Day 1 - Thursday, May 15    We started our trip at Allfrisch (all were fresh, but it wouldn't take long...) Bielefeld Sennestadt! The departure time was scheduled at 10. 15 p. m. All of us were there in time, but not the bus. We waited and waited and waited ..... Our leader, Mr. Miller, phoned "Rainbow Tours" and asked what had happened. They informed us that the bus would arrive at about midnight due to heavy traffic congestion on the Autobahn. We went into a nearby Turkish pub. We still kept smiling and Anett couldn't stop laughing. Finally the bus arrived at 0.30 h a. m.- but what was that - ??? We didn't expect such an old bus (Flowers of 68!). We entered the bus and started our first class trip.     Despite some inconveniences the journey was very quiet and everyone tried to sleep. We caught the ferry in Calais at 8.00 h a. m. In the lounge we passed our first English test: How to order a breakfast ?! A few hours later, after a rather pleasant night trip, we arrived in London!    We were very exhausted, but nevertheless, we (except Musti and Andrea) took part in the Rainbow-sightseeing-tour of London with our tired bus driver. His name was Achim. Our first stop was Westminster Abbey - the Queen and Prince Charles were inside and waited for us, but we hadn't enough time to welcome them. Our next stop was Tower Bridge. We went over it to the Tower of London. Very interesting, but - we only wanted to enter our hotel! After picking up Musti and Andrea we arrived at our hotel. We all were shocked about the eightbed bisexual bedroom. Whow!!! Gabi, however, was so shocked, that she took a single room. Also Luise was shocked, but she stayed for financial reasons. That's life!!! After we shared one mirror between 6 women and 1 man, we went for dinner at Mr. Wu's. That was great! Our leader, Mr. Miller,left us for a theatre show ("Suddenly Last Summer" by Tennessee Williams).     After a while of roaming rather freely in the streets of London we found a really English pub - called Pride of Paddington. There we got the cheapest and most wonderful, tasty two-pint-cocktails we have ever had. That evening a live-band was playing free of charge- however with a substitute singer. He was not persuading. So the band wanted to engage us. But we didn't understand them really well. We thougt they wanted to know our musical request. But after the break they invited us to sing! Alas we denied to do so - embarrassed. All the Englishmen were laughing. Ha, Ha - but anyway - we had a lot of fun! We finished our drinks and we all only wanted to go to bed. While we were leaving the pub, we passed the band and they teased us with "LIARS, Liiaarrss , Liiiiaaarrrsss". We hurried out of the pub and went to the hotel. There we had another glass of wine in our multi-bed-blah,blah, blah and went to bed, happy to have something to lie down in. Day 2 - Friday, May 14, 1999     Our first breakfast at the hotel turned out to be quite different. Most of us got continental breakfast as provided, but two of us were lucky enough to get a really English breakfast which included cornflakes and bacon and eggs. So we were able to start our second day in London well-strenghthened.     Our initial destination was the New Caledonian Market. We took the tube until London Bridge-Station and had a fifteen minutes walk to the market. After that, we took the Dockland Light Railway along the Docklands, old store houses modernised under Maggy Thatcher. The aim was Greenwich where we wanted to visit an old military school. There we saw the Painted Hall, a wonderfully coloured room, that was used as dining room for the occupants. Then we visited the Greenwich College Chapel, which was constructed like a ship within. Hungry and a little bit tired, we started to search a pub. We found one next to the Thames. After a delicious lunch and good beer, we made a boat trip on the Thames back to Westminster Bridge. There we were able to have a look at the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben. Our feet were burning, our hips hurt, but we ignored it all and moved off. Actually we wanted to go to White Hall, but we couldn't find it. So we crossed St. James Park, went along Buckingham Palace, crossed Green Park and finally in front of Hyde Park we separated into two groups. Our group wanted to continue the march back to the hotel by feet, the other group wanted to go by tube to Kensington Market. In between we pedestrians tried to get a taxi, but after ten minutes and twenty taxis past we gave up and went by feet. So we had a chance to see some pretty friendly squirrels, which were fed by the visitors. It was so lovely to see such sweet and cute animals, but not everyone was able to enjoy it.      