Darlene Quayle: European Schools Research and Explorations

Buckingham Palace

My daughter and I are now in London. We had very nice visits to schools in Northern Germany and The Netherlands; I’m just finishing up my blogs for them (http://dqjourney.edublog.org). The people were very hospitable and welcoming. We are still trying to make connections with the schools in the UK. It’s a busy time for them and some of them don’t seem to be open to visitors right now. It will be a good relaxing time for her, though. Sometimes it’s a bit difficult and stressful for her when she can’t understand anything people are saying—not to mention the early rising for schools visits! For the last two days, we stayed in Amsterdam and visited a school that was a 2-hour train ride to the south. We had to leave the hostel by 6:30 to catch the train to get to the school!—The first day we would have been on time, but they moved the train to another station and we couldn’t get there in time. The second day we were just plain late—but it was okay—our hosts were quite understanding. I guess the trains never run on time in the Netherlands and it’s not unusual to miss connections.

We’re here in London for about four days, then I will be renting a car to travel around England and Scotland a bit—it’s cheaper than using the train, believe it or not. We are big Jane Austen fans, so we will visit her museum in Bath and the film site of Pride and Prejudice in Derbyshire. Of course, we will also visit Stonehenge. There’s an alternative school in Scotland that I was told about and I will see if I can connect with them.