Our trip to Chesterfield in England
In diesem Sommer ging es für 34 Schüler aus der 9. Klasse gemeinsam mit unseren Lehrern Simon Pearce, Tom Bellée, Marion Grabowski und Nicole Steinbrenner nach Chesterfield in England. Was unsere Reisenden erlebten, könnt ihr in Tagesberichten von Schülern und Simon Pearce hier nachlesen.
Day 1 written by Julia Hoffmann
Today began our trip to Chesterfield, England. Before we checked in, we saw a famous tiktoker at the airport: jamootv. 🙂 Our flight was late so we had to wait another 30 minutes at the airport BER.
When we arrived in Manchester, we took the train to Oxford Road. It was very windy outside, and definitely colder than back home in Berlin. When we finally arrived in Chesterfield we had to walk 25 minutes to our hotel. That was very exhausting because there where many steep hills on our way.
We stay in an Ibis hotel. After we arrived the teachers first divided us into our rooms. We checked our rooms out, at 6pm we were asked to the lobby to discuss the plan for Monday.
Day 2 written by Etienne Schermer
Today was a very exciting day at Brookfield Community school. I learned lots of new fun and useful things, including things about Physics and Drama / role play. In the first lesson we did lots of fun games, for example a murderer game where you have to blink at someone without the person in the middle noticing.
In the second lesson we learned about Spring extension (F=k/e). In break it was very full but the food was very nice. In the last class we watched a production which for me was very impressive. Overall it was very nice and a great experience at Brookfield Community school.
Day 3 written by Paula Zart
Today we could sleep a bit longer because breakfast was at 7 o’clock. After eating we went with the bus to Lady Manners School in Bakewell. In school at first some of us had a presentation about something German, which we prepared before the trip. After that we had a cricket lesson, a very typical sport in the UK, but I don’t think we will become famous because of our talent, but our teacher was the New Zealand cricket international player Ian O’Brien! (of course, I didn’t need anybody to tell this…)
For lunch we had some pasta and/or potato wedges. In our fourth lesson we heard some of our presentations again and played “I spy with my little eye” and other games with the students of Lady Manners.
The funniest part I think, was the history lesson. I know it sounds crazy, but the teacher had shown us some models of helmets of the Vietnam-war or an old uniform, for example. After our last lesson we went back to Chesterfield and had some free time.
Day 4 written by Malte Reisgies
Today we went to the Heights of Abraham (HOFA). There was a double decker coach at the Chesterfield Coach Station that we took and drove for nearly one hour to Matlock. From there we had to walk to the cable car station where everyone got a ticket and we drove up in groups of six people. The cable car was very exciting, and VERY high.
Up on the hill we had some freetime at first and then started a tour in a cave with a tour guide that told us about the Cave and then we got out. We had to duck down many times because the tunnel ceilings were so low. The group had some time before we got down again to a second cave tour in a different cave.
The second cave was smaller and wetter than the first where we heard and SAW with funny special effects some stories about the history of the cave and John the Miner, a puppet which had a very strange accent and even stranger eyes. Then again all of us had some freetime before we started to go back down with the cable car. We got back to Chesterfield by bus and then walked to the hotel. After a rest we went to the restaurant to celebrate Mathilde’s birthday. She was embarrassed when we all sang for her. 🙂
Day 5 written by Kilian Willmund
Today we drove by bus to Bakewell. When we arrived in Bakewell we did a city ralley with other students from the Lady Manners school through the town and answered lots of questions about the town. Today it was very hot outside – especially for England.
After we were finished we went to school, and we got some food. We had a science lesson looking through a microscope at stomata, which are like the mouths of leaves. There is a photo attached. Some students followed us to our next destination: The castle.
This was a very long walk, but the view was worth it. We waited for 30 minutes, bought some ice-cream and drove for 1 hour back to Chesterfield, by bus. We planned to go to the Queen´s Park, but it was very rainy and way too cold so we had to cancel the trip. This was not so bad anyway, as we were all very tired!
Day 6 written by Jette Schult
Today we visited the Major of Chesterfield and his wife. They were very friendly and told us many things about Chesterfield. Then we had about three hours time to buy our loved ones back home presents. After that we visited the parish church, with crooked spire. One says that it was caused by the devil who got stuck on it when he tried to fly away. We had a tour guide and we enjoyed thebeautiful view on the roof. Of course, we took many photos to show it to our lovely families.
Day 7, 8 and 9 written by Simon Pearce
Well, I didn’t intend to write an entry myself, but after such a long return journey, I think the students would lynch me if I asked them to do one more thing… So it’s down to me.
Our journey back started well, with an uneventful trip down the M1 to London Victoria Station. That’s when things started to go awry. Our coach back to Germany had been cancelled at the last minute, and desperate phone calls soon established that there were no alternative buses, trains or planes that we could book at that time of the night. Even the German embassy, who we contacted in the hope of help, could do little.
There was nothing left to do but camp out in the station spend all night looking and researching for a way back to Germany. I must say that the children behaved impeccably: some slept; some played cards; some played “Who am I?”; some drank far too much coffee.
When, at 04.30, a Flixbus pulled into the station, the Victoria Coach Station Manager and I marched over to the driver, a poor French man who was, of course, completely oblivious to our predicament, and forced him to take our group. It was a battle of wills, but every one of his “Non!” was met with a firmer “Oh yes you will!” and in the end, after 40 minutes of negotiations and phone calls to his boss, we won out. The children piled on, and we were off. Not to Berlin, but at least heading towards Germany.
The bus took us to Cologne airport, which wasn’t ideal, as we then had to dash to the main train station. But we made it and, in the small hours of Monday morning, we arrived in Spandau to be greeted by relieved parents. Well, most of us made it to Spandau. I won’t mention the one person who decided not to get off the train, and ensure we had one last problem to sort out!
Thank you to all the teachers, all the parents, and all the children. This is one journey none of us will forget.