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OHR goes Iceland
Das alles kannst du auf unserem Gruppenaustausch nach Island erleben! Über diesen Link kannst du dir einen kurzen Film unserer letzten Islandreise anschauen. Islandreise 2022 anschauen!
Das Großartige an dieser Bildungsreise ist, dass sie von Erasmus+ fast zu 100% bezahlt und zusätzlich von unserem Förderverein unterstützt wird.
Du bist aktuell in Klasse 9 und möchtest 2024 mit? Dann komme zu uns ins Lehrerzimmer und informiere dich bei Frau Arora, Frau Schweizer oder Frau Overhage.
First day - Arrival in Reykjavik
The trip began in Germany,where we all met at the train station in Cologne Messe Deutz. The train ride felt very short but actually we drove 48 minutes. We all were so exited!
When we arrived in Frankfurt, we immediately took the bus which brought us to the airport. After checking in, which took forever, we divided us into groups and relaxed at the airport for some time. Then we went to the security check and after about 35 min we were allowed to board the plane. The flight was very nice and we had a beautiful view. The landing was something special for a few students because they had never flown before. A bus picked us up and brought us to our hotel in Reykjavik.
We had dinner right after we arrived. At 8 p.m. we went to the ocean, which was close by our hotel, for a late-night walk and were able to see the beautiful sunset. During the walk a few students ran races against each other and did arm wrestled which our teachers also took part in. Then we tiredly went to bed.
Second day - visit school and city tour
On our second day in Iceland, we left for school in the morning after breakfast. The first few moments there were a little weird, because we weren’t used to seeing students wearing sweatpants and no shoes in school. Then we all went to class and were divided into groups with Icelanders and had to make a presentation about an Icelandic and a German city. It was very interesting to talk to the Icelandic students. During the break we took a 20 minute walk around the school which we really liked. After the walk we continued working on our presentation. At around 1pm we headed back to the hotel for lunch. After lunch we went to the city center of Reykjavik and took a city tour, led by some of our students. The first stop of our tour was at Hallgrimskirkja Church, where we also took group pictures. The students also told us something about the church, for example that the building is formally based on the arrangement of basalt columns. The next stop was at a very famous bakery, which is known for its cinnamon buns. After eating some delicious food at the bakery, we walked to the rainbow Street, which was made for the LGBTQ community in 2015. The next stop was at the Tjörnin, which is the Reykjavik Pond. There we also took some group pictures, pretty much at every stop. After that we stopped at a hotdog stand where some of us tried the hot dogs and then we had free time. Then we all walked back to the hotel, where we had dinner. Later we did our daily feedback round. And before we left for the Northern Lights tour, we had some free time again.
Around 10pm we were picked up by a bus for the Northern Lights tour. On the ride, our tour guide told us about the Northern Lights and the best way to see them. When we arrived at the location, we were very lucky because the Northern Lights were immediately visible. Our group leader explained to us that we were very lucky with the Northern Lights that day because they are rarely seen so strongly and for such a long time. It was a unique experience to see natural lights in the night sky and the side trip was absolutely worth it!
When we weren’t able to see the northern lights anymore, we rode back to our hotel and immediately fell asleep after this long and amazing day.
Third day - school and swimming pool
Today, we woke up later than usual at 08:30 am, because we saw the northern lights last night, which we had to stay up late for. But for that spectacle it was definitely worth it. After a yummy breakfast in the hotel, we went to the school at 09:30 am. It was a great walk because the weather was great. The sun shined the whole day. Since we were at the same school yesterday, we already knew most of the building and also a few students. Then we had sport together with the Icelandic students. Which was very funn. they showed us their favorite school sport games. And after that we showed them “Völkerball”. After sport we had lunch with them, which was a tasty soup. Then our students presented their presentations about our life in Germany. The Icelandic teenagers were really interested and good listeners. In the afternoon, we walked an hour long to the Perlan Museum. There we had some free time. The museum was really cool, for example you can go through an ice tunnel. And in the museum were shops and Cafe’s, which were great to relax a bit. In the evening we were in the hotel for dinner. After dinner some of us went to a nearby swimming pool. The other students stayed in the hotel and relaxed. Then something crazy happened: From the hotel we saw the northern lights again. It was so impressive! And after this long day we all went to bed feeling very tired.
Fourth day - Golden Circle Tour
On Saturday, we woke up, had breakfast and got ready for the day. At 8.30am we entered the bus to start the well-known “Golden Circle Tour”. During the ride, our friendly tour guide told us a lot about stories and certain places of Iceland.
