Our trip to Nottingham 2019
On Tuesday, September 24th we went to Nottingham. Our journey there started at 08:07 a.m. and ended 10 hours later. We met at the main station in Karlsruhe at 07:30 a.m. and were very excited. The fast train from Karlsruhe to Paris Est took two and half hours. When we arrived at Paris Est station we walked about ten minutes to Paris main station. Then we had to wait for the next train, the Eurostar train, which would drive through the Eurostar tunnel to bring us to London. Some of us bought an original French croissant or something else. The others went to the toilets or sat near a café. Suddenly we got the chance to take an earlier train and we could move on. We had to show our passports twice before we could finally board the train to London. We took the train through the famous Eurotunnel for about half an hour and most of us didn’t even notice it. When we arrived in London a few people spent their time playing the piano while some others were standing at the station. With another train we finally drove to Nottingham.
On our first day in Nottingham we had to do a challenge created by our teachers. The group that won the challenge would get a free mocktail during minigolf.
We formed groups and the teachers gave every group a copy with different tasks. For example, there was a piece of paper with pictures of famous British people, so we had to ask strangers if they know their names (Prince Harry, Emma Watson, Ed Sheeran, …). After we had finished all exercises on the copy, we had to go back to the teachers and they gave us points and extra points if we did it very well.
It was really funny and exciting to meet new people and very good for using our English skills. It was really cool that the teachers gave us the chance to discover the city on our own because we could go wherever we wanted to do the exercises. The challenge was a very exciting experience for us and if we had the chance, we would do it again
On Wednesday our class had a special city tour with Robin Hood. He showed us interesting places like a restaurant which used to be a church, too. Robin showed us a sandstone pit. In the past people used this to store food and other stuff. At the end of the tour we had a look at the famous Robin Hood-statue and we took a picture.
In the evening we went to a big shopping mall. At first, we were confused because nobody could see the miniature golf park. We went downstairs and the whole room looked like a jungle with many special effects (e.g. a snake which moved). The atmosphere was like a real jungle. After having played minigolf in groups, we went to the bar which was also located in the miniature golf park. We chilled together, drank cocktails and bought some pizza. Another highlight was chatting with our exchange students in the evening.
Every day we had two or three hours of spare time. During this time, we went shopping in the Victoria Center. Victoria Center is a big mall with food and clothes stores. There were a lot of shops which we don’t have in Germany too. We had so much fun there.
On the third day we went to the town hall because Karlsruhe and Nottingham celebrate 50 years of friendship in this year. The mayor welcomed us, and we had tea-time with her while we could ask her our questions. After this the old sheriff of Nottingham gave us a guided tour through the town hall for one hour. At the end we had a little present for him. It was a great experience for us!
Wollaton Hall is a very interesting and old mansion standing in the Wollaton Hall park. In this park you can find and see more than a hundred deer. In Wollaton Hall we had a guided tour and it was very interesting to hear about the old life in this mansion. At the end of the tour we went to the old caves under the house which was a little bit scary. After the tour some of us went to the museum where we met the Lord Mayor again. All in all, it was a very good experience.
On Thursday we went to the all-you-can-eat-restaurant "Cosmo". We all were very excited and when we arrived we were shocked and fascinated, because the restaurant was so big and there were so many different types of food. Shushi, Burgers, Mexican food, noodles… It was such an amazing and very big buffet and great desserts on top! Then we took our seats and began to eat. We had a lot of fun together and the food was very tasty! At 9 p.m. we went back to our hostel. What a wonderful day!
On Friday we went to Trinity Catholic School, our partner school. Every one of us had a partner from Trinity School, and had to spend the day with her. We took part in their lessons and we had lunch with them. Most of the teachers were nice and tried to make the lessons interesting.
In the evening we went to a cinema in the inner city to watch the film “Downton Abbey”. The film was about an Earl family wo lived in the 1920s. We were able to understand it quite well with our English skills.
On Saturday, September 28th we started our way back home. We took the train to London, where we had a very long break, so we formed small groups to visit platform 9 3/4 at Kings Cross. From then on, the train journey ran like the first one, just in the other direction. When we arrived in Karlsruhe we were tired and exhausted but happy to see our families again.
(written by class 9b)
