Home

Daily reports Sweden trip
15 May - 22 May 1999





Saturday 15 May - Sunday 16 May

We left Enkhuizen by bus at 8 o'clock pm.
We arrived in Amsterdam at 9.15 pm at the Eurolines office.
At ten o'clock pm we left Amsterdam for our long trip to Stockholm.
We travelled through Germany en from Puttgarden to Denmark.
We went from Helsingor to Helsingborg by ferry and from there our bus trip
continued to Stockholm.
We became more and more tired, could hardly move our legs anymore
and had the terrible thought in our minds mind of having to be in this
bus for another 8 hours. At Jonköping we stopped and had a delicious dinner.
The scenery over there was absolutely magnificent.
For a Dutch person coming from a country below the sea (don't worry, we aren't wet all day)
Swedish nature is so beautiful.
During all our difficult moments in the bus the beautiful scenery kept us going.
At 23.15 we arrived at City terminalen in Stockholm.
I have never been so happy, the bus trip was over.
We were welcomed by Gunvor Lager and Leif Rönnberg, two of our dear Swedish collegues
with whom we have achieved so much during the last three years.
We took the Pendeltåg to Kallhäll and arrived there at 24.00 uur, after a 28 hours' trip.
We were very heartily welcomed by the host families.
At 0.30 pm we couldn't say a word anymore and fell asleep dreaming about
a bus trip from Amsterdam to Stockholm.

Monday evening 17 may

On Monday evening we went to Kaellhaellsbad for our barbecue-evening. You can grill almost everywhere in the forest. Gunvor and Leif have brought all the material we need. What would we do without them. We arrived together with Gunvor at 6.30 am. Leif was already busy making the fire. He is lighting the fire with a special fluid. He, being a real 'wood-man' as he called himself, would never use this fluid to light a fire up in the north. Being in the Stockholm area he has to adapt himself. He does this quite well we must say.

A 7.15 a.m. there are three beautiful fires we can use. The pupils have to grill their own sausages. Some of them eat more than we could ever imagine in our wildest dreams.

After the grilling party we are going to play the Swedish version of soft ball. Unfortunately the game ended with an accident while the Swedish pupils were hitting the ball. One Swedish pupil was so eagerly playing that he threw away his stick into the wrong direction. Someone was hit. The girl had to see a doctor. A few stitches were used and luckily enough we met this girl at school the next morning.

Tuesday 18 may

Today we have started very early. At 8.10 in the morning the pupils met their teachers. The Dutch and the Swedish pupils met their own teachers first. Today's program was explained and we started working on the topics: friends, alcohol, cigarettes and drugs. First we talked about the topics and then the pupils had to write a report. After having written a report the pupils had to write the report with a word processor or they had to send their report to Holland by E-Mail. Other groups were busy working with the cassette recorder. One group was participating in a so called video-computer assignment. Nils Eng assisted them and did a great job. The situation looked very real; pupils are walking in Stockholm and then all of a sudden they are in Holland ( Amsterdam, Enkhuizen, Alkmaar). Today we were also interviewed by a Swedish reporter and he made some pictures of the teachers and the pupils. He also talked to two Dutch pupils, Hanneke Beemster and Gabrielle de Lugt. At 11.30 am we had our lunch break and we enjoyed the delicious food made in the Kaelltorpskolan.

In the afternoon we talked about the other topics : cinemas and films, hobbies, youth culture, clothes and music. After having talked about the topics the pupils had to write reports again. One group was taking part in a photo project ( each pupil had to take three pictures and they had to write text to each picture) and other pupils took part in a video project. They had to decide which pictures they were going to take. They also had to write text to the pictures.

At three o'clock the Dutch pupils showed the video tape of Enkhuizen and gave comment on the pictures which were shown. The Swedish pupils showed us pictures of their country and also gave some comment.

Tonight we are going to practice a typical Swedish sport called ' Hallenbandy'. We are eager to play this game. The Dutch always want to learn, you know.

