GRG23 Sprachreise

The Conquest of London

Once upon a time there were these darling, brave and noble Austrian students of the classes 5A and 5D… and there were these invincible teachers Lady Lisa Fellner and Sir Andrew Koller.

On November 20, 2010, they started their crusade to London. Like Ulysses, they hid in the paunch of their flying horse called British Airways or “The Flying Britishman”. To their amazement, they invaded Britain at a small and quiet place called Heathrow, which turned out to be a sort of a secret place, highly recommended and suitable for year round recreation and, of course, for starting the invasion there.

Nobody would deny that their invasion was a tough job. They conquered some strategically important spots like The London Dungeon or the London Eye in spite of the rumours about torture and unfair treatment and judgement leading to innocent victims. Moreover, in Madame Tussaud’s the Austrians even made the (un)celebrities’ and famous people’s wax run hot. Some tough members of the intrepid squad even did extreme shopping or, to put it differently, martial shopping in Oxford Street or some other places of interest, for example, Abercrombie & Fitch etc. in order to defeat the British by breaking their own bank accounts as they were obviously materialistic girls. What it all came down to was Britain’s capital surrender. After reaching their goal to subject the undignified natives of Little Britain, the powerful and peaceful 5AD-Austrians returned home, satisfied with their sweeping success…

Mag. Andreas Koller

The flight

I was sure! Everyone (with a few exceptions) wanted to convince me that the plane would not crash. So I forced myself onto it. It was my very first flight.

I was sitting next to my friends. After I had taken leave of the world I tried to calm down. It worked, but not for long. As the stewardess started to explain the regulations, in case of an emergency, I was a little panicky, but it became really bad when she painted at the emergency exits!!! I didn’t understand why I should use the emergency exits while we were in the air? I would definitely not get the idea to jump from the falling plane. My friends noticed my obvious panic attack and tried to calm me.

The airplane began to roll slowly and then we were in front of the runway. The plane stopped and just when I considered myself safe the engines started to roar. I let out a loud cry. Suddenly the aircraft accelerated and my breath stopped.

While trying to keep myself under control I did not notice that we were already in the air. The fear vanished and I was fascinated by the beautiful view. This feeling did not last long because the plane made a turn right and I felt sick.

Soon I felt better and the flight got boring and suddenly the seatbelt sign flashed and we were close to landing. As the wheels rolled out under us the fear returned. The sudden touch down of the wheels on the ground was literally to be felt. And then it was over. The plane came to a halt in front of the terminal and everyone clapped their hands. This was a great experience!

Becky

And she flew home with us again!!! (Mag.a Lisa Fellner)

London Tower

On Sunday we went to the London Tower. There are many historical sights in London, but we will only talk about the important ones. First of all we saw six ravens, even though there should be seven. It is said that when all these ravens are able to escape the United Kingdom will be destroyed. Then we went to the White Tower where we saw the armors and horses of the kings and knights by the way for all idiots these horses are just fakes.

The most beautiful, important wonderful, unaffordable crown jewels best protected by stable doors, which weigh 200 kg at least. We did not have to walk since there were belts around the Crown Jewels and we were very thankful of that. But in the end we were so tired that we could not go to the Torture Tower, which was a shame!!! However, it was still very interesting and we recommend it to all who want to go to.

Madame Tussaud’s

Madame Tussaud´s is a wax figure museum, there are popular humans, popstars, sportsman and it has become a big tourist attraction. You can take photos of you and the wax figures, and there is a nice gift shop.

You can admire stars like Barack Obama, Michael Jackson or Lady Diana even comic figures, for example Superman or Shrek. There is also the so-called Chamber of Horror, which is more terrifying than the London Dungeon, and the Spirit of London ride.

Madame Tussaud´s museum and shops are all around the world; it is too in Berlin, New York City etc. Even here in Vienna a Madame Tussaud´s opened in April 2011.

The London Dungeon

On our third day in London we went to The London Dungeon. It is a chamber of horror and brings London’s horrible history to life with different shows: for example the history of Jack the Ripper or Sweeney Todd, played by live actors. When we got into the dungeon, they first took a picture of our two classes which can be seen on Facebook.

In the London Dungeon there are many rooms and each of them has a different topic. The scenery in the rooms looked great and the actors made it extremely frightening. We had a great time with shows about murderers, fire and methods of torture. There was even a mock court room where Sir Andrew (Koller) was punished for wearing women’s clothing. All in all, the visit to the London Dungeon was definitely a highlight of our trip to London.

Shopping

We were in London from November 20-23. The name of our hotel was Hotel LORDS. It was really funny, every day we had the chance of going shopping. But on the last day we did extreme-shopping. Some of us went to Piccadilly Circus. Among other shops there is the famous Abercrombie & Fitch store. The shop assistants are good-looking models.

