Netherlands
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Enrichment Week 2024 : Netherlands
At 6am on Monday 1 July 2024, 39 bleary eyed pupils and 5 members of staff boarded the coach and set off on this year’s Netherlands trip. It was the beginning of a great week, with lots of exciting new experiences and fun had by all.
At 8pm local time, we arrived at our destination, a hostel in the city of Alkmaar. We settled in quickly, had a light meal and went for a short walk to check out the area. We were based in a charming old part of the city, with brick-paved streets, well-maintained canal bridges and interesting shops. The hostel was clean and the staff friendly. So far so good.
Tuesday found us at the wonderful Zaanse Schans, an open-air museum of Dutch culture. Pupils saw clogs being made, explored full-size working windmills and sampled many a cheese. There were traditional Dutch houses and shops full of all sorts of interesting artefacts and manufacturing processes from a bygone era. Despite the windy and wet weather, the pupils enjoyed it and we all learnt a great deal.
In the afternoon we enjoyed the Tiki Pool water slide experience at Duinrell Holiday Park. The exciting slides and wave pool were a real hit and we all had a marvellous time as you might expect.
Our Wednesday in Amsterdam was a real tour de force of culture and history. We began at the Anne Frank House, one of the highlights of the trip. Pupils were immersed in the story of 13 year old Anne and her family as they tried in vain to escape persecution by the Nazis, hiding for two years in a secret annexe behind a bookcase. I was very impressed by our young people's mature approach to the whole experience. They emerged from the museum with a much richer sense of the reality of the Nazi occupation and the effect it had had on the people unfortunate enough to be caught in its grip.
After lunch en route, we arrived at Pier 1 for our canal cruise. We were educated and entertained by stories about this fascinating city as we slid along in a glass-roofed canal boat. Pupils were particularly taken by the narrow merchant houses with their unusual roof types and characterful lean, as well as the houseboats which became popular in the 1970s due to a lack of space to build.
On the way back from Amsterdam we made a spontaneous stop at the beach at Egmond aan Zee. It was a bit windy, but the pupils enjoyed the long stretch of sand and had a paddle in the sea.
On Thursday the sun shone on ‘Theme Park Day’. Efteling Theme Park is one of the oldest and largest of its kind in Europe. Walt Disney himself visited the park as part of his research before designing the first Disneyland and he was clearly inspired by the clever use of animatronics, incredible attention to detail and the hair-raising rides. The pupils loved exploring this wonderfully entertaining attraction.
On Friday, our week complete, we journeyed home. After stopping briefly at a Lille shopping centre, we boarded the ferry at Calais and ploughed back to Blighty upon a surging sea.
Many thanks to all staff involved for all their hard work and positivity and of course, to the pupils who conducted themselves beautifully.
Mr Armshaw, Trip Leader
You can read comments from some of our pupils below:
"I loved the museums, particularly the Anne Frank Museum because it really gave me an insight into what it might have been like for her to live a life in secret. I also really enjoyed the boat trip through Amsterdam and seeing the architecture, because it was unique and distinctive. I enjoyed the audio tour which told us about the city.
I had a lot of fun on the trip to the theme park (my first theme park!) and the water park was especially fun because of the freedom you and the other teachers gave us. My favourite ride was the Baron at the Efteling Park, because it was really exhilarating - it made my stomach drop!
It was nice to go on an evening stroll, as I felt that we got to see a little bit of Alkmaar and I enjoyed going to the park and playing football. It was nice to meet some Dutch kids; they were friendly and let us play on their bikes. I also really liked the breakfast at the hostel 🙂
Thank you so much for taking us. I had a brilliant week." Tobias
"I really enjoyed the Holland Trip! Especially Efteling theme park as it had really cool roller coasters. I also enjoyed learning about the Anne Frank house as I like history and WW2. The whole trip was really fun!" Angus
"I enjoyed the Holland trip and found it interesting learning about Anne Frank and why she went into hiding. The theme park on the last day was very fun and it was good having lots of time to explore." Abby
"I really enjoyed my week in Holland. The rides at both Efteling and Tikipool were amazing and I enjoyed every moment. I was fascinated and intrigued by the story of Anne Frank and the museum was fascinating - I enjoyed learning about how she was hiding in the secret annex with 7 other people. The Hostel was amazing and I really enjoyed when we went to see the Clogs Workshop and I learnt how to make a clog but I also loved the cheese tasting and the windmills. I absolutely loved the trip and I recommend it to anyone that wants to do it in the future." Samuel