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!