Our Wonderful trip to the Gorge and Schloss Neuschwanstein

After a tasty breakfast in the youth hostel Mittenwald we started our trip to the Leutasch Gorge. 

We were all surprised by the lovely landscape and the river with all the nature. 

Although our hike was not as easy as we thought at the beginning (high pathes and long bridges over a deep gorge) and we were completety wet because of the very hard rain, we were all in a good mood. 

But we kept on going.

After a meal in Füssen we drove to the famous castle Schloss Neuschwanstein.

While some pupils were visiting a lake nearby the others were taking a closer look at the castle. Very tired we drove home to Schwabach.

Trip to Mittenwald

The beginning of our trip took place at the Wolfram-von-Eschenbach-Gymnasium at 8:10 am. Although nearly everyone was tired, none of us could wait any longer to get to our destination. After around 4 hours of driving by bus we finally managed to do a break at the Walchensee where we had freetime for an hour, which was used to explore the lake, see mountains for the first time in their life and just relax.

 

   

At approximately 1:30 pm our journey to the second highest cable railroad continued. At 2 pm we arrived, bought tickets to get to the mountain and then actually did it (no way).

 

   

After we were back from the moutain at 6 pm we went to the youth hostel in Mittenwald, which was quite nearby. After our arrival we got the keys to our rooms and had about half an hour to settle down. Afterwards we had dinner and some pupils played games like „werewolf“ and the others were either outside doing sports or in their rooms.

Suddenly a pupil was missing. We were searching for her everywhere but we couldn´t find her. It turned out that she was walking with some others through the fields. After the shock we went to our rooms and prepared to sleep. We will never forget the beautiful landscape and the wonderful night with the full moon.

Trip to Nuremberg

 Our first day started at 1 p.m. in school. There we played games and got to know each other.

While playing games, we made new friends. After that, we travelled to Nürnberg by train.

Back home in Germany

On the ferry

After a long trip home (but not as long as the trip to Lithuania - we were lucky and had sunshine this time) we look back on our stay in Gargzdai with a lot of great memories. Thanks a lot to you, our wonderful hosts and new friends! We look forward to hosting you next year in Germany!

Lesson about bridges and a trip to Klaipeda and... the Baltic sea!

On Tuesday we went to school at eight in the morning and had an ethics lesson. We had to build a bridge out of paper in teams who weren‘t allowed to communicate verbally with the other teams. Working in mixed groups was great!

Not every bridge stayed strong...

After that we folded paper boats and wrote some aspects of communication on them. The top three words were „kindness“, „Vertrauen“ and „sąžiningumas“.

Then we had the opportunity to visit a Lithuanian lesson with our exchange partner but most of us rather ate somthing because the food in the cafeteria is so delicious.
Around 10 am we left for Klaipeda. When we arrived after a 30-minute bus ride we visited Klaipeda castle also known as Memel castle. A nice woman greeted us and showed us around – sometimes trilingual. In an old brick room under a former tower we played some medieval games together (including the teachers), such as trying to throw rings on a stick.

Mirjam was the winner in this game

Teachers´ competition!

Everybody had a lot of fun and we laughed very much. Before we went on we had some free time, which most of us spent in the old town of Klaipeda. At 1:45 pm we headed towards the seaside and after arriving there we went for a walk along the beach, collected some stones and took some nice pictures. It was really windy but the view was beautiful and extraordinary.

 

After that we went to a visitor center and created some artsy mugs out of clay, which our parters will bring next year when they visit us in Germany. The whole day was a great experience and we had a lot of fun.

Trip to the Curonian Spit and Nida

On the 18th of September we went on a trip to Nida. Even though the weather was terrible – it was cold, the wind was very strong and it was raining a lot - we still had a great time and it didn’t affect our good mood.

The day started by welcoming the students from Germany to our school. We showed them traditional Lithuanian culture – music, instruments, dancing and we even gave them some delicious Lithuanian cheese.

Because of the rain the welcoming took place inside the school

Our flags were raised by one Lithuanian and one German student

Delicious Lithuanian cheese

Traditional dances

After the ceremony, we got onto a bus and went to Klaipeda, a big city with a port. From there we used a ferry to get to Nida. When we arrived at that tiny town surrounded by sea, we went to the Neringa History Museum. The time we spent in there was divided in two parts. First we were told about the history of Nida. The second part was a little more creative – we painted weathervanes. Everyone did a great job.

Painting weathervanes

The fishers´ museum

Later in the day we had some free time. The rain was very strong so we didn’t get a chance to see much of the city. Most of the students went to a restaurant, it was a great opportunity to get to know each other.

That´s how the dunes look like with sun

And that´s how they look like with rain - what a pity!

Mrs Knepper and Mrs von Stern enjoyed the landscape anyway

 
The last place that we went to was Nida’s Amber Museum. We learnt how amber is found, how to check if amber is real and we discovered the different types of amber. Later we tried to process amber ourselves. Every person got a little piece of rough amber. Then we polished and washed it. At last we put a string through the hole that was already drilled in the middle of the little stone. And that’s how we got ourselves a beautiful necklace.

After that we went back home. Even though everyone was tired and cold, we were still very happy that we had an opportunity to visit this small city with a huge history.