HAVE YOU EVER BEEN TO GERMANY?

Europe park

I went to Germany in 2015. I went by plane , with my family and friends. There we rent a car. 

Alianz arena 

We visited many places: Alianz arena, Wall of Berlin, Munich, Lindau, Europe park, Dourtmund...

When we went to Europe park I rode in a attracion and I'm very scared because it was very high.I ate a lot of delicious sausages.

THE DAY OF EUROPE: FORMER AUSTRO-HUNGARIAN EMPIRE COUNTRIES

http://www.freeworldmaps.net/europe/central/centraleurope.jpg

Sight seeing Braunschweig

After our first night in Germany, we woke up full of energy to walk around Braunschweig. The teachers showed us the most important places of the city such as the town hall or the theatre. 

That day it was a  car showdown, we were able to see some of the most spectacular and expensive cars in the world such as Ferraris, Porches and Lamborginis. 

After walking around some time and taking some pictures we went back to the school to say goodbye because on Saturday evening and Sunday, we had free time, so some of the families were going to Berlin, others staying at home or going to the mountains.

El viaje a Braunschweig y las familias de acogida

El viernes por la mañana quedamos en el patio del colegio todos los alumnos del intercambio para comenzar nuestro viaje hacia Bilbao, donde teníamos que coger un avión unas horas más tarde. Llegamos a Bilbao cerca de las once de la mañana y fuimos a facturar nuestro equipaje.

Tras facturar y recibir nuestros billetes estuvimos un rato en el bar del aeropuerto hasta que llegó la hora de pasar los controles y embarcar para tomar el avión de la compañía Germanwings rumbo Stuttgart. Allí nos esperaba un pequeño avión de no más de 150 plazas que tras 2 horas de vuelo, nos dejaría ya en suelo Alemán.

En la estación de Stuttgart tuvimos una hora más o menos para comer algo y prepararnos para coger de nuevo un avión hacia Hannover, donde nos encontraríamos con las familias. En esta ocasión el avión era de tamaño mayor pero el viaje era solamente de una hora. Una vez en Hannover, las familias estaban esperandonos en la estación de llegadas del aeropuerto, donde recibimos una acogedora bienvenida.

Después de los primeros abrazos y saludos con nuestros amigos alemanes y sus familias nos organizamos para viajar hasta Braunschweig que esta a una hora en coche desde Hannover más o menos. En el camino a Braunschweig pudimos comprobar de primera mano las autopistas sin límites de velocidad alemanas, alcanzando velocidades de hasta 190 kilómetros por hora.

A la llegada a la ciudad los alumnos españoles fuimos repartidos en las familias y cada uno fue a su casa aquí en alemania. Pudimos comprobar las diferencias de esta ciudad con Pamplona rápidamente, ya que tiene un tamaño bastante superior al de nuestra ciudad y esto implica que los desplazamientos requieren mucho más tiempo. A parte, algunas de las familias viven en el centro de la ciudad, a unos escasos 5 minutos de la escuela, mientras que otros viven en pueblos a las afueras necesitando hasta 20 minutos por autopista para llegar al colegio

Intercambio Kleinburg Gymnasium-Salesianos Pamplona

Guten Tag!
We are back in the blog with another interesting entry related with our school or English topics.
Now the topic, as it was the last one, is about interchanging and the knowledge of cultures around Europe.

Apart from the pen-pal with Birmingham in ESO level 1 ( 1°-2° ), Salesianos Pamplona has started an in-person interchange with a school in Braunschweig, Germany : Kleinburg Gymnasium (school in German).

Last March, 13 students from that school and two teachers came to Pamplona to meet those 13 students from our school who volunteered to enter in the new programme. They first sent each other a letter to introduce themselves and Juanjo Bonilla and Maite Pierola, from Salesianos, connected the German student with our student.

As I said, our students put up the German students in their houses/flats and the school organised some social activities and special lessons for them in the school. They first had a city tour around Pamplona and its fortress on Saturday and free time for Sunday, so they went with their host families to Donosti-San Sebastian, for instance, or famous places in Navarre like Javier, Olite or Isaba.

The week of the 16th March-20th March German students had special lessons at our school about subjects like Music, Sports, Philosophy, English and of course Spanish with our teachers Nerea, Soler, Mikel, Berta, Inma, or Maite.



Finally they visited the city hall, met the mayor Enrique Maya and went out in the balcony where our famous festival of Sanfermines start from, went shopping to Itaroa or La Morea, and visited the two universities in our city.

Ahora estamos en Braunschweig, devolviéndoles la visita y hemos llegado el viernes 17 al aeropuerto de Hannover, donde nos recogieron los padres de los alumnos del intercambio, igual que nosotros les recogimos en Bilbao, pero ésta va a ser otra historia que a partir de ahora os van a contar los alumnos del intercambio de nuestro colegio que han venido con nosotros.

La idea va a ser escribir en "English" la mayoría y algo en el idioma de Cervantes, porque como sabéis no tienen nuestras letras ni acentos, y va a ser difícil escribir muchas palabras, pero esperamos que nos sigáis igual que siempre.

Juan Ignacio Ullan
Juanjo Bonilla

25th Anniversary : The Fall of the Wall in Berlin

The fall of the Berlin Wall had begun with the building of the Wall in 1961.
 
However it took about three decades until the Wall was torn down.
Several times people in the Communist countries rised up against the Communist system but they failed.
The victims of  the uprisings against the Communist dictatorship in Berlin 1953, Budapest 1956 or Prague 1968 will never been forgotten.
In 1989 the first free labor union was founded in the communist Poland. The end of the communist system had begun.
The Soviet Union could control their satellites yet but with the new leader Gorbatshov their politics changed in 1984.
Gorbatshov's reforms, Perestroika and Glasnost should renew the stalinistic system in the Soviet Union but not replace the communist system.
The reforms in the Soviet Union also had its effects on the other communist countries, especially in Poland and Hungary.
On August 23, 1989 Hungary opened the iron curtain to Austria.

Months before East German tourists used their chance to escape to Austria from Hungary  and in September 1989 more than 13 000 East German escaped via Hungary within three days. It was the first mass exodus of East Germans after the erection of the Berlin Wall in 1961.
Mass demonstrations against the government and the system in East Germany begun at the end of September and took until November 1989.
Erich Honecker, East Germany's head of state, had to resign on October 18, 1989.
The new governement prepared a new law to lift the travel restrictions for East German citizen.
At 06.53 pm on November 9, 1989 a member of the new East German government was asked at a press conference when the new East German travel law comes into force.
He answered: "Well, as far as I can see, ... straightaway, immediately."

Thousands of East Berliners  went to the border crossings. At Bornholmer Strasse the people demanded to open the border and at 10.30 pm the border was opened there.
 
That moment meant the end of the Berlin Wall.
Soon other border crossing points opened the gates to the West
In that night the deadly border was opened by East Germans peacefully.