Ich bin ein Berliner 

Last week, 26 Year 9 and 10 students set off to explore Berlin in Germany. It was an action packed 4 days where they visited the sights in Berlin, practiced their German and sampled German foods. Never before did a group of students eat so many Currywurst, Döner and Brezeln. 

"Our hotel was located right in the centre of all the sights and a short walk away from Berlin Alexanderplatz and the East Side Gallery which we saw on the first day. We got our bearings from the Park Inn hotel viewing platform and got an impression of the size of Berlin with the impressive TV Tower as a reference.

On the second day we started our sightseeing tour. We walked past the Berliner Rathaus, the Fernsehturm, the Bebelplatz, the Museums Insel, soaked up the Berlin history in the Berliner Dom and the DDR Museum and stopped for lunch at Checkpoint Charlie.  We also paused and took a few minutes to remember the Jewish people who lost their lives during the Third Reich at the Jewish memorial. 

After a very brief break and dinner in the hotel, we left again to visit the German parliament - the Bundestag. From the roof terrace we soaked up the views of Berlin at night. The Brandenburger Tor, the symbol of German unification, was brilliantly illuminated and a perfect opportunity for us to take photos.  We finished the evening with a visit to the Potsdamer Platz - once Europe's biggest building site where students enjoyed the water fountains and showed off the skills on the piano.

Thursday morning, we left early to meet our guide of the Berliner Unterwelten to discover the bomb shelters created during the Second World War. It was an interesting and informative tour. 

We then spent some time seeing parts of the Berlin Wall which brought us closer to some of the sad stories about how over 136 people lost their lives trying to cross the border between 1961 and 1989.

The afternoon was spent at the KuDamm, Berlin's answer to Oxford street with the KaDeWe , the German Harrods, to do some last minute souvenir shopping. 

Despite another exhausting day, we had enough energy left to visit the Berlin Icebar. Dressed warmly we said Prost with glasses of ice and polar bears watching. 

Friday morning was a bank holiday to celebrate 35 years of German Unification and we felt it was fitting to climb to the top of the Victory Column before returning to the UK.

An amazing trip with brilliant pupils! Danke und Tschüß."

Frau Davy, Frau Fox und Herr Lambert (our colleague on loan from the History department)