Welcome to Cambridge!

The 5th year classes began their final school year with a trip to Cambridge to get to know the British culture and to improve their English.

We started our journey on the 6th of September and we were all curious looking forward to this week.

We went to Schwechat Airport by train where some of our classmates joined us. Passing through the passport control and the security check, we finally found our seats on the plane. After the approximately two-hour-lasting flight, we safely arrived at Luton Airport in London. We got our luggage and searched for the bus which brought us to Cambridge. There we were attached to different taxis which took us to our host families. Most of us were welcomed warmly although it was quite late when we arrived. After we introduced ourselves, we got dinner and went to bed in order to be fit for the next day.

Saturday started with a train ride to London. We spent our day with a sightseeing tour to visit Big Ben, the Tower of London, Buckingham Palace and Westminster Abbey. When we were at Tower Bridge we were lucky spectators of the bridge being opened for a sailing ship to pass through, which only occurs three times a day. Following this, we walked to the Houses of Parliament where we saw some people demonstrating because of Brexit and the current political situation in the UK. In the afternoon we had some leisure time to stroll around before we went back to Cambridge in the evening.

On Sunday we went to London again where we split up into two groups. One part visited the Science Museum while the other group went to see Wembley Stadium. It was fascinating to walk the corridors and have a view on this enormously huge football ground. In the museum the main attraction was the collection of old cars and planes. On that day we had our individual free time at Piccadilly Circus to go shopping, head to Covent Garden or just sit in a park and relax before we had to go back to Cambridge again. All in all, we enjoyed London and were really impressed by the city.

During the week we took a language course at ABC Language School in Cambridge where we were divided into small groups. Our lessons in the mornings lasted from Monday to Thursday and in the

afternoon there were different activities planned. On Monday, for instance, we had an orientation tour through Cambridge where we visited the different sights of the city. Our guide told us a lot about the history, the pub culture, the colleges and the scientific background of Cambridge. The next day a bus took us to Oxford where the MINI Factory is located. We got a guided tour through the modern production halls and could observe how robots and humans join forces to manufacture the famous MINI cars. On Wednesday there was the possibility to visit either the Zoological, the Archaeological or the Whipple Museum of the History of Science in Cambridge. In the evening we all met for bowling and had a nice time there. After school ended on Thursday, we enjoyed the great weather and went punting on the river Cam. Luckily nobody plunged into the water, although some of us were really short of doing so. Later that afternoon, we had a walk to a nearby village called Grantchester to have teatime and taste traditional British scones there. On Friday morning we said goodbye to our host families and returned to the airport by bus. Although our departure was a little bit late, we arrived in Vienna on time.

It was a great week in Cambridge and we really want to thank our teachers for the arrangements they made. It was both educational and fun and we were able to spend a lot of time with our classmates. I hope future generations of students at our school will have the same opportunity to enjoy a week like this.