After some time, we arrived at the National Park Thingvellir. There we walked around and saw a waterfall, a lot of snow and giant rocks. Then we rode through Iceland’s stunning nature to Gullfoss waterfall. It was spectacular to see these floods of turquoise water falling and in between several ice floes. We also went to the souvenir shop which was close to the waterfall. After that, we reached the famous geysers where there are many hot springs and a big geyser, that explodes every five to ten minutes. We and many other tourists really enjoyed watching the geyser. We also went up a mountain there, so we had a fantastic view over the landscape around us. We could see white mountains, huge meadows, a few houses and Icelandic horses. It was incredibly beautiful!
Because we became hungry, we went to the tomato farm. There a man told us how they produce tomatoes in such a cold country like Iceland. He invited us for lunch in the greenhouse, next to the tomato plants. The tomato soup and the bread aside were absolutely delicious, and we loved the location.
When we were all full and satisfied, we rode by bus to our last stop of the day: the Selfoss crater. It is a mountain in which’s crater there is a frozen lake. We walked on the border of the crater to enjoy that wonderful view. We were also able to go down inside of the crater to see the ice from close. There were many cracks in the turquoise ice which created an interesting pattern. Then our bus took us back to the hotel, where we had dinner. We spent the evening playing games and relaxing. Tired, but happy and full of gorgeous memories, we fell asleep after this amazing day.
Fifth day - Reykjadalur
We woke up at 8:30am, then we went to the geothermal powerplant, which was highly informative, because we learned something about production and the waste of energy. We heard a great presentation. After that we saw three genuinely nice films about the history of the powerplant and how they keep their emissions climate-friendly. After the geothermal powerplant, we had an awesome walk across a mountain, but it was hard to climb it up, because of the ice which was on the path. Of course, it was windy and cold. But this changed when we went into the very warm water at the hot springs. We stayed there for an hour or two and relaxed a little bit in the warm water. That was a fantastic experience! Some of us even went so far and jumped into the snow to cool down. Then we went back the same way that we came, but this time it was a lot easier since it went mostly downhill. When we reached our bus, we were incredibly happy, but also exhausted. The dinner at our hotel tasted great, and we had a wonderful evening with our group.
Sixth day - visit school
We had breakfast at 9 o’clock and went to the primary school “Laugarnesskòli” at 10 o’clock.
We arrived at 10:40am and began to work with the children at 10:50am. We crafted with the kids our Cologne Cathedral. We had prepared that activity at home already. The children surprised us because their English was great and they worked very well. They had only a few questions after we had shown them the video that explained how to make the cathedrals. The day in school ended at 11:50am. Then we went back to our hotel to have lunch. After that we had free time until 3pm. In the afternoon we went to Reykjavik downtown. There we were allowed to explore the city by ourselves in smaller groups. We went shopping or just relaxed while looking at the city. At 7pm we met for dinner at a restaurant. The restaurant where we had dinner was called Hlemmur Mathöll. The food we had there was delicious and a nice change from what we usually got at the hotel.
When we had finished, we could walk in groups of three or more back to the hotel. In the hotel we had time until 10 pm where we had our usual evening meeting There we talked about the day, how it went and how we think about it.
After the meeting we went to bed after a long, eventful day. All in all, it was a nice, relaxed and interesting day.
Seventh day - The South Coast tour
The 28th was the day of the long-awaited South Coast tour. After eating breakfast, we quickly went to school. The students were already waiting for us and we started right away finishing on our presentations about Citys. We had no problems communicating and asked each other questions about both countrys. After that and a little lunch we got on the bus and drove to our first sight: the glaciers. When we arrived, we noticed that it was incredibly windy. The wind was so strong that you had to “fight against it” to keep going. Because of that the visit to the glaciers was made even more special than it already was, since experiencing such strong wind is incredible and mind blowing. The glacier itself was beautiful and also a bit menacing due to its size.
After that we made our way to the “Kirkjufjara Beach”, a beach with black sand and waves that reach extremely far up, to the point where it can become really dangerous. It is also known as the “chinese takeaway”, since a lot of chinese people were victims of the waves recently. We of course didn’t go very close to the waves, as that would be too dangerous. Unbelievably, the wind at the beach was even stronger than it was at the glacier. We were able to travel a decent distance by simply jumping up in the air, due to the wind carrying us. Those winds really were a once in a lifetime experience.
At the end of the tour we visited multiple waterfalls, which were all different in many ways. At one of them we were able to walk behind the waterfall and see many icicles. Everyone loved the icicles and of course the waterfall was breathtaking. After that we drove to two waterfalls. At the first one we walked up a path to get to the top of the waterfall and see the incredible view. Then later we hiked back down and walked to the second waterfall, which was in a cave. We went into the cave, which and were pretty much right by the waterfall, it truly was magical.
