Students enjoy European tour

Standing on the Charles Bridge in Prague with the Castle in the background, L-R, Michael Morelock, Terri Morelock, Jill Henson, Sarah Shilling, and Colton Bottoms. “We wander for distraction, but we travel for fulfillment.” This past month, three lucky upcoming BHS seniors were able to experience such fulfillment. Coltin Bottoms, Sarah Shilling, and Michael Morelock witnessed firsthand a slice of Eastern European culture and history with a ten-day tour of Germany, Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia, and Hungary. Adults Terri Morelock and Jill Henson accompanied the trio.

On June 11, the group flew from Dallas to Frankfurt, Germany and then to Berlin on Lufthansa Airlines. Then the fun began. The group spent two days in Berlin, two in Prague, Czech Republic, two in Krakow, Poland, and two in Budapest, Hungary before flying back to Frankfurt and then back to Dallas on June 20. While in Europe, they traveled from city to city by chartered bus. Their Tour Director for the duration was Ingo Ortemann, 32, born in what was formally known as East Berlin. Knowledgeable, personable, and eagerto please, Ingo was—as all agreed—a most excellent guide.

Some of the trip highlights included seeing the remaining three sections of the Berlin Wall, Brandenburg Gate, and Checkpoint Charlie. The Buffalo group also visited the largest department store on the continent while in Berlin, known as “KaDeWe” by the locals. An afternoon in Dresden was beautiful, where the group saw many wondrous restorations after the bombings of WWII. Prague sights included the largest castlecomplex in the world and the breath-taking Charles Bridge. Krakow boasted churches over 1000 years old, and the drive through Slovakia was accompanied by the beautiful Tetra Mountains. Budapest highlights were seeing the Danube River and visiting the Szechenyi Medicinal Baths—again, the largest medicinal bath in Europe. Perhaps the most eye-opening attraction was the afternoon at Auschwitz, the WWII Nazi extermination camp in which hundreds of thousands of Nazi “enemies,” mostly Jews, were systematically killed. All agreed that even though sometimes things in our life may seem bad, we have a lot to be thankful for and that we take so much for granted.

“I think my favorite city was Prague,” said Sarah Shilling. Coltin Bottoms couldn’t pick a favorite but commented that it was all “good, well, MORE than good!” Michael Morelock liked Berlin the best.

“The strangest thing to me was probably the fact that everywhere there was so much cleaner than anywhere I’ve seen in the United States,” Morelock said. Indeed there was very little litter to be seen anywhere.

Of course, at every stop there was plenty of shopping, people-watching, and samplings of local foods. A coffee outside a small local shop along the cobblestone streets provided great atmosphere for a rest from time to time. And around every corner were ample photo opportunities with some baroque, Gothic, Romanesque, or Soviet building or statue supplying a backdrop. “Even as cliché as it sounds, I really think that to travel is to make history come alive,” said Henson.

The students booked their tour with EF Educational Tours (www.eftours. com), an organization geared for students and focused on “education first.” EF offers many destinations both domestically and internationally. Usually, EF pairs groups smaller than 50 participants with other groups, so BHS students teamed up with 16 students from St. Louis, MO and 22 from Phoenix, AZ.