The Smart Ones, in England

   

By Carlos Silva, 10th C


It was in the morning of February the 5th that the school’s English Club, together with some colleagues, teachers and Cef’s staff, flied to London.
The first impression wasn’t the best: London seemed grey and dim. The weather was extremely cloudy, especially for us who had left a sunny Portugal behind. The man, who picked us at Heathrow airport and joined us in our bus, told us that pouring rain and even snow were expected for the week. We were very lucky though, as for five days, in the middle of winter, it didn’t rain in London.
That made it possible for us to appreciate London properly, the traffic, with all the red buses, and typical taxis, and people driving on the left, its monuments such as Westminster Abbey, the Houses of Parliament, Big Ben, the Tower of London, the Tower Bridge, and Trafalgar Square.
But we had two main goals for this trip: to learn and to go shopping. Thus, we focused on London’s cultural spots as well as on its shoppers’ paradises. We visited Madame Tussaud’s which is unforgettable, the Science Museum, the fantastic Natural History Museum, with its dinosaurs’ skeletons out of their own time, the British Museum, which would take quite more than five days to see in detail, the Modern Tate, and, last but not least, the breathtaking National Gallery, an art Museum, where we’ve seen many of the best masterpieces of the Renaissance, the Baroque, the Impressionism and the Neoclassical period.
In order to complete this trip, we left London towards Windsor, where the Royal family was at the moment, and we visited the Windsor Castle, all its finest handmade China, its armours, statues, its chapel, and the baroque golden luxurious rooms which resemble Versailles in the most surprising way.
Although London and Windsor are fantastic, it was at “Corus Hotel”, among our friends, that we had most fun. The hotel is in Lancaster Gate, with an astonishing view to Hyde Park, Kensington Gardens, and the Serpentine. London’s parks are some of the most pleasant places in the city, fresh, calm, relieving people from the stress of London’s intense traffic and busy streets.

This was a trip which surely won’t be forgotten by any of us and I’ll keep a memory of London, just as T.S. Elliot saw it:

Unreal city
Under the brown fog
Of a winter dawn.

   

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Our dream tour


Several opinions

I like everything I saw and everything I lived. However, Mme Tussaud was the best for me, because it was completely different from all the things I had ever seen. The British Museum is fascinating, because it shows several cultures all over the world. I would like to be back again in a near future. (Tó Neves – 9ºD)

It was great and funny! Since the adventure of the first night of departure until the last day of arrival I enjoyed every moment. The exciting was so much that we could hardly sleep. The relationship among us was fantastic so, we won’t forget all these moments. I’m sure I will be back as sooner as possible. (Rita Mendonça – 9ºE)

I was a little bit nervous, because it was my first trip by plane. Howeven there was something which made me quiet: the pilot was my friend Rita’s father. I will never erase those pictures in my mind, specially the mums in the British Museum and the animals on the Earth in the Natural History Museum. Our friends could accomplish their objectives, because our teacher Teresa Verdasca applied for our entrance in the stadium of Chelsea. (Rosa/A

 

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