April 2013 Articles

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Notes from Germany

In June, during my final two weeks in Germany, I had an opportunity to take one last big trip before returning to America. Earlier in my year abroad, the teachers at my German school had informed me of a class trip that the ninth graders would take to England, staying there for five days and visiting the towns of Canterbury, Hastings, Rye, and London. Two teachers were already accompanying the children on this trip, but my colleagues wanted to know if I’d also be willing to serve as a chaperone. As a native speaker of English, they said, I would be a perfect fit. Naturally, I agreed to join the trip. Together, the two other chaperones and I met our 30 ninth grade students and traveled with them by bus, leaving Germany at midnight and driving through Luxembourg and Belgium until we reached the port of Calais in France. Calais lies on the narrowest part of the English Channel, with only 21 miles separating it from Dover, England, and it’s from here that one can take the famous Channel Tunnel (also called the Chunnel) that crosses beneath the surface of the English Channel and connects France and England by rail. The Chunnel rail service also has a special train carrying vehicles and buses across the channel in less than 30 minutes—this was the line we took. Finally, we arrived in England, our bus driving up out of the tunnel and into the green hills of Kent county, and we had reached our destination.
Once in England, our first stop was in the small town of Canterbury. Canterbury remains today one of the most famous towns in England, primarily because of its beautiful cathedral. In the Middle Ages, many Christian pilgrims traveled to Canterbury to visit this holy site, and it also served as the setting for one of the most important literary works in the English language, Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales. However, we didn’t have much time to visit the town, and so we stayed just long enough to tour the cathedral and have some tea and scones in a British restaurant, but then continued on our way.
The next stop on our journey was Hastings, another important town in English history. Besides being a seaside resort, Hastings possesses perhaps the most important military site in the entire English-speaking world—the site of the Battle of Hastings. This battle occurred in 1066, when William the Conqueror and his Norman army invaded the British Isles from France, subdued the inhabitants, and established himself as the first true king of England. Hastings stands as the site of the great battle from which most of English, and thereby American, history springs. During our stay here, we were able to tour the battlefield, as well as visit the ruins of William the Conqueror’s castle overlooking the waters of the Channel from the hills. Visiting Hastings, as well as some of the smaller villages nearby, such as Rye and Leeds, helped us all learn a great deal of history and come home with a greater appreciation for these pivotal events in the far-distant past.
Last of all, we visited London, the capital of the United Kingdom. We ploughed our way through several hours of traffic, arriving early in the morning. Then, we took a bus tour through the city and visited all the major sites: St. Paul’s Cathedral, Westminster Abbey, the British Parliament buildings, the Big Ben Clock Tower (now named Elizabeth Tower, in honor of the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee celebration). For the children, London was the most exciting part of our trip; they all wanted to shop in the stores around Covent Garden and eat in downtown cafes and restaurants. Needless to say, we had a difficult time keeping up with all of them, but we managed it somehow. We spent the last few hours before sundown sitting in St. James Park and eating a picnic lunch—a relaxing end to our hectic, but magnificent trip to England, and to the ten months in Europe that I will remember for the rest of my days. Cody Bennett