Tuesday evening 18 May

This evening it was the sports evening. The Swedish pupils were going to teach us how to play floor ball. At seven o'clock we met at the Kaelltorpskolan. The boys of the Kaelltorpskolan were very eager to teach us how to play the game. They probably knew they were going to beat us, and they were right. Although we must say that our Dutch pupils played quite well. They even scored two goals. Not bad when you with funny looking sticks for the first time in your life. Moreover we liked the game very much. Jan-Hein Watses, one of the Dutch pupils , even suggested to introduce this game at our school instead of playing hockey. We will try to persuade our collegues. After having been beaten in the floor ball game, we decided to play basketball. This appeared to be a very good decision, because we managed to beat the Swedish pupils several times, although the score wasn't the most important thing. The most important thing was that both the Swedes and the Dutch had a very good time playing together. At nine o'clock we stopped and all the pupils went to the host families and we went to Barkarby again to write our daily reports, so we can keep you informed.

Wednesday 19 May

We were at the Kaelltorpskolan at 8 o'clock. At 8.30 a journalist of one of the local newspapers was going to call us. We talked to the journalist and told her about our cooperation and our plans for next year ( an interactive internet newspaper). Today we received some E-Mails from collegues and parents from Holland. We tried to answer them as much as we can. Thank you very much, anyway for sending us your E-Mail messages.

Today we were going to enjoy the Archipelago. If you have never been to Sweden we advise you to come as soon as possible ( the weather is really wonderful know, you know) and go to Stockholm and buy a ticket for one of the trips into the Archipelago. Being used to the Dutch landscape you can hardly imagine what the Archipelago is like. Thousands of islands, al lot of them with beautiful house and above all, every island has a beautiful nature.

We went to Grinda. After a seventy minutes' trip in absolutely beautiful weather we arrived in Grinda. Being on this island you understand why people like to come to Sweden. Wonderful landscape and very quiet ( not during our stay with 85 pupils of course, but we won't be there if you visit Sweden, so you can enjoy the beauty and quietness of this island). During our stay on Grinda the pupils had to learn Swedish and Dutch. We had made some small dialogues in English and German. The pupils had to form mixed groups and teach each other Swedish and Dutch. At three o'clock we met again and then we heard what the pupils had learnt. Although the Dutch learnt Swedish and the Swedes learnt Dutch we are sure they didn't study the dialogues only. We heard dialogues in Dutch and Swedish we would never have written.

We learnt some Swedish too. Thank you very much, Jeanette, for the translation:

Jag vill tacka alla värdfamiljer för er gästfrihet.
 

Jag vill tacka er på Källtorpskolan för all hjälp.

Now you can read it, but I am actually going to pronounce these sentences on Thursday evening. So, host families read this very carefully. If you want to hear someone from Holland trying to speak your beautiful language come to the farewell evening on Thursday evening in the Källtorpskolan.

Thursday 21 May

I am writing this report while we are on our way to Copenhagen on Friday morning 22nd of May. We are really looking forward to the bus trip. Try it yourself and get on a bus on a beautiful day and get out of the bus after 25 hours. You have no idea what it is like.

This morning the sun was shining again and it was already warm when we came to the Källtorpskolan. We have been so lucky with these weather conditions. Although the pupils were extremely happy with the weather they complained to us. We had to explain why we had told them to bring warm clothes to Sweden. Some of them had only warm pullovers with them and no T-shirts. After we had explained that Sweden was unpredictable in this respect, they accepted the explanation.

Today we went to Stockholm to visit the Town Hall Tower (Stadthuset) (the Nobel prize winners get their award in this Town Hall, except the one who receives the peace award ( he or she has to go to Oslo), to go for a city walk and to watch a 3D film at Cosmonova. The film was about climbing the Mount Everest.

From the Town Hall Tower we had a wonderful view over Stockholm. We told the pupils to take a good look at Gamla Stan, the oldest part of Stockholm where they would go to for the city walk. At about half past ten we went to Gamla Stan. Here we divided the pupils into several groups. The Dutch and the Swedish pupils had to visit twelve different places in the old city and answer questions about the historic buildings and the statues. At 8 locations class 9 pupils (Gunvor’s class) had to give an explanation in English and German. They did this as if they were professional guides. It was really great. Unfortunately we didn’t have time enough to complete the city walk. I suppose we stopped too long at the castle watching the Changing of the Guard. At 12.30 we had our lunch opposite the Town Hall. At a quarter to two we left for Cosmonova to watch the 3D-film about climbing the Mount Everest. Although the film was in Swedish the pupils liked it a lot.

At a quarter past five we were back in Kallhäll. We took a quick shower ordered a drink and a meal and put our notebook on the table next to our plates to write a daily report in Dutch for the RSG homage. We also selected some pictures. After every bite we had to write some lines to finish the report in time. We had promised Nils Eng to bring the report to him the same evening, so he could upload the information immediately (and so he did).

