On one of our first days in Germany, we started by travelling to Kloster Eberbach. We had a wonderful, guided tour through the monastery after a delicious non-alcoholic wine tasting from the barrels in the building, learning all about its history, e.g. how it was used in WW2 for refugees. This abbey was featured in the film ‘The Name of the Rose’, which I highly recommend watching, not just due to its significance on the trip, but because it is a fantastic film regardless.  My highlight of this day was seeing the little door to the library in the film in person.

We then travelled to Rüdesheim for a cable car trip up a beautiful mountain filled with vineyards, then saw the magnificent Niederwald monument, which Frau Maendler kindly told us all about. After admiring the monument and the view, we had a long walk through a wooded area (past a beautiful deer park) to a chairlift back down the mountain, which many of us had never been on. The chairlift was much slower than the cable car, which helped those scared of heights to still appreciate the view.

After that, we had a lovely boat ride for half an hour, some of us sitting at the front of the boat in the open to see the river and mountains properly. We also had time at the end of the day to explore Rüdesheim, get ice cream and go shopping in the town. 

On one of the other days, we went on a long hike up to the Loreleyfelsen - a statue of a mythical German siren. Frau Hellwig found a lot of information about the siren Loreley to tell us about, and at the top of the hill, there was a chair and comb for everyone to sit as Loreley herself did. The hike itself was beautiful, with many stops to take pictures of the landscape, and I think it was definitely worth the long walk. After eating lunch at the top of the hill, we all did a toboggan/sledding ride on little sleds down a long winding slide, which was so exciting that everyone went twice!

After the toboggan run, we walked through a local town on the hill, then back down the path to St. Goar. We had quite a lot of time to explore St. Goar, and visit more shops while walking along the river. We all had a task to go round asking German residents about their home (in German), which helped our speaking skills a lot. After that, we got to visit and shop in a big German supermarket, where I bought gifts for my friends and family. 

On another day, we had an amazing dance session at a fitness studio in Koblenz! Our instructor taught us the Viennese Waltz and our personal favourite, the 'Bus stop'. It was an hour of exciting and exhausting movement and laughter as we skipped steps and bumped into each other while mastering these two dances. Towards the end, we all danced the 'Bus stop' together; Mme Roujansky was particularly skilled at doing this dance, and we all had a memorable time.

After that, we arrived in the city centre where we were allowed to freely roam around in the Forum Mittelrhein Koblenz which was a massive shopping centre with 3 floors! The hour wasn't nearly enough to fully explore the whole mall, however we managed to visit many stores, such as the Bijou Brigitte jewellery store, and even bought some matching outfits. The time passed by quickly, and we were at the last activity of the day, which was one of our favourites: the Marksburg castle visit.

After a little trek up the mountain to the castle, we met with our tour guide, who was extremely sweet and took us through the various parts of the castle, from its defences that were decorated with canons and the weapon room that displayed the gruesome swords and staffs used in the castle. It was fascinating to see the rich history of the castle that was situated on top of the hill, from where you could see the beautiful view of the river Rhein below. After the tour, we visited the souvenir shop in the castle that sold authentic swords and keychains starring the Marksburg castle, and then we went back to the Jugendherberge in St Goar.  

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On the last day, the two groups met and left together for Mainz. Although we were sad about the imminent end of our wonderful trip, it was soon overcome by the reveal of the film that we were going to watch at the theatre in Mainz. So the first thing we did was watch “Alles steht Kopf 2” (Inside Out 2!!!) a day earlier than it was meant to be released in the UK. It was a tear-jerking and relatable film, which everyone thoroughly enjoyed! Before leaving for the Gutenberg Museum, we had a peaceful and sunny lunch by the river.

Upon arriving at the Gutenberg Museum, we were given a brief demonstration on how the printing press worked to print pages of the bible, which was very exciting to see. We were told that we were sitting in the same place that Queen Elizabeth ll had sat when she visited to see the printer. I even got to keep the page that was printed during the demonstration; it is still up on my fridge! In addition, we were able to see the original Gutenberg Bibles and were given an informative tour of the rest of the museum.

Finally, we got to put all the German skills we learnt throughout the trip to the test, as we were each given 10 euros to go to a café in Mainz and order Kaffee und Kuchen (coffee and cake). I went to the Blumen Café where I ordered a Pumpkin Spice Chai Latte and a croissant (not very German) and then took pictures with all my friends and their orders as well. The waiter was extremely patient and encouraging as we ordered in German and the meal was absolutely delicious! We spent some more time in the Mainz City centre before leaving to go back to our hostels.