Subject: The last couple of weeks in Switzerland :)
Hello!
In the last month, I’ve been lucky enough to travel and see so many places in Europe on the Rotary Switzerland Eurotour! I went to 11 different countries in 17 days, visiting places I would never imagined I would visit.
On the Eurotour we visited so many beautiful cities, including Zürich, Paris, Brussels, Amsterdam, Berlin, Dresden, Prague, Bratislava, Vienna, Budapest, Postojna and Venice. It was such an amazing experience and in each city, we were lucky enough to have a walking tour of the history and culture of the city. It was also really interesting to see the places that I’ve learnt about in school and to be able to really explore the city each day was amazing.
I found each city so beautiful and rich in culture, but my personal favourite cities were Berlin, Bratislava, Amsterdam and Vienna.
In Berlin, we were able to visit the Berlin Wall, and I found it so interesting to see all of the historical sites in the city on a walking tour. We were also able to visit the Holocaust Memorial- which was so interesting as the designer of the Memorial left it open to the visitors' interpretation. We were given time at the Memorial to reflect upon WW2 and open ourselves to our individual interpretations of the Memorial. We were also able to visit other important historical locations in Berlin. To me, I found Berlin so rich in History and I really appreciated being able to learn about the history of the city at the locations and in depth. The morning in Berlin was really emotionally heavy, but we spent the afternoon with free time in a really nice part of the city, which was rich in art and culture. We were able to explore this area and look at the street art, as well as grab some lunch and wander the streets.
(my friends and I in Berlin!)
We also were lucky enough on a travel day to stop in Bratislava and get lunch there in our free time, as long as looking at the castle and gardens. I really enjoyed Bratislava as it was so pretty, and in our free time for lunch we managed to find the ice creamery which was voted as selling Europe's
best ice-cream at "Koun". If I could choose one city to revisit- I would definitely choose Bratislava as I would love to be able to explore the city properly.
(my friends and I eating the ice cream from Koun)
I really enjoyed the time we had in Amsterdam. We spent the day on a bike tour and had a really funny guide who showed us so many quirky places around the city. We rode our bikes almost the whole day and stopped in the middle of the day to have a picnic in the Vondelpark, and were able to eat typical Dutch food. We were also lucky enough to visit the Anne Frank House, which I found really interesting. In the Anne Frank house, we also had a short lesson on the history of the House and the role that Amsterdam played during WW2 by one of the staff before we entered the museum.
(on the Amsterdam sign with friends)
(Amsterdam with friends!)
Vienna was such a beautiful city! It was also nice in this point of the tour to see German street signs and menus and be able to understand the language again, after visiting countries like Czech where we couldn't understand the language. In Vienna, we were lucky enough to explore the city, ride in horse-carriages, and we were also given the option to attend the Sound of Vienna concert at a really beautiful Concert Hall which was one of the few in Vienna that Mozart played at. It was a really nice night and was enjoyable as we all got to dress up and enjoy the beautiful music and performances!
The time in Vienna was also really fun as we were there for the 4th of July! There were a lot of Americans on the trip so it was a really fun day as they all dressed up and we listened to some American country music on the bus rides!
(my friends and I at the opera)
(4th of July fun with one of my American friends in Vienna!)
The Eurotour was a whirlwind! After I got back I had one more week of school before the Summer Break. I'm now one week into summer break and I'm very lucky as my host family invited me to go on vacation with them to Italy next week for 10 days, I'm so excited!
I‘m really enjoying my time here in Switzerland, and my German is still constantly improving!
Hope all is well in the club, thank you for this amazing opportunity!
Holly