The German Exchange 2008
On 10th July, a group of 8 students accompanied by Ms Donworth and Mrs Gill met at Settle station for their ten hour journey to Germany. By 1.30 we were on the first of 3 trains en route to Stansted for our flight to Nürnberg. Our partners were waiting for us at the airport and we were delighted to see them again because we had had such a brilliant time with them here in March.
We arrived at our new homes in Neustadt an der Aisch extremely late that night and headed straight to bed after our long day. The next day was spent at the Friedrich Alexander School, where we had a tour followed by lessons. That night we attended the school rock concert which we all enjoyed and had an early night to prepare for a week-end of activities with our families. We all met up on Sunday to celebrate Evie's and Charlie's birthday and had such a great time sharing stories of different aspects of our German and English culture that we did not want to leave.
The next day we spent the day at Rothenburg, a town known as one of the most beautiful in Germany and famous for its Christmas shop which attracts thousands of tourists from all over the world every year. We all had a great time choosing souvenirs and presents, almost missing our train!
We all agreed that the following day, spent in the "Franconian Alps" walking and caving in the morning and swimming in a beautiful, natural pool and tobogganing down a mountain in the afternoon was our favourite - everyone enjoyed it. For our final day, we visited Nürnberg's Dokumentzentrum, a museum about Hitler and the Nazi period, located next to the famous rally area. We all found it extremely interesting and would recommend it to everyone. We then had time to visit the city and do some shopping before returning to Neustadt's fantastic outdoor swimming pool with our partners. After a good couple of hours, seeing who would dare jump off the highest board, we returned home to pack. Our flight was early and we had to get up at 4am. Before we knew it, we were saying a tearful goodbye to our partners and families and boarding the plane. After a long journey back to Settle, a bleary-eyed group of students met their parents at the station, ready for a good rest. All the students who went on the trip will tell you how much fun it was and would highly recommend it to anyone wanting to try something new.
Article written by Rebekah Gray, photograph by Ted Westwood