Head's Newsletter 6 March 2020

GERMAN SIXTH FORM TRIP TO VIENNA

The German Department decided to explore a new destination and this year’s Sixth form trip was to Vienna, the capital of Austria. Thirteen year 12 & 13 pupils headed to Gatwick early on the 10 th February and were happy that storm Ciara had somewhat subsided when their plane left for Vienna.

Day three saw us head-out to the Hundertwasser village – this colourful set of flats in Vienna not only features in our German textbook but is also much more quirky in real life. The other main attraction we visited was the Sigmund Freud house., where Dr Freud had his surgery and he developed psychoanalysis. We started

our final day in Vienna at the Schloss Schönnbrunn the main summer residence of the Habsburg rulers. An

From Vienna after check in at the hotel we headed out to see the Stephansdom and the Mozarthaus. The Mozarthaus gave us insights into the famous composer’s life and how his story mirrored many of the aspects of Vienna. We started Tuesday by exploring the Naschmarkt with all its food stalls – ( naschen means to secretively eat sweets in German) and we can confirm that the Naschmarkt is suitably named. Having finally weaned ourselves of the Naschmarkt we visited the Schloss Belvedere. Schloss Belvedere was built as a summer palace in baroque style during the 18 th century and in addition to its marvellous exterior, features an extensive art collection with works by Pacher, Klimt and Schiele amongst many others. We continued our busy Tuesday by seeing the Austrian parliament, currently under renovation, and a tour of the temporary parliament in the famous Hofburg. We were also lucky enough to be allowed a glimpse into the world famous Spanish Riding school and the the Jewish museum of Vienna.

imposing structure and featuring their original furniture of the Habsburgs, it was definitely impressive. Our final attr action was the Karlskirche. This magnificent and imposing baroque church is beautifully decorated and currently features an art exhibition that includes a lift all the way up the church. We took this vertigo inducing trip to a platform right at the top of the interior, the change of perspective was worth it and further increased our admiration of this beautiful building. After that we headed off to the airport and flew home to Gatwick. The trip was a great success and we were all impressed how clean, friendly and beautiful Vienna is.