Day 4 - Cheese, chocolate and salt

Memories of sitting in a thermal spa surrounded by the soaring peaks of the Alps are a distant memory, as today we moved on to matters more industrial. Marie Antoinette supposedly said “Let them eat cake”…well the Geography motto for today has been “Let them eat chocolate, and plenty of it”. However, as all the pupils soon realised, you can have too much of a good thing. Chocolate after chocolate were devoured in the free taste session, culminating in most not wanting to see or smell another chocolate for the rest of the week. Lets hope all of the purchases make it back to the UK without melting.

This trip followed a brief but informative morning visit to the Gruyere cheese factory. Cows have to have a calf before producing milk you know…as we said in a previous blog, every day is a learning day for the pupils.

So onward to the salt mine at Bex, where we were transported a mile into the hillside in converted sardine tins with windows - cosy! We learnt all about the many uses of salt, why it formed there in the first place and how over the last 400 years it has been extracted from the 50km of underground tunnels. “Highlights” for the pupils may be the strong sulphur smell and the train ride, while the staff enjoyed the comment from one of the pupils who, when asked where their salt came from, replied “Tesco’s”!

Tomorrow is a trip to the French resort of Chamonix where there is the opportunity to travel on the Montenvers railway before taking a cable-car down to the ice caves of the Mer de Glace. The afternoon will be spent around the village of Chamonix, which the Year 10 pupils studied for their recent physical geography module. This should be their chance to put their textbook knowledge into practise.

This will bring our brief but action packed visit to an end and we look forward to seeing you all at Liverpool Airport having, hopefully, landed on time at 10.45pm

Day Three - Is it really Monday already?

They say never begin with an apology.....so....apologies! Due to technical difficulties and a lack of WiFi the blog, despite being written, could not be uploaded yesterday so we hope you enjoy a double dose tonight. Thank you to those of you who are following our daily ramblings and posting comments.

Last night's ice skating provided a great deal of hilarity as one expert ice hockey player and 47 people resembling Bambi on ice took to the rink. After a while some semblance of co-ordination was achieved by most, though for others this pass time will not be first on their to do list in the summer holidays!

Today's seven mile walk up to the base of the Langgletscher glacier worked the calf and thigh muscles to the full, but was worth every second of pain and suffering experienced by some! Lunch at the snout of a rapidly melting and filthy dirty glacier was another first for most of the pupils (and Mrs Jackson). A full range of glacial processes and landforms were viewed and the enormity of the effects of climate change on the physical landscape left many of the pupils considering their potential impact on the world around them.

Our return to the coach, via the ice cream shop for much needed but rather expensive refreshment, was rudely interrupted by a sonic boom courtesy of the Swiss airforce! Thoughts of avalanches and landslides hastened our return journey before common sense prevailed!

This is truly a cross-curricular trip with the pupils having the opportunity to converse in both French and German....with "Ich mochte ein cola bitte" being a firm favourite today. The cross-curricular theme continued with the pupils perfecting their swimming skills in the geothermally heated spa pools at Lavey-les-Bains. Also on offer was the chance to study thermal dynamics in the sauna, condensation in the steam room and social interaction in the jacuzzi! Whirlpool baths, massage jets and the opportunity to listen to classical music underwater meant that this, for some, rivalled the experience of the Blue Lagoon in Iceland.

The focus for tomorrow is the variety of industry found in the region, and the staff are especially looking forward to visiting the chocolate factory! Results of our taste tests will be published tomorrow!

Day Two - "Wow" (Apologies for the delay!)

When you go on a Geography field trip and you can make the pupils go “Wow” at a view, then it has all be worth it. Today was such a day. The view from the top of the Berneuse mountain over Lake Geneva, with Mont Blanc in the distance, was truly breath-taking. The Geography Department have found their ideal location for teaching about so many aspects of the curriculum; if only school could be transported here or the view transported to Chester! Despite taking a cable-car to over 2000m the weather necessitated shorts and vest tops, and the pupils took every opportunity to top up their tan!

So many aspects of physical and human geography were covered in the 45 minutes spent at the top of the mountain, so do not let them convince you that they have learnt nothing while they have been away….every day is a learning day.

Tourism in Leysin was next on the agenda and as well as shopping for expensive souvenirs and Pringles, the pupils spent the rest of the morning considering whether the village is truly a year-round tourist destination. Lunch at the hotel was followed by a scenic ramble along the Grand Eau river in Les Diablerets where river processes and floodplain management were the main points for discussion. If nothing else this afternoon will be memorable for the large beetle which set about making a nest in a pupil’s hair – truly experiencing nature close up!

Swimming, jacuzzi and sauna before dinner and ice skating after will round off another very busy day, with our favourite comments today being “Perhaps the views are better than Wales after all” and “Does the Thames flow through Chester”!

Day One - in Leysin

Bonjour, as they say out here,

We are in Switzerland, despite a number of the students thinking we had landed in either France or Germany! Neither are we near Amsterdam, which incidently isn't in Berlin, and no we didn't go into outer space in the plane!! Remarkably, one of our Year 10 brethren also remarked "It's just like Wales, but without the sheep". We really have our work cut out!

Today has focused on the formation of the fold mountains we are surrounded by, formation of the sedimentary rock which the Alps are made of and an introduction to the impacts of ice on the landscape. Many of the students and staff notched up a number of firsts today - a cable car ride, walking on snow and ice in July, going above 3,000m with their feet still on the ground (and sunbathing while there), riding on a chairlift and seeing the Matterhorn first hand!

While the temperature this morning hovered around freezing, the four mile walk this afternoon was completed with the temperature in the mid-80s. The words "are we nearly there yet?" even managed to drown out the incessant clanging of the cow bells!

But we're not done yet! A swim, jacuzzi and sauna, followed by dinner and ten-pin bowling will see an end to our first full day here. Tune in again tomorrow for more news.

Mr Allmand & Mr Austen

Thought for the day - "Why do cows have bells...................because their horns don't work"!!!!!