On May 29th, a group of German learning students headed out to Hamburg to spend just under a week practising our German with our exchange partners and exploring the beautiful city of Hamburg.

Our first day started off with a relaxing boat ride along the river Elbe, from where we could see many landmarks of Hamburg and its wonderfully green banks. We then resided on a sandy bank where we ate lunch. Afterwards, we wandered to St. Michael’s church, a staple of Hamburg, where we climbed up a copious number of stairs in order to see a wonderful view of Hamburg from above. We were then able to spend the afternoon with our exchange partners going around Hamburg.

The second day started with school, in which we were able to see the learning environments of our exchange partners and how they differed from our school environment. We were first greeted by their Headteacher, followed by 3 double periods of lessons, including any from English (where they are studying Romeo and Juliet), PE, Drama, Chemistry and/or Art. Afterwards, we had lunch with our partners and then promptly gathered outside Schoko Versum, a chocolate factory, where we received a tour on how chocolate was made, starting in the rainforest, ending up seeing the different machines used in the process and trying how chocolate tasted at each stage.

Our third day was spent in Lübeck, an old city slightly north of Hamburg. We went on a tour of the city including Museum Holstentor, the gate that was the main entrance to the city, built in 1464 and is still standing (though leans slightly due to the lack of foundation under the connecting wall between the two towers), the narrow streets built when the population of Lübeck was very high and housing was needed, but there was a lack of space, seeing a bus that drove on both land and in the water, and other buildings like St. Peter's church, all built with red bricks as Lübeck does not have natural stone to build with. We then got a few hours to go round in our own groups and see more of Lübeck, like the marzipan museum and shop, as Marzipan originated from Lübeck and became very popular for its use as table decoration due to its ability to be coloured and moulded into different shapes.

On Sunday we had the whole day to go round Hamburg with our exchange partners to see more sights. For example, going to Elbphilharmonie, a concert hall in Hamburg, and also another great opportunity to see Hamburg from above, Planten un Blomen, which is a beautiful flower park and a wonderful water show, or viewing parts of the Ironman, a massive triathlon event which happened to land on the same Sunday we were in Hamburg.

We are all so grateful to Dr Symons for being able to rearrange this trip for us after last year’s mishap with the flight being cancelled and this only being established once we had arrived at the airport. It was a wonderful experience from which many of us plan to revisit our exchange partners in Hamburg. In addition, many thanks to Frau Knebler for hosting us and helping organise the trip. And finally, thank you to Mr Adams for accompanying us.

Charlie Furlong, Year 10