Gymnasium 27 around the Palace and the Houses of Parliament was closed up anyway because the Queen had to hold a speech. So we were happy to get at least a look at the Palace and its Horse Guards. The ninth of May was the only day we didn't spend in London: We had planned to visit Oxford, Brighton or Cambridge today and our final choice was Cambridge. Just like Oxford, this is a university town with more than 30 universities of a good reputation. The most famous one is maybe the Trinity College, where Sir Isaac Newton had studied. Though this university is not entirely open to visitors, it is allowed to visit the Wren Library (named after the great architect Christopher Wren), which we actually did. After the visit, we got a map of Cambridge and were free to go shopping, watch the wooden boats on the river or just walk around and enjoy the atmosphere of this town. On Friday morning, we had to say goodbye to our host families. After our entire luggage was stored in the cargo bay of the tour bus, we went to the Tower of London. We entered the rooms, where the Crown Jewels were exposed, together, but most of our time in the Tower was spent individually: Everyone could decide for himself whether he wanted to visit all of the Towers attractions and in which order he visited them. We were also free to plan our last afternoon ourselves: Some of us were shopping, while the others were going to the Imperial War Museum or the London Dungeon (just to get to know it was not open to under-sixteen-year-olds). We could move around the whole city freely because we had all gotten a tube day card this morning. Concluding this journey, we took the next tube to Greenwich. Passing a ship named „Cutty Sark“, we walked up the hill to the Greenwich Observatory, where the prime meridian - which isn't called „Greenwich meridian“ without any reason - runs through. There were no stars shining at six o'clock in the evening, but in the slowly fading sunlight, we had a great view on London and its skyscrapers. A last time to look at the place, w h e r e w e ' d lived the past week. We began our journey back to Germany on a warm Friday evening. If you have read through all this now, you may have noticed we spent most of our trip driving or walking around. But finally, we've seen everything we had wanted to see and who cared to listen should know much more about the English history now. It was also a good experience for all of us to live in an English family for this week because there's hardly a better way to get to know the British lifestyle and improve one's English. After this impression, all of us should also be prepared for future visits now and though this trip may have been a bit exhausting, it was certainly a good way to set an end to the last five school years we had spent together. Daniela Schenkel, Eb
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