Field trip to Scotland

Our field trip to Scotland started on the 11th July. We met Ms Oettinger and Mister Botsch in front of the church next to the school at 7:30 am and half an hour later the bus left. Our destination for that day was Zeebrugge because the ferry to England started there. But before we reached Zeebrugge and after a 7 hours drive we took a longer break in Brugge in Belgium to have lunch and to see the city. Afterwards we went on to Zeebrugge and at 7:00 pm the ferry to Hull in England left. It was a very big ferry and we had lots of opportunities to do something. Some of us watched the World Football Championship, others went to one of the restaurants or visited some of the shops on board.
After a night on the ferry we reached Hull at 8:00 am. That day our destination was Glasgow and on the way we had breakfast in the bus and visited the World Cultural Heritage New Lanark which is a village built up by Robert Owen, a man who helped the workers and cared for the children in the industrial revolution. In the evening we arrived at our youth hostel in Glasgow and after dinner which we cooked in a self-catering kitchen we had free time to see Glasgow. The most of us spent the evening in a pub because it was too late to see much of the city.
On Tuesday morning we left Glasgow at 9:00 am to visit the Glengoyne destillery to see how whisky is made. After a guided tour through the destillery we drove on to Loch Lomond, the biggest lake in Scotland. There we had a picknick and enjoyed the beautiful view over Loch Lomond. In the afternoon we reached Fort Williams where our youth hostel for that night was. Fort Williams is a village at the foot of Ben Nevis, the highest mountain of the Highlands, so we saw a lot of the impressive landscape of the Scotish Highlands.
The next day we left the youth hostel after breakfast and drove directly just taking short breaks to Edinburgh because we wanted to see as much as possible. When we arrived there we did a guided city tour but we couldn’t see everything because it was very foggy and because we could not go everywhere because the Queen was in Edinburgh and so it was very closely-guarded. Afterwards we went to the youth hostel, checked in and had free time until dinner. The evening in Edinburgh was the last evening in Scotland and after dinner most of us went out to go to a pub again to enjoy the last evening.
Before we left Edinburgh on Thursday we had some free time again and some of us went to the city and bought souvenirs and "saw" the Queen and others visited the National Museum Of Scotland. Our journey back to Hull started at 1:00 pm and the ferry departed in the evening. This time the ferry brought us to Rotterdam. It was even bigger than the first one and more comfortable, too. That evening Ms Oettinger and Mister Botsch had prepared a Scotland quiz for us about the things we learnt on our field trip and everyone won a souvenir.
On Friday morning we arrived in Rotterdam and therefrom we started our journey back home and at 5:00 pm, two hours earlier than planned, we reached Mannheim.
All in all the field trip to Scotland was great because we saw a lot of different things. We saw the cities Glasgow and Edinburgh, but also a lot of the typical Scottish landscape in the Highlands. Sometimes the long journeys were exhausting but still they were worthwhile the things we saw in Scotland. Furthermore the atmosphere in the group was good because we got along with each other and also with the teachers very well. All in all I think the field trip to Scotland was a good experience for everybody.

Nicole Bräunig, 12