Back at the hotel we had just twenty-five minutes for dressing and styling, when we were called to the taxi called by Mr. Miller to see the play "An inspector calls" by Priestley at the Garrick. We enjoyed the theatre, but after it our teacher told us that it was not such a good performance, but we laymen hadn't seen that. After the theatre we went to our actual meeting point at Leicester Square, but we left it immediately, because we felt too old for this kind of Radio cafe. So we entered another restaurant and in a ten minutes period we went to have a look to the other cafe to see if the rest of the gang had arrived yet.      When we all were together again, we made a tour through Soho; two of us wanted to go to a disco and the others searched a bar, where it was still possible to have a drink and we found one. At one o'clock a.m. we took two taxis driven by touts from Somalia. We were a little bit afraid for the other three, because they didn't have male protection, but we didn't have any reason, because Ms. Krause bargained a better price for the trip than we did. Then the teacher went to bed and the students underwent a psycho test until early in the morning. Concluding we tried to sleep a little bit. Day 3 - Saturday, May 17, 1999     After breakfast we put our suitcases in the bus. Then we took the tube, direction Camden Town, where we visited Camden Lock Market. On the Camden Lock Market you will find music in the street, people selling fashion clothes and enjoying to get a tatoo.     At nearly 11:30 a.m. we went back to the tube and went to Portobello Street Market in Notting Hill, taking the Central Line. The Portobello Market was overcrowed and very, very expensive in every point of view. In the meantime our English teacher ( Dieter ) went to the theatre to watch the Young Vic production of "Hamlet" which is for old people!!!!!!!!!! (HAHAHA, because he is 49 years old). Together we took two stations with the tube to High Street Kensington. A few of us walked through the city to Kensington Market. The Market was not what we expected, but the atmosphere was O.K. The tired losers went to a pub where their burning feet could get back to their standard condition. Mr. Important and his fans went to Regent Street and bought boxing gloves for our champion. Meeting point was Kahn's Restaurant at 7 p.m. near Queensway. At Queensway we found a foodshop where we bought groceries and drinks for our return trip. In the name of Mr. Miller we had reserved a table for nine people at Kahn's, an inexpensive Indian restaurant. We became the Millers, because we didn 't know how to explain the name SEIDENSTICKER to an Indian waitor. The restaurant was very big and the meal was fantastic, but it was too full (60-100 people waiting to get in!) and a lot of stress was in the air. After dinner we went to the Shakespeare pub which was nearby. This was our last activity in London.     We went back to the bus by feet, because we had eaten too much and the weather was really fine. In the bus there was a bloody atmosphere, because we were very tired. Two hours later we woke up and changed onto the ferry and drank coffee. We were so tired that we could not perceive anything anymore. One hour later we went to the bus, left the ferry and drove home. A questionnaire about the London trip 1999 1) Where did it all begin? in the classroom at the English lesson at the " Tangente 2) When did it all begin ? in September 98 in Sennestadt at 10.15 p.m., May 12, 99 in Sennestadt at 00.15 p.m., May 13, 99 3) Who was the teacher? the man in red and black(Mr Miller) the female punk the student of art history 4) What did the accomodation look like? excellent presidential suite extraordinary asylum terrific hospital 5) What happened to the two lonesome City-Cowboys? expelled to a single room put on ice taken to a nice and cozy multibed 6) What about the first originally English meal? it led to nausea it led to a flash the Doc couldn't help any more 7) Which survival trick did you exert to return to Bielefeld alive? taken drugs like Wodka-Red Bull-Mix ordinary Nicotine for 4.50 Sterling Black-Afghan Beer, Extasy, LSD, Fish and Chips talking to the teacher, whoever it was lying to yourself and hoping that it was not a nightmare 8) What happened at the Indian-Restaurant? a psycho-test nothing a nice meal with tandoory chicken and Indian joghurt 9) What is the Buckingham-Palace? a title of a Reggae-Song a hotel an ulcus in the stomach of British architecture 10) What is a psycho-test? an article in Bravo-Girl a trip to London a group of German tourists wanting to pay in an Indian Restaurant in Londonon on a Saturday evening Cash and hit question Shall we do it again ????? Deliberately under narcotics only next year