Eighth day -
At the beginning of the day we had breakfast and went to school. We had finished our presentations, so we presented them to the others. The students from Iceland where very interested to learn about cologne and asked many questions. During the presenting we noticed once again how good there English really is. In the lunchbreak we ate together and talked a lot. Our next stop was a museum where we learned about the different cities and their locations on maps. That was very Interesting! Afterwards we visited a second museum about fishermen´s history in Iceland. When we arrived the wind almost blew our legs away.
The 4th and Last stop on our trip was to a Place Called Flying over Iceland AND IT WAS BY FAR THE COOLEST ADVENTURE we had throughout the day!!! There we saw amazing Short Movies some in 4D
From there we sat down buckled up and then we were moved by some amazing mechanism into the lower floor There was a lot of room and special effects while we were Flying throughout a Movie. I don´t know how to specifically pronounce it but it was AMAZING something you should definitely experience for yourself.
Nineth day - our last day
After the amazing week in which we visited the Icelandic schools, saw the northern lights and experienced the wonders of Iceland, from geysers to warm rivers in the mountains to a black beach, we unfortunately had to leave. At 4 a.m. our bus took us to the airport; we were all so tired. At 7:45 a.m. we left Iceland and flew back to Germany.
The time on the plane went by quite fast even though we flew a total of 3 hours and 20 minutes.
We arrived in Germany and took the train at 3 p.m. to cologne.
The whole trip was really exhausting for us, so we were so happy after we finally arrived in Cologne, our parents were already expecting us at the train station.
At the end of the day our teachers received a small gift from our parents because they made this incredible and beautiful trip possible!
First Day - Arrival
Our trip started at the train station in Cologne. Everybody was extremely happy to have the chance to be on this amazing adventurous trip. We started at 9:45 am and arrived at 12 am at the airport in Frankfurt. After that we grabbed some food for breakfast/lunch. Then we went straight to the security check and finally to our terminal. Fortunately, our flight was without any complications, and we arrived safely at 2:20 pm in Iceland. A personal bus driver waited for us in front of the airport to drive us to our hotel Cabin. We checked in at our hotel, brought the baggage into our tiny hotel rooms and went for a long walk by the ocean. The ocean was just a three minutes’ walk away from our accommodation. Finally, we went to our hotel, had dinner, and spent some time with each other. In the evening – and very spontaneously – our teachers decided to go on a trip to see the northern lights, but unfortunately, we didn’t see them. We went home and went straight to bed at 2 am, after this exciting first day.
Second Day – School and City Rallye
Today was our first day in Iceland. We got up around 8 o’clock and went down for breakfast. The plan for today in the morning was to go to the first school (https://laugalaekjarskoli.is/), which we wanted to visit during our trip, which is just a few minutes' walk away from our hotel. This school is for students from 7th to 10th grade. Altogether there are about 350 students in this school. When we reached the school, we were a little bit shocked because no one was wearing shoes. All students walked around on socks. Plus, almost every student was wearing joggers. This would be unimaginable in our school. At first, we visited a cooking lesson in 7th grade. They were backing cookies. A girl told us that they are divided into two groups (cooking and sewing). Usually there are about 22 students in one class. For lunch, they eat together in the cafeteria, so we ate with them. After lunch a few boys invited us to play basketball with them, so Tim and Gil joined them. After we had to stop the city rallye because Mrs Schweizer got bad news. She had to leave us immediately. We went back to our hotel and had dinner at 6:30 pm. After dinner we decided to go to an ice cream parlour. Most of us bought an ice cream (in Iceland 😉 ) and we brought one for Mrs Schweizer as a farewell gift. After we said goodbye to her, she was picked up at 8:30 pm to drive to the airport. The rest of the evening we spent playing board games. We played UNO together and Werwolf. At midnight we went to sleep.
Third Day - Icelandic school and Volleyball game
Our third day in Iceland. In the morning we had breakfast in the hotel and after that we went to the school (https://langholtsskoli.is/). This school is the school of our exchange students. We had a sports lesson together and the game of the lesson was baseball. In mixed teams, we played against each other in four groups. At the end, we all had a lot of fun, and everybody laughed and wanted to win this game. The next lesson was a sewing lesson of 7th graders. One of their intentions is: ”Don’t waste anything, make use of everything“. It means that they use old things like an old sport t-shirt and make something new out of it. The last lesson of the day was English. We had to build a tower of spaghetti, a marshmallow, some tape and a rope. After 45min, only a few towers held up, most of them broke down. In the afternoon, we finished the city rallye. We went to the Hallgrímskirkja (racket church) and took photos in front of it with the rainbow street. Until 6 pm we had free time and visited the city. After dinner in the hotel, we went to a volleyball game (the semi final of the icelandic championship). It was interesting to see this game and after four matches, one team won.