At 19.00 we met at Källtorpskolan for the farewell evening. The youth center had arranged music outside and at 21.00 the host families were invited. At 20.00 we met Nils at Källtorpskolan and he was going to show the film he had made together with Michiel Essen and Tom Botman from Holland and Anja Ringdahl and Jenny Bengtsson from Sweden. It looked as if they were actually standing in Stockholm, Amsterdam and Enkhuizen. A great compliment for the pupils in the film and Nils.

At 21.00 we met the parents and our collegues Leif, Gunvor, Mia, and Kerstin. Again we’d like to thank everybody in Sweden for their help and support. Listening to our collegues and the parents we think the international cooperation was a great success. The pupils have worked together with several forms of media (computer, video, cassette recorder), have used the foreign languages a lot, have learnt many things about the Swedish culture, but above all the Dutch pupils have learnt how to cope on your own in a host family and this stimulates independent learning a lot. Moreover we managed to create a mutual homage and to keep you informed about the project each day. We don’t know if this has ever been done before between two schools in two different countries. Although the homage hasn’t been completed yet, it was a great success (so we were told by several Swedish and Dutch parents). We will fill the several pages in the next few months and next school year we will try to make an interactive internet newspaper.

Jag vill tacka er på Källtorpskolan för all hjälp.

The Swedish as well as the Dutch teachers think we must continue the cooperation. We are sure we will and hope the Swedish pupils can come to Holland some time. Anyway we hope to come back next year with a new group of pupils. We hope (no, we are sure) there will be as many friendly host families as there were this year.

Jag vill tacka alla värdfamiljer för er gästfrihet.

Friday  21 May

Dear Swedish and Dutch friends,

It is half past nine in the morning now. We left Stockholm at seven o’clock am. My knees hurt, my eyes continuously close, my back can’t stand another mile, the driver’s telephone is driving me mad, the guy next to me can only make funny noises (I really don’t know what’s the matter with him; could this happen to you after being in a bus for too long??? Did you know that??); the girls behind me keep asking me :"How far is it?" The problem with this question is, that they started asking it two miles after we had left Stockholm. How many times do you think they have asked me this question. Nice question for your mathematics test (by the way, I hope you will all pass your exams).

Again we pass the beautiful Swedish nature (instead of counting sheep I have started counting the trees). Now we are at the exit to Björkvik. Another 21 hours to go. After a few hours we will send you another message from the bus.

I am back sooner than I thought. I have fallen asleep but all of a sudden I wake up. I hear someone say: "I can see fields with yellow flowers all over. I saw those flowers in Germany on the way to Stockholm." Hearing the word Germany really wakes me up. Are we in Germany?? That would mean we are back home in a few hours (I liked my stay in Sweden more than you can imagine, but going home by plane would have been much more comfortable). I look through the window, but all I can see are trees, trees, trees and I see a sign with Huskvarna on it. This means we are still in Sweden. Twenty more hours to go.

We stop at Huskvarna and have a cup of coffee. We leave Huskvarna after only 17 minutes. Henk and I nearly miss the bus. Susan Berends van Loenen was so kind to look for us. Thanks to her we will arrive in Holland together with the pupils. This must be a great relief to all of you, I hope. Back to our house on wheels. Even a twenty-five minutes’ break was too much for our driver. Working as a Eurolines bus driver must be a hard job. More people have boarded. What’s the matter with those people? Don’t they know that a bus trip for so many hours is worse than getting on a roller coaster three or five times in half an hour. Don’t they feel pain in their knees, neck and all their muscles. It’s twenty-five to one now. 18 ½ Hours to go.

It’s 268 km to Helsingborg where we have to change buses. Will we survive? Rebellious as I am I decide to listen to Irish rebel songs. They make me forget where we are (only for 90 minutes).

It’s 12.30 and a German lady next to me asks me where we are going. I tell her we travel as far as Amsterdam. She happens to go to Amsterdam as well and she wants to know where we have to change buses. I tell her we change at Helsingborg (147 km to go). She wants to know if we are going to change in a more spacious, more comfortable bus ( a doubledecker). By the look of her eyes I am sure that my answer doesn’t comfort her at all ( I told her that on our way to Stockholm we only saw those buses, but we weren’t in them). She says that it’s quite usual to travel in a more spacious bus during the night ( she seems to be an experienced bus traveller; don’t ask me why, but it’s true). I can hardly wait till we arrive in Helsingborg. Just suppose it is true and we are really going to be in a …….. No, I must be careful with these positive thoughts. After all there are 18 hours to go before we arrive in Amsterdam. I try not to think about it. It isn’t easy with your knees, neck, head and many other parts of the human body hurting so much.

