Page 54 - royal-times-11-12

Holland Trip

On the 15th of April 2011 a group of students set off to Dublin
Airport with Mr Galligan , Ms. Murphy, Ms. McElwaine and Mr.
Kavanagh. Despite being three in the morning the excitement
was at a high. We flew into Brussels Charleroi Airport and went
straight to Efteling the largest theme park in the Netherlands,
where we went on lots of different rides, we were then
transferred by bus to the Hotel AAN ZEE in Noordwijk, Holland.
It was situated opposite the beach and had a stunning view
to wake up to. Each night we were served a delicious evening
meal in the hotel.

On the Saturday we departed for Amsterdam where we had
the experience of a tour around Anne Frank’s house. On arrival
our hearts sank at the sight of the long queue that is until
Mr.Galligan produced priorty passes which allowed us to skip
the whole queue and go straight in. We went into a room where
a lady told us all about Anne Frank and her family we then got
a tour around the actual house she hid. We finished the tour in
the museum.

We then went on a canal boat trip in Amsterdam. In the evening
we visited Zaanse Schns in Zaandam a quaint little village which
let us travel back to the 17th and 18th centuries where we saw
old merhants homes , a wooden shoe factory , cheese making
and windmills. On the Saturday night we went to Duinrell
Waterpark a huge park with slides, pools and water activities.
On the Sunday we travelled to Hague where we took a trip on
the Spido Harbour boat. We then travelled to Rotterdam where
we visited the Euromast space tower which we went up in and
saw spectacular, breath taking views of Rotterdam 185 metres
in the air! That evening we also went bowling in Noordwijk
which was a different experience to Ireland as it had huge
screens playing music on each lane it also glowed in the dark.
On the Monday morning we went shopping on the main street
Kalverstraat, Amsterdam we then departed for Eindhoven
Airport where we flew back to Dublin. The trip was a memorable,
exciting experience and I would love to go back. We had such a
good time and the teachers managed to fit so much into such a
short time with such ease. It was extremely well organised and
on behalf of all the students who went I’d like to say a big thank
you for such a fantastic time!
Melissa Heaslip.

54 The Royal Times 2011-2012