By Anderson Prater On June 11th 2018 A group of Hinckley-Finlayson students departed on the trip of a lifetime. They headed from Minneapolis- Saint Paul International Airport to Frankfurt Germany. They were traveling with students and chaperones from four other schools (East Central, Pine City, Braham, and Mora) who all take a trip to Germany together every two years. They spent 17 days together exploring Europe. The group arrived at Frankfurt international airport after a twelve hours of being but the traveling wasn’t done yet. As soon as they left the airport, the group boarded a charter bus that drove them to the small town of Bacharach which sits on the Rhine river. Here the students walked around and got their first meal in Germany. On that first night they stayed in an old castle overlooking the river that had been turned into a youth hostel. The next day they were on the road again, they took the charter bus to the tour the ruins of an old castle in Heidelberg. For the next two days the group hit some tourist locations and took in the German countryside on their way to Ludwigsburg, the first big city on their list. When the group got to Ludwigsburg they began the home stay portion of the tour. During the home stay each student lived with the family of a student in Ludwigsburg. The Americans got to learn about German culture, experience school and live in their host family’s household for a few days. While in Ludwigsburg the students did many things on their own and with their host families like visiting amusement parks, going on more high ropes courses or watching Germany v Mexico in the world cup. Finally the home stay came to an end so the group said goodbye to their host families and made the seven hour journey from Ludwigsburg to Interlaken, Switzerland. In Interlaken, they hiked in the Swiss Alps, ate genuine Swiss chocolate and handmade Swiss cheese and swam in a lake full of ice cold water that was fed straight from the mountains. From there they traveled to Austria but on the way they made a stop in Lichtenstein so they could check another country off their list. In Austria they took a river cruise and did a high ropes course. The group stayed in Salzburg, Austria for a few days where they toured a salt mine and watched a concerto. To round out the trip, the group went to Munich, Germany for a few days. While in Munich they took a bike tour that followed the important locations and headquarters of the Nazi party. And finally the large group went to the medieval town of Rothenburg ob der Tauber where they were given a city tour by a “night watchman” and explored a city that still had the original buildings from before the 1300’s. The next morning, they loaded the bus and headed off to Frankfurt to board their flight home. This trip was described by students as “the trip of a lifetime that I will never forget” “a life changing experience” and “a great opportunity to experience a new culture.”
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