Last week, our English courses went on a trip to London. We started our journey on Saturday the 23rd of June and arrived in London on Sunday the 24th.
We took the ferry in Calais to Dover early in the morning to get to the island. It took us more than a half day to finally get to London, and the first glimpse of London that we got while driving to our hotel was astonishing.
After checking in at our hotel, we got to explore the city. Our teachers explained to us how the underground system works, and then we took the tube for the first time.
As a surprise, we went to Sky Garden, which is London’s highest garden, where you can catch a view of London’s incredible skyline. Afterwards we could spend the evening exploring the city by ourselves. The following day, we met up with a tour guide that gave us a tour around the city in our bus. He told us a lot about the culture and showed us many interesting sights.
Next up, a part of our group went to the London Dungeon, which is located on London’s South Bank. As the last activity of the day, a part of our course went to the London Eye and got to see another amazing view of the city’s skyline.
On Tuesday, we visited the Tower of London. All of us wanted to see the spectacular crown jewels, therefore we did the British people’s favourite thing: “queuing”. It took about an hour of waiting, but it was undoubtedly worth the wait.
Subsequently, we also visited the Tower Bridge, went all the way up and got to take great pictures of the River Thames. In the evening, the Jack the Ripper Walking Tour through alleyways and dark streets of Whitechapel and Spitalfields took place.
On Wednesday, we met at the bus stop to go to Oxford for the day. Arriving in Oxford, it was a completely different vibe from London. Oxford is a historic city and has a more traditional and academic atmosphere than London.
We went up the University Church of St Mary the Virgin to get an overview of Oxford.
Luckily, Oxford University hosted an open day that day, which gave us a chance to have a look around and learn about student life.
Thursday happened to be our last day in London. We woke up early to check out of our hotel and carry our luggage to the bus.
Then we got on a boat that brought us to Greenwich and on the way there, we could see the old Port of London. We got off the boat in North Greenwich and went to the famous O2-Arena, where our bus would later pick us up. A small group of us spent the last hours visiting the prime meridian, whilst the rest preferred to just relax or to go shopping.
At around 5pm our way back home began and after the long drive everybody was exhausted and therefore very happy to be back in Stassfurt.
In conclusion, our trip to London was a great opportunity for all of us to practice our English, learn more about another country and to end the school year in a wonderful way.
Joline Rudlof