t'Atrium Dutch Link

Year 12 Trip to the Netherlands Summer 2007

Since May, we, a group of Year 12 Geography and History students have been corresponding with students at a bilingual school in Amersfoort, Utrecht, Netherlands. Our email correspondence comprised of mini-reports and debates around humanitarian themes such as ‘economic migrants-an economic asset?'. Then the opportunity arose to actually go and visit them on a weekend spree to Amsterdam and the surrounding area.

Arriving on Saturday morning, we travelled to Amsterdam where we walked around the capital, marvelling at the magnificent historical edifices, notably Centraal Station Amsterdam, a grand 19th century building with an intricate façade, and the Magna Plaza an ornate shopping centre, and the Cathedral with its archaic spires, stopping briefly for Dutch pancakes at a rustic Dutch café.

However the most memorable visit was to the Anne Frank House. Here we viewed the interior of the annex the young Anne Frank was confined to during the years of the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands, only to be betrayed to the Gestapo by a false friend and consequently conveyed to the gruesome ‘work camps', Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen where she met a tragic end. We were all deeply impressed and moved when we glanced at her crumbling posters of film stars pasted on to her cramped bedroom wall and the miniscule gap in the blackened window that showed a glimmer of her favourite horse chestnut tree and the busy canals that contrasted so starkly with the miserable stillness of the interior. Downstairs, a presentation reminded us of the importance of political and religious tolerance in any époque.

That night, we met up with and got to know our Dutch correspondents.

The last day we spent at the Van Gough Museum and relished the chance to see his iconic work up close.

We found Amsterdam a vibrant, historical place, teeming with art culture and cyclists!

Leila Morad

 (click on the photo to see more images of the sixth form visit to Amsterdam)