While students usually take spring break vacations to beaches and warmer climates, 22 students from Weehawken High School ventured across the pond to explore Europe last month. The group, along with their teacher chaperones, spent nine days trekking through Ireland, England, and Wales courtesy of EF Educational Tours.
“We started this a couple years back,” said Linda Shertel, tour group leader. “[Principal] Dr. Peter Oliveri plans these trips basically to expose the students to [areas of the world] coinciding with the curriculum that is taught in the high school English literature classes.”
The group departed from JFK International Airport on Thursday, April 9 and arrived at Shannon Airport in southern Ireland.
The students’ first visit was to the town of Killarney, where the visited the historic landmarks of Ross Castle and the Ring of Kerry. They even took turns kissing the fabled blarney stone at Blarney Castle.
“I enjoyed it a lot because there were a lot of ruins, and there were many castles and cathedrals we visited,” said junior Alexandra Louppova, 16. “It was very beautiful and it was very different compared to the U.S.”
Package deal
The program is open to all ninth through 12th grade students at Weehawken High School. Each student paid a discounted package rate from EF Tours of $2,200, which included air fare, breakfast and dinner, all the accommodations, and entrance to all the sites.
“Over a nine-day tour period we saw all the major sights,” said Shertel. “It is very fast paced. Usual tour times were between 12 to 14 hours a day.”
“I ran the first trip two years ago and we went to France for 11 days,” she said.
EF Educational Tours has been offering these programs to high schools around the country for around 50 years.
Although the students fund their own trips, Dr. Oliveri helps supplement some of the students’ expenses through the Marty Roti Fund – an endowment that was left to Weehawken High School by a longtime employee of the school district.
“It was left to the school for education purposes, and [Dr. Oliveri] gives $300 per student through this fund,” said Shertel.
Junior Alexandra Louppova had been on the previous trip to France, and has visited other countries in Europe as well.
“We covered several locations through Ireland, Wales, and England on a tour through most of the country,” said Alexandra. “It’s much more rural and the people were very much more reserved in a sense, and the cuisine was a bit different too, so everyone had to adapt to it.”
From Ireland to England
After going through the ruins of castles, the group traveled further north of Dublin to tour St. Patrick’s Cathedral, which is the final resting place of author Jonathan Swift, and Trinity College, which is the home of the ancient Book of Kells.
During the afternoon, the students had free time to explore the city independently before rejoining the group to dine on Irish stew.
The following day the group boarded The Ulysses for a three and a half hour ferry ride to Wales, where they visited the 13th century Conway Castle, followed by the scenic tour of the Snowdonia National Park.
The next stop on their European excursion was England, where they first saw fields filled with spring lambs and dairy cows. Students then visited the home of Anne Hathaway – the wife of William Shakespeare – and continued to Stratford-Upon-Avon, where they toured the newly-opened Shakespeare Center featuring a tour of the Bard’s birthplace. After a short stroll across town the students came to Trinity Church, where Shakespeare is buried.
The rest of the visit through England included stops at famed Oxford University, and a tour through London that included stops at famous landmarks such as Buckingham Palace, Tower Bridge, St. Paul’s Cathedral, and Westminster Abbey. Across the Millennium Bridge, the group visited Shakespeare’s recreated Globe Theatre on the banks of the Thames in Southwark.
Before returning to London the group visited Windsor, where they saw one of Queen Elizabeth’s favorite homes, Windsor Castle, and observed the Changing of the Guard. Some of the students posed with the unflinching Beefeaters, and then toured the castle and adjoining chapel, which houses the remains of the queen’s parents and grandparents in addition to other monarchs, such as Henry VIII.
The tour group returned home on April 17.
“The students were well behaved and it was a once-in-a-lifetime experience for many of them, even the adults,” said Shertel.
“You get to see so many things,” said Alexandra. “It became a wonderful experience for all of us and there were a lot of people on this trip I got very close with.”
The program is conducted every two years, and the next possible trip will be to southern Italy with an overnight cruise to Athens, Greece.