The others of our group went to Oxford Street. There are many big stores and our favorite one is PRIMARK. Because they have a big range and it is not very expensive. We bought many gifts and souvenirs for our families. The day was great.

The public transport system is well organized because there are so many double-decker buses that all of the streets are crowed with them. And the undergrounds are really old fashioned, nevertheless they are very fast.

The Lords Hotel

The Lords is a typical English hotel. It is not big. But it has a wonderful atmosphere including its antique equipment. Another pro is that the underground is very close to the hotel, so you can easily go to Oxford Street, but there are also many disadvantages.The bathrooms are too small for 5 people and the breakfast is quite poor. In the end everybody liked it and if we travel to London again, we will choose this hotel...

Julia und Vera

Sunday, October 1st:

Our travel began at Vienna airport. We took off at 8.37 (Vienna time) and landed at 10.42 (London time). Then we took a bus to Eton, where a famous private school for rich boys is located. Later we went to Windsor Castle. There we saw an exhibition about the castle, some royal belongings and dolls of Queen Elisabeth 1. We also saw the guards there and we all took photos with this "tin-soldier" (I call him that because he didn't smile or react in any way).

Our group at Eton

After our tour through the Castle the bus took us to the meeting point with our host families.

Monday, October 2nd:

The day began with our First visit to the "Eurocentre" (our school). There we took part in lessons from 9 o'clock until half past twelve. After school we took public transport to London. In this big city our first stop was at Madame Tussaud's. There we saw the wax-figures of famous film stars like Harrison Ford, or music stars like Frank Sinatra and many persons of interest from politics, film, music, sport and social life. At the end of the tour at Madame Tussaud's we visited the Chamber of Horror and had a "taxi-drive" through the history of London. After Madame Tussaud's we went to Piccadilly Circus. In the early evening we met at a Pub called "The New Tiger's Head" and talked about our programme for the following days.

Tuesday, October 3rd:

Our day began with three and a half hours at school. Then we drove to the Apollo-Victory-Theatre in London. There we saw the musical "Starlight Express". After this lovely musical we went to Westminster Abbey, but we couldn't get inside as it was closed. So we went to the Houses of Parliament and "Big Ben". We took some photos and then we went to the London Eye. This is a gigantic wheel like our "Riesenrad". Some of our group took a ride and the rest stayed down. This was our last action for that day.

Wednesday, October 4th:

After our lessons we went to London and took an open double-decker bus for a sightseeing tour. We saw Westminster Abbey, Big Ben, the Houses of Parliament, Buckingham Palace and St. Paul's Cathedral. Then we went an to Tower Bridge and stopped at the Tower of London. We got off and took a tour through the Tower, where we saw the crown jewels. Being tired, we took the next train home.

Thursday, October 5th:

That day we went to the Shakespeare Globe Theatre. It is a replica of the original one that burnt down in 1613. There was an exhibition about the old theatre and it took us half an hour to have a look at it. Then we went back to the train station, went home and in the evening we met at the Pub "The Old Tiger's Head".

Friday, October 6th:

This was our last school day in London, so we were very sad (*ggg*). After the lessons Mrs. Schmid and Mrs. Müller took us to Greenwich where our group was separated into two, because some of us wanted to see the Observatory and the others wanted to visit the Millennium Dome. I was in the group which went to the Dome. It was a huge building and it looked like a big circular tent. Inside we saw a big show and many exhibitions showing items of the past, the present and the future. But we didn't have enough time to see all the attractions. At the end of the day we went to a Pub again.

Saturday, October 7th:

We walked back to Westminster Abbey and had a look inside this time. We found it a very impressive and beautiful church. Then we went to Buckingham Palace, because we wanted to see the Changing of the Guards. But there wasn't anything like that, because it rained the whole day. After our visit at Buckingham Palace we had an afternoon off. In the evening we went to a place where a karaoke-event was scheduled. Only two of us took part, so we went home rather early because the following day we were to fly back to Vienna.

Sunday, October 8th:

We visited a beach near Dover to see the white cliffs and the sea. Then our coach took us to Canterbury, where we saw the church. After that visit we stayed in the centre of Canterbury for another hour and then we went to London-Heathrow. We took off at 19.56 hours (London time) and could watch the lights of many cities on our flight back home. On the plane we took a drink in remembrance of this week, because we felt so good and we had enjoyed this trip very much. At 22.35 (Vienna time) we landed at Vienna-Airport where our parents were already waiting to take us home.

This was a SUPER week and I hope that all the other pupils who will fly to London in the future will have a week as good as ours.

Patrick Freistetter