Austine Students travel to Europe

03-10-2010

 

Click on the "IMAGE" TAB on the top of this page to view photos of the trip

Click on the FAQ tab to see updates and more photos!

On March 10, Thirteen students and staff from the Austine School for the Deaf will embark on a 9 day interpreted journey to Europe: London & Paris.

Our students (Lexi, Jake, Bryer, David, Greta and Tressah) have been planning and studying for this trip for two and a half years. Others undertaking this adventure are Trip Leaders Pete Rausch and Michele Miller-Rausch, Interpreters Virginia Clark and Joan Pellerin, Family members Sarah Husted, Kilee and Jane McDougall.

We will fly overnight to England and meet our Tour Director Eric Thompson from EFTours in Cambridge, Massachusetts, who will lead us throughout our trip.

Arriving in London, during our second day, we will begin our walking tour of London and visit the following places:

The Strand, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strand,_London
Trafalgar Square http://www.touruk.co.uk/london_squares/trafalgar_square1.htm
Leicester Square http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leicester_Square#History
Covent Garden http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Covent_Garden

The third day, we will have a guided tour of:
Big Ben http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Ben
Houses of Parliament http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palace_of_Westminster 
Piccadilly Circus http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piccadilly_Circus
St. Paul's Cathedral http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Paul's_Cathedral
Windsor Castle http://www.royal-windsor.com/windsorcastle.htm

The fourth day we will visit:
Oxford and Stratford. Location of Williams Shakespeare's birthplace and of the famous British College. 
Brasenose College: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brasenose_College,_Oxford
Gardens at Anne Hathaway's cottage: http://www.shakespeare.org.uk/content/view/365/365/
Shakespeare's birthplace: http://www.shakespeare.org.uk/content/view/47/47/

Day five, we will travel to Kent and take in a guided tour of Canterbury Cathedral and visit the Dover Castle.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canterbury_Cathedral
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dover_Castle 
 
On day six, we will leave England, cross the English Channel by ferry from Dover to Calais, and continue on to Paris. We will have a walking tour of Paris in the evening. 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_Channel
http://www.theotherside.co.uk/tm-heritage/towns/calais.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paris

Day seven, we will visit the Arc de Triomphe, Eiffel Tower and the Palace at Versailles.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arc_de_Triomphe
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eiffel_Tower
http://chateauversailles.fr/homepage

Day 8, for our last day in Paris we will visit the world famous Louvre and do a walking tour of Paris's Latin Quarter and visit the Notre Dame Cathedral.
http://www.louvre.fr/llv/commun/home.jsp?bmLocale=en
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latin_Quarter,_Paris
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Notre_Dame_de_Paris

 

 

 

 

Question: Journal - Day 7 - Tuesday
Answer:

Journal Day Seven (Tuesday)

We picked up our next tour guide, Alan, who will lead us for today's events.

We drove through the city of Paris and saw many neat sites. We saw the building where Napoleon was buried, Les Invalides. Here Napoleon is entombed on 7 coffins one bigger than the next.  The surrounding buildings were used as a hospital. They were built on orders by the 'Sun King', Louis XIV.

We drove through and passed the memorial to Princess Diana, who was killed underneath that spot. The memorial is a gold colored flame sculpture with the background showing the Eiffel Tower.

Arc de Triomphe was a brief look-see. We were on the bus and we did not have time to stop there. Arc is a memorial of Napoleon's  victories in the war.

Versailles Palace is absolutely gluttonous! Opulent! A real waste of tax payer money and a reason contributing to the French revolution. Jake said he would like to own this place. He was told he could not afford the electricity bill! It is really large and Austine campus would easily fit in it twice... Probably even bigger. We walked the grounds and the ornately manicured gardens. It was a sunny day and very nice!

Returning to Paris, we were dropped off at Notre Dame cathedral. Very clean and very gothic. Gargoyles and saints statuettes dot the facade of Notre Dame!. Eric, our guide told us wonderful stories of the stonework!

We then trekked to a pub for a boeuf ( beef) stroganoff dinner in what appeared to be a basement made from the catacombs that run thru the city of Paris.

We were lucky to get tickets tonight to the Seine River Cruise and gaze at the illuminated landmarks of Paris as we cruised by. The cruise lasted almost 90 minutes and although the night was clear, it was chilly above the water.  Night time cruising? Brilliant idea.

We then disembarked the boat and made for the hotel a bit earlier than usual.

 

---

Question: Journal: Day Six - Monday
Answer:

We checked in at the Port of Dover this morning to board the ferry. We are heading across the English Channel The ride was very smooth. Nobody got seasick (Whew!) The kids were exploring the boat and having a grand time.  We viewed the white cliffs of Dover and noticed the rugged scenery of both French and English coastlines.

Bon Voyage England!

Once we set sail, we will arrive in Calais to meet our French bus driver and haul down to Paris. Expected arrival is 5 pm so this is an all day journey and not much site seeing will happen until tonight.

Bonjour France!  (We arrived!). We were delayed getting to the hotel first because of road traffic in Paris and the bus driver (or his GPS) didn't know where to go.
We quickly tossed bags into our rooms-regrouped and took a few subway transfers through a heavily graffitied subway.  Seems the underground artiste's insisted on painting everything. We got off the subway and entered La Flamm a sort of thin bread pizza parlor.  It didn't appear filling but we did indeed get full!

