Joint Music Trip to Germany a Great Success

Forty students from King Arthur's and twenty from Sexey's spent half-term on an action packed trip to Germany. There they sang, played their instruments, performed at concerts, cruised down the Rhine, visited our German twin town Lahnau and had a wonderful time exploring another country and making new friends. Holly Austin, King Arthur's Year 8, agreed to write this diary for the Window. Here is her account:

Day 1

On the 22nd October, 17:00, around 60 children and 8 adults set out for Dover port. We got there at around 23:45 and had an hour to relax, get a snack and some fresh air before getting the 00:45 to Calais.

Day 2

We arrived at Calais early in the morning and set off to our final destination with various stops for food and a stretch. When we got to Bad Salzig (the little town we stayed in) just after lunch we had a few hours to unpack and settle in and have a look at the town where some of us were able to use our German language skills! The town was quite small and very pretty with cobbled roads and brightly coloured houses dotted randomly around. We then had supper that the hotel provided followed by a rehearsal of all the groups. After that we all went to bed very tired from the journey but pleased that we had arrived safely.

Day 3

We got up early in the morning. Had our breakfast and made our lunch with the food the hotel provided. Next we set off for a boat trip down the river Rhine. On one bank of the river there were terraced hills with various crops including grape vines; on the other side there were also hills but further back from the bank as there was a major road running near the edge, and little towns nestled at the base of the hills.

We were travelling to Boppard to perform in the Musikpavillion and have a look around the pretty town (which had a lovely ice cream shop!) so we had a bit of sightseeing but when we got to the place where we were going to perform it was closed, we had been forgotten!

But Miss Fletcher was eager for us to play so we set up on the steps and played for the passers-by. We earned a few Euros and the German people who had stopped to watch seemed to enjoy our performance. Our bus came for us at 16:00 and we arrived back at the hotel an hour later where we had a nice supper and warmed up.

Day 4

The next day we got up and followed the same routine as the previous day but this time we left for Bonn where we visited Beethoven's house. It was very big and the rooms were spacious but the small stairways and corridors were cramped and had very creaky floorboards! We had a tour of the safe part of the house and learnt lots of interesting facts about him throughout it.

After the tour we had some shopping and sightseeing time and then it was back to the bus and on to the theme park Phantasialand; we were all very excited and we weren't let down! It was amazing: in Phantasialand there were different country themes including African with costumed musicians playing African music, mud huts like they would be in Africa, and of course there were all the fabulous rides; the Chinese section, with beautifully decorated houses, costumed dancers and performers; and the themed rides, including a Chinese ghost train. It was a brilliant afternoon at a place where we all had fun, and by the time we got home we were all exhausted so had supper and a good night's sleep.

Day 5

We woke up, prepared ourselves for the day then departed for Lahnau (the town twinned with Wincanton) where we played handball with the German students which has fun, and tiring, but we also found out that the Germans were very good at English, much better than we were at German! This made it easy for us to communicate and socialise with them since they were very friendly. After Handball we visited Wetzler which was a lovely town with a magnificent cathedral and beautiful cobbled streets with colourful timber framed houses on every street, and there were small shops with pretty jewellery or lovely clothes, and a bridge that looks down onto a modern fountain that erupts with water every hour to classical music, spraying water high above our heads in an array of arcs that looked fantastic; it seemed like a perfect town.

After looking around the town we returned to Lahnau at 16:00 and had a rehearsal for the concert followed by a meal they kindly provided which was a traditional food called Schnitzel. It is originally made of veal coated in breadcrumbs, but we had pork in it which is more commonly used now; it was a nice meal and we all enjoyed it.

After supper there was the concert at 19:00 where we performed and also heard many talented German musicians sing. They sang in many languages very clearly, which I really admired. The concert finished at around 21:00 and we managed to get away fairly quickly afterwards in the coaches they had hired to take us back. We arrived back at the hotel where we did a little bit of our packing and then went straight to sleep with no difficulty after our long day!

Day 6

We woke early to do our last minute packing and left for Calais all feeling sad that we had to go. We got to Calais at 16:10, had some time to get some fresh air and then at 17:20 we departed. Nearly an hour later the white cliffs of Dover appeared and shortly after we were back in England. 23:00 we arrived at King Arthurs and then at 23:30 the others got to Sexey's. We were all feeling melancholy that we had left Germany but at the same time relieved to be back home safe. It was a wonderful trip and if we could do it again I'm sure we all would.

Holly Austin

Head of Music Ms Emma Fletcher talks about the trip

I met Jenna Middleton, Head of Music at Sexey's five years ago and we talked about the idea of organising a joint music trip. This was because we had both worked out that together we could attract a party large enough to make things much more affordable for pupils. Small groups work out expensive. As a result in 2008 we organised the first combined KA and Sexey's trip and set off for Paris. The trip was a great success and we discovered we got on very well together and when it was over we decided to organise another and this German trip was the result.

This time I felt the students from the two schools have really jelled. They enjoyed each other's company, generally pulled together and co-operated in joint performances. I thought this was great in a situation where there can be some rivalry between the two schools. As a result I'd like to keep that spirit alive by inviting the Sexey's students over to participate when the German students visit in the summer.

You ask how we got on with the Germans. They rather put us to shame. Both the adults and the school students were really friendly and so many of them spoke English fluently. I did French at school, not German, so I was pretty useless, but I took along two older students who have left KA now, but who took German at GCSE. They were a huge help all the time and at the end I asked them to write a proper thank you speech which they then gave to thank our hosts for all the generosity and friendliness we had received. Yes, it was a really super trip and everything went so well - but I can tell you by the time I got home I was absolutely shattered.

The photos were taken on the trip, with the exception of the portraits of Holly and Ms Fletcher, by John Baxter.

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