When a tannoy announcement called for all St Thomas Aquinas pupils to disembark we all made our way to shore side. I did not have a clue on what lay outside but was excited none the less. We boarded our coach and headed for a small town called Sluis. We were booked in to watch a clog making demonstration by a man called Willie. The demonstration went on for about half an hour, which I didn’t find all that interesting. We were then aloud to explore the town. We found a supermarket and decided to stock up in our “supplies” (juice, crisps, etc…). I made the mistake of buying Pepsi, which makes me sick when I am travelling. By the time we got onto the motorway I was sick. I was told to move down to the front of the bus where I was told I would feel better. Luckily it did help me a little. It took us roughly four hours to get to our hotel but to me it seemed like a lifetime. When we arrived at the hotel my first impressions was that it wasn’t exactly the Ritz but seemed nice enough. The hotel was called the Hotel Op De Boud and was in the small town of Valkenburg Ann De Geul in the centre of Holland. We got our room keys and went to up to get unpacked. The room was quite small and cramped but there was only going to be two people sharing the room. After we got unpacked we went down for our dinner, which I didn’t really feel like as I was feeling miserable after being sick on the journey to the hotel. The meal was a local delicacy “apparently”, which was Chicken and a tasteless white sauce. That night we went down to Valkenburg and spent the night roaming around. Feeling a bit tired from the long journey, we all went back to the hotel to go back to bed.
The next morning was the day I had been waiting for. The day we were visiting the first theme park. I was so excited about going. The theme park was De Efteling, which was on the border of Holland and Belgium. When we got off the coach we heard a sort of childish “Disney” music, which made us laugh. There was a massive queue but we didn’t have to wait to get in. There was a short talk from the teachers about the do’s and don’ts around the park and then we broke up into groups of fours or fives. The rides were absolutely amazing! I am terrified of heights but still went on the rides because my friends were there. I must have gone on at least fifty rides but all too soon it was time to go back to the hotel. I felt a bit sad because I really wanted to stay at that one theme park but we were reassured that the next days theme park was even better.
The next morning, up even earlier this time, we went down for our breakfast. We were told that the journey was slightly longer to this park as it was right in the heart of Belgium. This park was called Bobbejaanland and as soon as we saw it we knew that the teachers’ reassurances were not exaggerated. The rides here were ten times better at this park but my heart sank when I saw the biggest ride there “the looping star”. As we went to join the queue my nerves started to go but I knew if went out of the queue I would never go on it, so I stayed and went on it and to be truthful it wasn’t as scary as it looked. As before I was disappointed at the time we had to leave the park at but I knew that the next day was the day we were travelling to Paris.
The journey to Paris took about four or five hours. When we arrived at our second hotel we could see that this one was much more luxurious. This hotel was called “The Hotel Du Moulin de Paris” which was situated just a few minutes from Disneyland. This day took us to the centre of Paris on a day that the sun baked the cobbles on the street. We all went up the Eiffel Tower. I was a quite nervous and anxious to get it over and done with but when I got up it didn’t seem as high. Also that day we took a boat tour along the River Seine, which lasted for about an hour and was quite interesting.
Finally it was the day we were going to Parc Asterix where I had already been. It was the best theme park I had ever been to and had the ultimate roller coaster “The Goudrix”; it was an eight loop, three corkscrews, and Inverted Hyper coaster. Not having been on it for two years made me a little nervous but I knew what to expect and I loved every minute of it. All the other rides were similarly good. My personal favourite was a wooden roller coaster called “Tonnerre de Zeus” It was very fast and gave us a real adrenalin rush as we waited in anticipation in the queue.
Although I thought Disneyland was just for younger kids I was proved very wrong. There was everything from backwards looping roller coasters to Disney Parades through Main Street USA, Conventional fast food bars to fully themed restaurants. I really enjoyed myself at this park and would definitely like to go back.
Most nights when we were in Valkenburg, we went down into the town. There weren’t many shops but there were plenty of bars and restaurants. There was also an amusement arcade where most of us spent our nights. We used this time at night to phone back home and let everyone know how good of a time we were having. When we went to Paris we normally went to Disney village which was a themed adventure, shopping village.
This was the best school trip I had ever been on and the Theme Parks were absolutely amazing. My Favourite ride would have to be the goudrix in parc asterix. I will definitely be taking my niece there when she is old enough and I am certain she will love it as much as I did.
