PGS German Exchange: Easter 2013

by James Harper

Guten Tag!

At the end of the Easter holidays, thirteen PGS students flew to Düsseldorf, Germany, for a holiday that none of us will ever forget. From here, we travelled to Halver, where we were warmly welcomed by our German exchanges.

On Monday, we spent the morning in the Anne-Frank-Gymnasium; we experienced what sort of lessons they did at school and what they liked, and then, finished at half-past one- a little earlier than our school!

The next day, we went to the big and popular city of Cologne- here, we visited a Roman-history museum, one of the world’s biggest cathedrals and last but definitely not least, a ‘Lindt’ chocolate factory. It was a perfect day, until we all got stomach aches from all of the chocolate.

Wednesday was a day trip to Bonn, another huge German city. We visited a ‘Geschictehaus’ in which we learned about the development of Germany after the Second World War, and also how and why Germany is how it is today. We also learned about the musical life of Ludwig Van Beethoven, a famous Classical composer, and then had a few hours of free time to explore the beautiful city of Bonn.

                        

In my opinion, Thursday was the best and most exciting day- we went to a vast swimming complex, with a huge variety of slides, diving boards, saunas and swimming pools for four hours! Even though it was extremely tiring, it was worth it!

Friday was our last activities day- we visited the ‘Phänomenta’ museum, which was a building complex with a hands-on theme of strange yet wonderful science. We also had a barbeque in the school in which we had typical German sausages, and then ice-cream (which I will admit is better than English ice-cream.)

 

On Saturday, we had free time with our German families, which I am sure everybody enjoyed!

Unfortunately, the next day was Sunday- it was very hard to say good-bye, but we eventually returned home extremely late at night. However, it would not have been such a great trip if it were not for Miss Coward, Mr. Hogg, and, of course, Mr. Priory. A big thank you, it was a great week! We are now looking forward to our exchange partners coming here in July.