It is 13.40 and we arrive at Ljungby. We stop at a filling station and we are not allowed to go out of the bus (we have been on the bus for almost 7 hours, have only had a seventeen minutes’ break so why should they allow us to go out of the bus?). I try to comfort the pupils by telling them it’s only 100 km to Helsingborg. There we change buses, so we have to get out!

In the meantime the smell in the bus is getting worse. It isn’t possible to flush the toilet. If only they had told us this before. Matthijs Vlam goes to the door to enter the toilet. Poor boy. He has to return immediately. His second effort is much more successful. He is armed with deodorant. Armed and well protected! He succeeds. After three minutes he returns safe and sound.

More and more people fall asleep. Could this have something have to do with the smell? It’s 13.55 now.

It’s 15.05; a filling station again; and again we have to stay inside. Next to our bus another Euroline bus stops. A very luxurious one, so it seems. We move on. The smell is almost unbearable. We are on the road again. We are near the Danish border now. The landscape is quite different now (very flat).

25 Km to go to Helsingborg and 16 hours to Amsterdam. My thoughts go back to this wonderful week at Källtorpskolan. Many thanks to Kerstin Edström, the head mistress. Her commitment to the project stimulates us all. I also like to thank Kirsi again. Kirsi is head of the kitchen. She has provided us with packed lunches and drinks this morning. She has been wonderful to us. At the farewell evening she made Dutch pancakes. The Swedish parents liked them very much.

It’s 14.30 now. We change buses at Helsingborg. Bad luck. No spacious bus for us. Before we board the driver tells us we have to change at Hamburg again. Perhaps we are going to be lucky there.

At 16.10 we are on the ferry to Helsingor (we have more than one hour delay). The crossing only takes twenty minutes, so we are advised to stay in the bus. We are getting more and more tired and we want to eat something. More than 14 hours to go. I take my discman and listen to the Dire Straits (‘Going home’ is one of my favorite tracks).

It’s a quarter past five and we are in Copenhagen. Because of the delay we are not allowed to get out of the bus (of course not). The next stop will be at Rodby where we take the ferry to Puttgarden in Germany. We are very lucky because Mathijs’s identity card has been found. We decide to have something to eat on the ferry. It takes forty minutes to go to Puttgarden.
 


 

At the Danish-German border our passports are checked. One of the pupils has lost her passport. Henk is going to solve this problem. We all know he can get on with Germans very well. He is practically a German himself. He has a nice chat with the customs officer and the pupil can travel on with us (speaking German seems to be a great advantage). It’s 21.00; ten more hours to go. 22.30 we arrive in Hamburg and we have to change buses again. We are so lucky now, because we can board a very luxurious bus. I am sure we are going to enjoy the night now.

We have one more stop and at 1.00 we leave for Amsterdam. We are very tired and fall asleep. At 3.30 we pass the Dutch border (so I was told at 5.00). Two more hours to go and we will be in Amsterdam.

Very slowly more and more pupils wake up. At 6.30 (half an hour too early; what a pity) we are in Amsterdam. When we get out of the bus we are welcomed by the voice of a lady telling us that we have to be aware of pickpockets and that we have to take care of our luggage. We are in Amsterdam. No doubt about that. But never mind, who cares, we survived the bus trip.

At 7.30 our own bus arrives and takes us to Enkhuizen. Some pupils stay awake, others fall asleep again.

On Saturday, 22 May at 8.20 ( after 25 hours and twenty minutes) we are back at the RSG and are welcomed by the parents and our collegues Harry Huisken and Henk Mikkers.

At ten o’clock I watch the videotape we made. Great! Then the bell rings. It’s the florist. Susanne Berends van Loenen and Laura van den Berg (pupils of the ‘Sweden class’ H3B) have sent us flowers: "Many thanks for this great week". We’d like to thank you too.

Many, many compliments and thanks to:


Stef Macke
Henk Hensgens
Teachers from the RSG Enkhuizen, Holland
 
 

Home