I had a whole post typed out, describing my trip in Europe, and then it disappeared. I guess that's what I get for trying to type it up on my phone in Airplane Mode...
So, I spent the beginning of my summer break with eighteen students, three other teachers, another group from a school in Missouri, and an EF Tours tour guide, traveling around Europe--specifically Germany, France, and Spain. We had a jam-packed trip, and were exhausted every night. The students were really awesome, and I'm glad they were able to go, especially to experience the language and culture that they were learning in context. Overall, it was a really great trip. I'm hoping to plan one for the future of just the German-speaking countries, though.
Because it was so jam-packed full, I'm going to try to give you the highlights of the trip, since the details would go on for far too long.
We left June 8 and had an overnight flight to München. Once we arrived, we waited for the other school from Missouri to arrive and then went full-force ahead into the day. We first went to Dachau, a concentration camp. It was unfortunate that we went to a concentration camp on the first day of the trip, because the students were so exhausted that I don't think they were able to appreciate it fully. After that, we spent some time at BMW-Welt, with some awesome cars and motorcycles (did you know Mini Cooper is made my BMW? I didn't!), followed by a walking tour of the city, and finished by dinner and then finally the hotel. We were exhausted. Needless to say, I slept like a rock.
The next day, we went to Neuschwanstein, which is the famous castle that Mad King Ludwig II built (and that the Disney Cinderella castle is supposedly modeled after). We had a tour of the castle and time to look around after. Then we went to Oberammergau and had an awesome tour of the Passionstheater, which is where they perform the Passion play of the life and death of Jesus Christ--but only every ten years!
The following day, before heading to Heidelberg, we had a really interesting 3rd Reich Tour, where we walked around Munich and were told of all the places that were of importance in the making of and during the 3rd Reich. It was really interesting to see, because you wouldn't know it by just looking at the places as-is. Then, we had some free time, where I finally got to buy my very own Dirndl :-) There was a lot of traffic on the way to Heidelberg, so we made it in time for dinner and that was it.
The next day, we had a tour of Heidelberg, including the castle and the wine cellar, followed by plenty free-time before dinner, in which I bought some German kids books and German movies for my classroom.
The next day, we drove to Paris, stopping in Reims for lunch and to see the cathedral. Once in Paris, we had a delicious dinner and a boat tour on the Seine river (which could be romantic, just not with three other female teachers and 18 students). The students LOVED seeing the Eiffel Tower and took full advantage of the free-time afterward to take pictures in front of it, buy delicious crepes, and buy a zillion Eiffel Tower figurines from all the street sellers there.
The following day, we had a bus tour of Paris, and time to visit the Notre Dame. On the way to the Louvre museum, we saw the famous bridge of locks (with an INSANE amount of locks, let me tell you.) Once in the Louvre, we had just enough time to see the Mona Lisa and the Napolean apartments (although the students were so exhausted, many of them booked it for the Mona Lisa and then sought out benches until it was time to go). Then, we went to dinner, wandered up the Champs Élysées and finished the night by climbing the Arc de Triomphe for one of the best views of Paris.
Although we normally spent every day with the other group, sometimes only one group wants to go on the extra excursions offered by EF Tours. The next day, my school wanted to go to Versailles, and only half of the other group wanted to go. The other half went to the Catacombs, the Eiffel Tower again, and Montparnasse/Sacre Cœur. I decided to go with them, which ended up being a lot of fun and really cool to see. We met up with the rest of the group/my school at Montparnasse/ Sacre Cœur (where there's a lot of really cheap shops). After dinner, we went to Montmartre Tower, for probably the BEST view of Paris.
The next day, we were supposed to have a train to Avignon, but there was a train strike, so we had to take a bus for 12 hours. I secretly love long bus and train rides, because it's a chance to sit and think and watch the beautiful scenery pass you by. I love putting in my earphones, playing my current favorite music, and just looking out the window. Although, after 12 straight hours with 40 teenagers on a bus, that tends to be a little less lovely. We stopped in Avignon really late, so we could see the outside of the Pope's Palace, which was amazing, but we didn't get to see the Aqueducts. So, we got to stay overnight in Avignon just to take another bus the next day (this bus was planned) to Barcelona. We stopped in Carcassonne on the way, which is a really cool medieval city, with a fortress and everything. Once in Barcelona, we had dinner and went back to the hotel.
The following day started out with a bus tour of Barcelona. After which we had a tour of La Sagrada Famíla, which is a church that isn't projected to be finished until 2026, and will have been in progress for over 100 years at that point. It was an amazing church, both on the outside and inside, and every single detail has a specific reason behind it. Goudi really put a ridiculous amount of thought into it. We had free time after the church, which was meant to explore the main shopping streets of downtown Barcelona, but the students were enraptured with the Mediterranean Sea and preferred to spend the whole time lying on the beach (save for 10 minutes where they actually went in the cold water). Oh well, this meant the adults got to split some real Spanish Sangria at a beachside café :-)
The next day we took a train--finally!--to Madrid. This happened to also be the coronation day for the new king, so it was crazy! There were people everywhere, some protesting the monarchy system, and police all over the place. We went to the Prado museum, where our tour guide had prepared a sort of scavenger hunt for us--and the royal botanical gardens, where the students had some free time to rent a little rowboat on the pond. We then had some free time to go shopping in Madrid, although it was crazy crowded because of the coronation.
For our final day before flying home, we had a tour of Madrid, including the bull-fighting arena and a tour of the Reina Sofia museum (with really cool Picasso and Salvador Dali pieces, but no pictures allowed). We had lunch, which was paid for by EF because of the train strike problems, and then my school group went to Toledo, while the other group stayed behind. We had a tour of the city, the church, a giant painting by Greco, the synagogue, and a sword-/jewelry-making place. We had dinner, and then said our goodbyes to the other school and the tour director. And although I was happy to be going home after twelve long (but good) days, I couldn't help but feel the familiar bittersweet sadness in the pit of my stomach. I guess my old blog name (europeanatheart.blogspot.com) was truer than I realized.
So, it was a good trip. It was thoroughly exhausting, as we were go-go-go for twelve days straight, from early morning to late evening. The students were great and real troopers. I'd say it was a successful first trip with students.