It was 8:00 pm and we would take the subway 14 stops to Sacre Coeer, the white cathedral.  Very nice, very high. -about 250 steps high. (no joke). We briefly shopped at a small street area market under the eyes of the cathedral. Jake ran up the steps like Rocky!
 White Church   France Subway

It's 10:00 p.m.and we need to get back down 250 steps to rejoin the group. We retraced our steps on the subway and returned to our present home-base at the Arceuil Kachan stop. Back in the hotel Kriad Cachan at 11:30 p.m.  Whew, that was fun!

 

---

Question: Journal: Day Five, Sunday
Answer:

We were already packed and ready to load our luggage to move on to our next trip for the day. This is our last night in England. We drove for two hours to Kent and the city of Canterbury for a tour of the famous Canterbury Cathedral.
 Canterbury Cathedral

First we had an hour and a half  to walk from the town square and explored the streets for some shopping and lunch on our own before we were to meet again at 12:20.

We were so lucky to be able to get in to see the cathedral today because it was a Sunday and church services were in session so no touring allowed. It was awesome. We of course did not get in until services were fully concluded. It must be said that Canterbury cathedral is anciently awesome!!  The stonework, artwork, stained glass windows and the high vaulted ceilings inspired oohs and ahhs from everyone. This place is also a bit creepy with the many tombs and catacombs. There was a brief prayer by someone over the speakers that was very clear.

Then we spent a half hour or so on the road to see and visit Dover Castle. The castle was built by Henry II in the 1180s. We went through The Secret Wartime Tunnels inside the cliffs below the castle.   This was  an enlightening experience to be underground in a mock-like war stage with noises from bombs and machine guns, losing lighting when the bombs hit.

We marched to the top of the medieval  castle and climbed the turrets of Henry's Tower where there were defenses that were constructed during three periods between 1179 and 1256. There were cannons on the battlements from the 18th and 19th-centuries. It was a very enjoyable, yet ardous experience. Inside the castle were decorations and furniture of the period. We only had half an hour before we were shooed out at 4 pm.  The Dover castle staff were already putting the king's bedsheets down.

Tonight we are spending ONE night at a Holiday Inn Express so no unpacking for us because we have to leave really early to meet the Ferry in the morning.

 

---

Question: Jouranal: Day Four - Saturday
Answer:

We got up early, ate a continental breakfast and then left on a long journey on a luxury bus to Oxford. At Oxford we disembarked and walked among the colleges and the student shopping district. The architecture was very old and inspirational, yet gothic.

We were denied access to Brasnose College for reasons unknown so we didn't see that area.

We drove by the Blenheim Palace owned by the Duke of Marlborough.

We stopped off at the birthplace of Williams Shakespeare in Stratford- Upon-Avon. While there we went to a Shakespeare Museum and then walked over to his cottage where he was born. We were given a short tour and learned some intesting things.
 Greta meets Shakespeare

We had lunch at Stratford-Upon-Avon on Henley Street. Some of us ate at a quaint coffee house called, Mistress Quickly Traditional English Eatery.

Next we drove on to Anne Hathaway's birthplace which was about a fifteen minute drive and toured the cottage, the garden and stopped in at the gift shop.  

Ater that, we boarded the bus again and headed back to London, which was a two hour bus ride. We got to see where the Royal Shakespeare Theatre was located.

At the conclusion of all things Shakespearean, we took the return journey to Baker Street in London, home of the famous literary detective, Sherlock Holmes. We took a picture of Holmes statue and then walked 5  blocks to "the Spice Cellar" - an Indian food restaurant, where we had spicy curried chicken, lamb, vegetables and ice cream cones.

At this time the group split up... Five returned to the hotel because they were tired and the other eight took what was to be an adventurous trek to and more so, from Piccadilly circus. The circus is not a circus... 
Not really but the madhouse jam packed symphony of cars, Saturday night revelers ( oops) and visitors along with the garish light looked as if it was times square on New Years eve. Just nuts!!

We spent an hour souvenir shopping and checking out the lobby of "Ripleys Believe It or Not" where Greta and Bryer were assaulted by an 8 foot balloon, " Windsor Palace Guard ".

Group leader, Pete Rausch signaled it was nine o'clock and time to take the journey to the hotel. We spent  nearly 45 minutes underground trekking and riding the "Underground" subway system. We had to make five train exchanges and frequent escalator rides.  Some of the trains are over 300 feet underground. A fun and educational experience.

We got back to the hotel at 10:15.

 

---

Question: Journal - Day Three
Answer:

Our tour guide, Keith, is a very accomplished expert on London. Keith led us on a panoramic tour of London. We visited the world famous ST Paul cathedral. This is the tallest building in England for over 240 years and survived the German bombing blitz of London.

We took in the sights of Windsor Palace.

Jake is shopping at the Covent Garden in the Jubilee Market Hall.

Dinner at a restaurant where we were served Bangers and Mash - actually sausage and mashed potatoes.

 Group with Buckingham Palace guard

 

---