Our trip to Hamelin was such fun! We spent a couple of days in May in the historic town of Hamelin in Germany to meet up with our German pen pals. For the past year we had been writing letters to our pen pals in Albert-Einstein-Gymnasium and now we were very excited to meet them for the first time. Our pen pals had chosen a nice ice cream parlour to “break the ice” and from there we went to explore the legend of the Pied Piper and followed the “rat trail” through the picturesque centre of Hamelin.

The German girls also invited us to attend a few lessons at their school Albert-Einstein-Gymnasium. We were asked to talk about our school and to perform a role-play in English. Other German pupils approached us hoping to find more pen pals. Everyone enjoyed the trip, which led to some firm friendships and most of us will have fond memories of the town of Hameln, the walk to the Klüt-Tower, the picnic at the river Weser bank, and all the time spent with our pen pals.

Here the girls write some more about the highlights of our trip:

The Pied Piper Show

One of the highlights of our trip to Hamelin was the Pied Piper Show of the famous “Rattenfängersage” in the town square. It seemed as though the whole community of Hamelin was involved – there were young children and older adults in it. All the costumes were very detailed and creative. My favourite characters were the small children playing the rats!

Louise

Disco

As we had two birthday girls in our group, we had a surprise “Geburtstagsparty” for Aisha and Katherine. It was really good as the German pen pals were there, too, so we got to know them even better. They taught us a dance called “Jump Style”, which was fun.

Bowling

On Sunday, our pen pals took us Bowling with them. We went to a small “Kegelbahn” and split into three international teams. They taught us some new bowling games that we had never played before, and we had lots of fun!

Olivia

Glassblowing

The glassblowing was great! After a short demonstration, we had a go ourselves. We chose our colour and went to get the glass on a pipe. It was tricky! First you had to blow gently, then the second time you blew harder. All the time you had to keep the glass bauble turning. The next day we collected the “Glaskugeln”, mine was blue and white and so beautiful.

Frances

Table Tennis Tournament

Table Tennis! What can I say - it was such fun! Aisha and I played a number of teams. We were called “The German Rats”! Ha-ha! We also played Dr Kirchner and Mrs Douglas! It was a fun game. We won the tournament and even got a prize! It was a great afternoon! Picnic One afternoon, our pen pals took us down to the river Weser bank and they had set up a “Picknick” for us! We chatted and played games with our friends until it was time for us to go bowling.

Hattie

Cave

On Sunday, Francis and I went to Ann-Sophie’s house. We met her family and her dog! After a while we took her dog for a short walk. When we came back we had some cake and a drink. We then went to a cave. It was very interesting. The tour guide gave each of us a stone from the cave. I had to wear Ann-Sophie’s brother’s wellies as I was only wearing pumps, which were not very suitable!

Katherine

Spare Time

The “Jugendherberge” was great! Most of our dorm time was spent down by the river Weser as it was lovely weather. Dorm time wasn’t exactly time for rest, let’s just say! We also had enough spare time in town with our pen pals.

Natasha