Transition Year Cultural Trip to Berlin 2016

On 28 March, 37 Form 4 pupils and 4 teachers met bright and early at Dublin Airport’s Terminal 2. We arrived at Berlin and got a guided bus tour of the famous city, seeing sights such as the Brandenburg Gate, the palace at Charlottenburg and the Reichstag. We then visited the Berlin Wall and the ‘Topography of Terrors’ Museum.
On the second day we visited ‘The Story of Berlin’ museum and we were lucky enough to see a nuclear fallout shelter. We also went to the ‘Stasi Museum’ learning all about the secret police based in Germany during the 1940s. At the Science Centre, we participated in lots of different science based activities and experiments.  We dined at Route 66, an Americanised diner in central Berlin.

The following day, we visited Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp, a labour camp in use during the time of Nazism. Afterwards, we made our way to the ‘Tropical Island Water park’, a huge indoor water park containing a large selection of swimming pools, water slides and other fun activities like hot air ballooning and mini golf.
On the last day of our trip, we went to the Olympic Stadium in Berlin where Hertha Berlin and the German national team play. Also, the Olympics were held there in 1936, when Adolf Hitler famously refused to shake hands with American athlete Jesse Owens. Afterwards we were brought to Alexanderplatz where we were given the afternoon to spend shopping. We made our way back to the airport for our late night flight home.  It was a wonderful school trip.
Miriam Kelly (4B) and Melina O’Meara (4B)