Our adventures in London
On Monday 31 March, the students of the second grade went for four days to the capital of the UK. London, famous for its magnificent buildings like Big Ben, the Tower Bridge, Buckingham Palace and much more. The first attraction to be visited was the London Eye. For about 35 minutes we had a fantastic view of the London skyline. Then we took the tube to the O2 – Arena in the Docklands, where we visited the British Music Experience. It’s a museum about the history of British popular music. We couldn’t only listen to music, but we could dance and play music instruments too. Never thought we had so much talent in our class. After dinner we went to Westminster, where we took a guided gaslight evening walk. We learned more about Westminster and its neighbourhood. The English guide told us several witty facts.
On Tuesday 1 April, we played a city game. We visited a lot of museums and saw London’s most important buildings and places: the British Museum, Saint Paul’s Cathedral, Tate Modern, the National Gallery with Vincent Van Gogh’s Sunflowers, Trafalgar Square, the Natural History Museum with its big skeletons of dinosaurs. We passed by Harrods on our way to Buckingham Palace. At Picadilly Circus we admired the neon ads and we had dinner at Leicester Square and Chinatown. After dinner, we walked along the Tower and over the Tower Bridge where we had another great view of London by night.
On Wednesday 2 April, we went to the London Dungeon where creepy actors and real-life settings created a terrifying adventure. In the afternoon the group split: one group visited the Emirates Stadium of Arsenal. The other group went shopping in London’s most famous streets: Oxford Street, Bond Street and Regent Street. The Arsenal visitors took an audio-guided tour and were astonished to see how big the stadium was. They saw the changing room of Arsenal, walked out of the players’ tunnel, sat on the seats of the dugout and took an interview in the press room. Around 6 p.m. we had dinner again at Chinatown and Leicester Square. Afterwards we went to see the musical ‘Thriller Live’ of Michael Jackson. The audience danced, clapped and sang with the hits of the King of Pop.
On Thursday 3 April, we went to Camden, where we were surprised to see the diversity of the many food stands and clothing shops. At the weekend, Camden is the place to be for London’s youngsters. The bus picked us up and drove us to Hever Castle, where Anne Boleyn had lived. We visited the castle and enjoyed the beautiful gardens that surrounded the castle. After this visit we went to the historic pub Henry VIII, opposite Hever Castle. Then it was time to continue our journey and to catch the shuttle back home.
For four days, we had a lot of fun and learned a lot! We discovered London’s famous buildings, places and habits. By now, we know ‘the tube’ by heart: always Mind the Gap. And last but not least we even got to see a different side of our teachers.
We will never forget this London experience!