsmouth Historic Dockyard. We had booked a boat trip there and the area is full of interesting sights, like Boathouse 4, where you can see shipbuilding in progress, HMS Victory or Spinnaker Emirates Tower, a fantastic example of modern architecture. By the way, the shops quite close to the place are great for shopping!

After a long day we returned to Hastings looking forward to our trip to London.

London was loud and full of tourists and the tour on board of a hop-on/hop-off bus was not as exciting as we had expected due to the immense traffic which the city has to deal with every day. So we were moving forward at snail pace seeing our free time shrinking to minimum size which was especially frustrating for the girls who had wanted to go on an extended shopping tour.

Nevertheless, after having visited the crown jewels and some parts of the tower we could explore the area round the tower. In the evening we went back to Greenwich from where we had started our London tour and were the bus was waiting for us. So we got ready for the long journey back home.

All in all it was a unique experience.

For some more impressions have a look at the pictures.