Ich bin ein Berliner 

This week 17 Year 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. 

"Our youth hostel was located in Berlin Mitte 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. In the Checkpoint Charlie museum we saw first hand the lengths people went to to escape from East Germany. We also paused and took a few minutes to remember the Jewish people who lost their lives during the Nazi time at the Jewish memorial. 

After a very brief break and dinner in the youth hostel, we left again to visit the German parliament - the Reichstag - and climb to the top of the glass dome and soak in the views over Berlin at night. The Brandenburger Tor, the symbol of German unification, was brilliantly illuminated and a perfect opportunity for us to take photos.  Thursday morning, we left early to meet our guide Chrissie 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 life 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 see the Potsdamer Platz with it's interesting light and art displays and enjoy a group drink in a German Kneipe. 

Thursday morning was a bank holiday to celebrate the unification of Germany 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 students! Danke und Tschüß."

Frau Davy und Frau Fox.