Christmas Market Trip 2025
This four day trip remains a firm favourite with our students! We did it all, travelling through four countries, visiting the Christmas markets in Köln and Düsseldorf, gasping at the awesome Kölner Dom, finding out about how chocolate is made in the Lindt Schokoladenmuseum, swimming in the Dusselstrand Freibad, braving the rollercoasters at Phantasialand, and finally getting a lasting view from the Fernsehturm. We managed a bit of shopping and managed a visit to our partner school in Erkrath. Our students were able to meet the partners they had been writing to during the year, in person.
Parents and students in our partner school, das Gymnasium an Neandertal (Gymneander) organised a Christmas party with German seasonal food. We shared English traditions (mince pies, crackers and a Lucky Dip) and were entertained by a Year 9 class with a song in German and in English. Our students also attended two lessons to get a taste of what it is like to learn in a German School.
St Nikolaus, who normally comes on the night of 5th-6th December, came on time to put some chocolate in the shoes we left outside the door of our hotel rooms.
The German department are very proud of our 45 students from Year 8 and 9 who took it all in their stride. They were fantastic ambassadors for Presdales and our country. I even heard them talking German to each other. Well done to them all!
We hope the photos, poems and the comments from students give you a flavour of this exciting trip.
This is the best trip EVER!
I loved how many different activities that we did my favourite activity was probably the waterpark. even the coach was fun because of all the fun things that we did on it.
I really liked everything about the trip, but my favourite parts were probably the Christmas markets, because the lights were so cool and the food was very tasty, Phantasialand was my favourite because the rides were very exciting and thrilling, and the swimming pool. I liked the theme park the most because we got to explore it ourselves and have some independence.
My two favourite parts about the trip were visiting the Christmas markets, especially on the first night when it was dark, but everything was lit up by the lights. And also going to Phantasialand, which was a really fun way to spend the afternoon.
I liked the majority of the trip especially the TV tower on the last day. I liked having a hot chocolate with my friends.
I really liked the Lindt chocolate museum and the Christmas markets.
I loved everything we did! I loved meeting our German pen pals.
I got to see what Germany is like in real life and it increased my interest in learning German.
I think experiencing Germany makes you understand the culture more and makes you more passionate about learning the language.
It got me into a habit of speaking and forming sentences in German.
I think I learnt more about German culture, which could be helpful, but I also learnt to say things there that I might have only learnt a year later for this trip, for example I learnt that doughnuts is Krapfen in German.
The trip will help me with German and future learning because after going on the trip, we learnt a lot more about the culture so we can understand about it in lessons, also we learnt a lot of new words that can help us as we progress through the lessons.
We got to hear German people speaking and I picked up on words and how they said it.
I would definitely recommend this trip to other students. There is so many activities to be involved in, a lot to learn and information to take in, and we all had so much fun so I’d definitely recommend.
I would definitely recommend this trip because I made new friends on the trip, tried new foods and overall had a great time.
