German Department: Visit to Cologne, December 2006

8 boys from Shell and V Form, accompanied by Mr Corbett and Mr Geisler, travelled to Cologne on our biennial German trip. Once we had settled into our youth hostel, the busy programme started off with a meal and a few games of Kegeln (skittles) in a pub. The following two mornings were spent in…school!

Having made contact with their German counterparts before the trip via e-mail, the Merchiston boys met the pupils of Königin Luisen Gymnasium – a grammar school - for the first time, and followed them through their school day. The German students later joined our group for some of the more recreational activities of our trip. These included watching the latest James Bond in German and visits to the Christmas markets, the OlympiaMuseum as well as the Dom (cathedral). Everybody agreed that we had got our money’s worth for our tickets to the Zweite Bundesliga football match between 1. FC Köln and Kaiserslautern: the latter team managed to come back from being two goals down and 4 players were sent off in total.

On the last day of our stay, we were given a guided tour of the city by a teacher from our partner school, and then had some time for shopping. As German tradition demands, we then took Kaffee und Kuchen (coffee and cake) at 4pm in one of Cologne’s many Konditoreien (cake shops). In the evening we went skating on an outdoor ice-rink in one of the Christmas markets.