Fourth Day – Reykjadalur
Today we visited Rekjadulur. A private coach drove us there. The drive was very foggy, but when we arrived the sky was clear. When we started a walk through the valley, we could see a lot of mud bubblings and steaming holes. That was very exciting. WE could also see lots of snow. After walking - a good , long distance - we could see a beautiful waterfall. We decides to make a break and took a short video of a spontaneously dance choreography. After some while, we reached the hot spring river. The water was very pleasantly warm but unfortunately it has started to rain. So, we had to protect our stuff from the rain and stayed for a while in the warm water. After an hour, we walked the way back to our bus. Our private coach took us to the Geothermal power plant station. A guide explained to us how the hot water from the ground is taken out and used for drinking. After this trip, we were so tired and rested in the hotel. We had dinner, played games and listened to music.
Fifth Day – Perlan Museum, Fly Over und Netflix Film
On day 5 we went to the Perlan Museum (https://www.perlan.is/en-gb). There we could learn about everything that you can see in Iceland. Inside the museum also was a planetarium too. There we learned about the Arouras and the different myths the Icelanders tell each other. There was also an ice cave where we could go through – it was soo cold! After that some of us went to book a northern lights tour. Later we also visited a place called fly over (https://www.flyovericeland.com/). Fly over was a 4D show where you could see all the sights of Iceland. It felt very realistic and was a cool experience. On that day there was also a movie shooting. They filmed next to the Harper with Gal Gadal and Matthias Schweighöfer. Everyone wanted to see the movie set up, but before that we all went into a supermarket called Kronan, where we could buy souvenirs. On that day we had a lot of free time and later we could decide if we want to go swimming or stay at the hotel.
Sixth Day – Golden Circle Tour
Day 6 was the first of 3 guided tours with guide Astrid. Tightly timed with the bus: the Golden Circle Tour.
We left at 9 am. After a one-hour drive, we reached the volcanic crater Kerið. Here we had a short photo stop around the crater and continued to the
Secret Lagoon (https://secretlagoon.is/), a kind of lido. There we went swimming at an outside temperature of 5 degrees and a water temperature of 38° degrees Celsius. When we came out of the water we really had to hurry to get dressed, otherwise we would have frozen to death. After the natural bath with the smell of sulphur we went on to a tomato farm (https://www.fridheimar.is/).
At the tomato farm we had lunch: tomato soup and fresh bread - all you can eat.
The next highlights were the waterfall Gullfoss (where it was windy and cold) and the geyser Strokkur, which erupts about 30 metres every 10 minutes. It is located right next to a dormant geyser that last erupted 3 years ago with a 60-metre-high fountain.
Then we went off to Thingvellir, which is a national park where the Almanngja gorge is located. In this gorge you can walk on the border between the Eurasian and North American continental plates.
Then finally at 6:45 pm we were back at the hotel. After 10 hours of touring, we had a quick meal and fell into bed totally exhausted from all the impressions.
Seventh Day – Lava field and Northern lights
The seventh day started normal, my roommates and I stood up at around about 7 am. We went downstairs to have breakfast and said good morning to everyone. On this day I was quite happy because it we had got some snow during the night, but not as much as in wintertime in Iceland.
At 9 am the bus driver picked us up, but he was not so happy but Astrid, our travel guide, was always happy and friendly.
We drove for about an hour to a lava field. Our tour guide told us that the last time when the Vulcan erupted the lava went up to the main road, so the people had to build dams because the main road is an important connection to almost everything. The lava had also gone to some houses, but no one had got hurt because the earthquake warned them beforehand. Before all this we made a comfort break, the toilets there were okay. We also saw the blue lagoon, it is made of water from a powerhouse and the pool is made out of lava rock.
When we arrived at the lava field, I was very nervous and excited, I had never seen something like that before. Astrid told us that we had to be careful because the stones there were really spiky but a lot took stones with them, some guys even took too many. In this area living is not possible, you only can catch fishes, there is no other animal as Astrid said. It was interesting but also shocking.After two hours at 12.30 o’clock we drove with the angry bus driver to the green water in Hafnarfjordur. It wasn’t the green that we see all time in our seas or lakes, it was clean and nice to look at it. The green water made bubbles and stank so much!
