Back in England

We are heading north on the m20 now. About to stop at Maidstone. Tea time!

Train update

Waiting for our train. Due to catch the 20:49 (that would get us into Folkestone at 20:30 ish). 

On the way to the hotel

We have been to the Christmas Markets and have shopped on the Champs-Elysées. We've been to the arc de triomphe and shared in the ceremony for the lost soldier. We went to McDonald's for our tea and have now started heading to the hotel. We are all SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO tired!

Pause

We are just pausing for a short toilet break. It's ever so cold (but at least it's no longer raining!). 

Leaving England

We have safely arrived in Folkestone. Just about to board. 

Weather

The forecast suggests that there will be much rain on Thursday and Friday. A waterproof is a MUST! 

A day with lots of new things

Today has been a day where we have explored many new things and seen some fantastic sights. 

We started at Bayeux, where we saw the world-famous tapestry. The children all listened fantastically to the information in the headsets and we're fascinated by the  depiction. It is a fantastic sight and shouldn't be missed if you are visiting the area! 

Then we went to the cathedral. We were all so impressed - it is so big and grand ... And so very old! 

A bit of free time for some shopping, creeps and ice cream was then in order. 

After our picnic we visited the British cemetery in Bayeux 

The goats cheese farm was an experience and the cider/apple farm was really interesting. The students were engrossed!

A night on the beach rounded it all off perfectly!

See you all tomorrow 😃

Amazing day!

Today has been such a meaningful day. We have been thoughtful and sensible the whole day long. 

The day started at La Cambe, the German cemetery. We saw flat, uneven, black and small blocks which were grave stones. We have talked about and explored the symbolism surrounding the black stones. 

The world peace statue, constructed in 2004 to honour the 60th anniversary of the landings in Normandy, was our next stop. 

A short drive along the coast and we arrived at Pointe du Hoc. A fabulous way of helping us to think about the way the soldiers scaled the cliffs, the scale of the bombs dropped, the impact of the craters and the "facilities" which existed for the soldiers, the batteries and the bunkers. The video that we watched was so thought provoking - it was veterans talking about their experiences and memories. 

Lunch was had on Omaha beach. 

The American cemetery in Colleville is huge. The sheer number of crosses makes you instantly think about how many lives were lost. It was so well kept and everything just looked so perfect. 

Them we went to Arromanches and visited the Landings Museum in the town. We had a talk about how the artificial harbour was built and saw some fab graphics about it. Then we saw a slide show about the build up and execution of Operation Overlord. 

This evening, we spent a good couple of hours on the beach - the girls won tonight's rounders match! 

☀️🇫🇷

Settled and on the beach

We are all checked in, have had our dinner and are now running off any energy that remains. The boys won this evening's rounders game!

We have had loads of experiences today. Ordering lunch in French, making croissants and baguettes, playing on the beach and (not) sleeping on the coach, to say nothing of getting onto the train in a coach and, for a fair few children, leaving the UK for the first time. What a day!!! 

Our new driver, Jim, is ace 😃

Visit 1 done 😃

So it begins! We've been to the bakery and made bread and croissants. The baker, as usual, made us cry with laughter and we are all now suitably nourished. Back on the road and heading to Rouen for our next stop. 

Queuing

We have had a driver changeover at Toddington and Jim, our driver for the week, is great. He is child-friendly and positive and, most importantly, a super driver. We are currently going nowhere in a queue waiting to board the eurotunnel. 

Wow. Not long to go - Normandy 2014

It's just over 3 hours now until we leave to go to Normandy!  Don't forget not to park right outside school :)

Photos

Here are just a few select photos from the day we had on Friday 

Day two - Allied museum, Alexanderplatz Fernsehturm, Italian Restaurant, Reichstag

Yesterday we visited the allied museum by the underground, and it was a engaging experience for all of us. We learnt about the history of Berlin and the different divisions of Germany. After spending the morning there we grabbed some lunch at the train station and headed back across Berlin to the TV tower, Chloe's worst nightmare! Everyone conquered their fears and got to the top to enjoy the incredible view of the city. We all had our expectations of the 'Kaffee und Kuchen', but nothing could prepare us for the enormous slice of cake that sat in front of us! Sat in the 360 degree revolving restaurant we were able to identify the places we had already visited and admire the city from a different perspective. We found a lovely Italian restaurant to eat dinner at meaning Chloe got her spag bol after all. We demolished the huge plates of pizza and pasta but then burnt them off in the run to the Reichstag. Despite the disappointment that miss Milne had lied about the travelators we used our audio tapes to learn about the history of the Reichstag. 

Signed India, Penny and Sian

Day one - travel & exploration

From the airport we took a train to the Alexandraplatz, we then caught the underground train to the Pankow station, we then changed for the third time and took the underground to our final destination being Senefelderplatz station where we lugged suitcases to our hotel. We checked in and. Had free time in our rooms to unpack and shower. We then met in the lobby at half 7 to start our walking tour of the city. We caught our fourth form of public transport and went from Senefelderplatz back over to Pankow where we were able to explore the city. We all grabbed some food, we went to McDonalds and some of the others took food from other places, like the crepè store and Starbucks. We went to view the TV Tower and all of the other sights around, we walked for miles to explore gorgeous sights that Berlin holds. On our journey we so buildings such Brandenburg gate, the Reichstag building and we saw all of the embassies that were around. We also detoured a little to see more, such as the university, and the holocaust memorial. Whilst being at the memorial, many people felt many different things. Penny told us that she felt that it was so 'eerie' yet so 'beautiful' where as Callum, said that 'you almost felt lost, you had a lack of belonging, you almost feel inferior. The disorientation was overwhelming' he explained that he had 'never felt anything like it before'. After a long day, we finally made our own way back to the Hostel and guided the teachers too! We took the underground again to make our own way back. Arriving to the hotel was a relief for many, but the day was phenomenal. 

  Signed Callum and Sian👦👧

😄😃😀😊☺️😉😍😘😚😗😙😜😝😛😁😂😅😋😆😎👶💂👲👳👮👷👴👵👱👼👸😺😸😻😽😼🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐛🐛🐛🐛🐛🐛🐛🐛🐛🐛🐛🐛🐛🐞🐞🐞🐞🐧🐑🐛🐝🐪🐖🐂🌲🌞🌑⛄️⛄️🌁🌾🌳🌞🌞🌞🌞🌞🌞🌘🌘🌘🌘🌘🌘🌘🌗🌖🌕🌚🌚🌚🌚🌚🌚🌚

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1 week to go

Yay! It's so close now!

If you wanted to watch the film (some info here: http://tipsfromchip.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/movie-valkyrie-2008.html) that I mentioned at the meeting, it is called VALKYRIE and stars, amongst others, Tom Cruise.  I did say that I would do a showing after school on Tuesday next week for you, but I'm not in school that day now, do I won't be able to sort hat for you ... Many sorries. It is available on LOVEFILM and on netflix though. I think I have also found a diversion link on YouTube to it - search force full length film. Fantastic film - well worth a watch.

Don't forget to keep checking back to the blog. I'll update you on things almost daily now if I can.

Remember: waterproof and walking shoes/wellies/doc martins.

The presentation for the parents' meeting is below and can be downloaded as a pdf file, should you so wish.  The documents handed out at the meeting will be uploaded onto this blog after the parents' meeting has taken place.

BERLIN Presentation