After this nice and adventurous day we went to a real restaurant. It was one of my personal highlights because most of the time the meals at the hotel were with fish or you couldn’t see what it was but the baguettes were really good.
At 21.30 pm we drove with the new talkative driver to a spot where we tried to watch the Northern Lights…And we saw them!! We all were so happy and the night before we all said it as a wish and we got it. All of us were screaming and jumping. It was a big feeling that I don’t know to describe it but you felt ,,tiny“(quote from Chrissi).
We drove back at midnight and the talkative bus driver didn’t stop talking. Sadly we also said bye to Mrs.Overhage that night, she traveled back to Germany.
That was day seven!!!!
Eighth Day – School, mall and Northern lights
Today was not a stressful day. We had breakfast at 8 o’clock and after that we went to the school where our pen friends go to. When we arrived at the school we visited their English lesson and played City, Country, River with them. In this week they had their theme week. In the break they listened to loud music and played limbo and jump rope.
After we had said goodbye to our new friends, we walked to the primary school. We divided our groups into five smaller groups and went into the classes of the kids to present them the Carnival of Cologne. After we had showed them a short video and answered their questions, we gave them some examples of how to create their own carnival masks and then they handcrafted them on their own with cardboard, plates and stencils we had brought. At the end of the lesson we gave them some sweets and said goodbye.
After school we went back to our hotel for lunch. Later we walked to the best cinnamon rolls baker. At 4 pm we reached the mall and went on a little shopping tour in small groups. There were many shops which are also in Germany.
In the evening at six pm we went with shopping bags in our hands to a very good restaurant called Mathöll, which is very popular in Reykjavik. After two hours and a delicious dinner we went back to our hotel. After we had arrived in our hotel we chilled together and talked about the experiences and feelings we gathered during the day and wrote it down.At the end of the day, at eleven pm we had the chance to see the amazing Northern Lights one more time on the rooftop terrace of our hotel.
Ninth Day – South coast
The 9th day was again very eventful, and we saw a lot. Breakfast was the usual, it also started quite quickly with the bus to make a waterfall tour. First, we went to a very large waterfall, which was very nice to look at with rainbow and icy ground. The edge was a bit dangerous, because there were always a few ice balls flying down, but luckily nothing happened. There was still a climb to the top, but we couldn't enjoy it for so long because we had to go again. On the way to the other waterfalls and of course to the one here we have seen very beautiful landscapes that you should have seen. Before we came to the Last Waterfalls, we first stopped at a small village by the sea and bought something or went to the beach to look a bit and take photos. Then we went on again and we landed again at a beach this time with a very interesting, shaped rock. The next stop was again a bit on a beautiful coast the more observant plus beach and takes some photos. After that came the Last Waterfalls, the first one we saw was not so spectacular, he had a rainbow again but nothing special. But the exciting thing was the other waterfall called something with kobold or something and was in a cave or crevice, where you first had to balance in order to be able to look at the waterfall and get wet. That was actually it from the day and we had dinner as usual. Overall, it was a beautiful day that was worth it with numerous photos and memories
Tenth Day – our last day
Today was our last day in Reykjavík. We were all woken up early in the morning at 03:30am with a loud call from the front desk. We got ready, carried down our suitcases and were ready to enjoy our last breakfast at the hotel in peace (even though the food wasn't the best).
Then our bus arrived. On the bus ride to the airport Keflavík we were very fortunate to see the Northern Lights for the last time. At the airport we all checked in and were ready to fly. In the airport terminal we had to stop briefly, because of a standing left suitcase, which Mrs. Aurora also took care of. After having arrived at the boarding area we we didn’t have to wait for long until finally the flight started. We flew about 3 hrs, 30 min. The flight went by quickly. After having arrived at Frankfurt airport we all picked up our suitcases at the luggage conveyor belt and made our way to the ICE, which then took us to our last stop together Cologne Messe/Deutz.
Outside the station our parents were already waiting for us. We all said goodbye to each other after 10 days of living together and made our way home.
Conclusion:
The trip was a great opportunity for all of us, for which we are all very grateful.
We saw a lot and learned a lot.
Every day was a great highlight for us.
Every day we all spent laughing.
We also learned a lot from each other.
The Iceland trip was a very nice experience that we will never forget.
Die Aufregung steigt! Ende März fliegen wir (14 SchülerInnen aus der Stufe 10) nach Island. Gesponsert wird die Reise zu fast 100% von Erasmus+. Weitere finanzielle Unterstützung bekommen wir vom Förderverein der Otto-Hahn-Schulen. Vielen Dank dafür!!