Out students in 8th grade had the opportunity to spend a week in the Ruhpolding area. Here is their travel-diary.
Monday
We met at the train station in Bad Windsheim at 8:30am and caught the 9am train to Neustadt. We took the next train from Nuremberh Main Station to Munich and then finally boarded the ICE. After arriving in Traunstein we changed trains for the last timeto Ruhploding, where our "Erlebnis Waldwoche" would start.
After getting of the full train Thomas and Simon drove us and our luggage to the "Adventure Forest Center", which was just outside of Ruhpolding. In the warm house we learned about all the rules and certain chores, like kitchen or cloakroom service. We also participated in a study about how children our age behave without having internet for a week. And that was a good fit since there was no internet available at our hostel.
Next we went to our rooms, which were small but fine. After settling in we went for a night hike in the forest right outside our house.
On coming back the first had to ride in front of the kitchen staff for dinner. After that we were allowed to do whatever we wanted. Most played table tennis or games as a group. At 9 pm we all had to hand in our cellphones and started preparing for bedtime, which started at 10 pm. We were in for an early rise at 6:45am the next morning. Most students didn't seem to worry about that, because it was still rather noisy around 1 am, .
Tuesday
After breakfast, which had everything you could wish for (cereals, jam, meat, chees, yoghurt, milk, tea), four of us did the dishes, while the others prepared for the day. At 9am we met downstair, gathered in groups and went outside into the forest. Each group was assigned a different corner of the forest. For an hour we were supposed to look for human- or animal-made things in the forest (like tracks, dens, ...). Then we went back inside for our lunch-break.
In the afternoon, Thomas, one of our guides, told as about snow, snowflakes and avalanches. He also taught us how to protect ourselves and if an avalanche happened. Then it was back out side into the forest, where each group had to build a model using only stuff they found in the forest. When each group was finished, they were remixed and tried to fix each others models. That wasn't easy at all.
We went back inside and spend the rest of the afternoon playing games and had dinner a 6pm. After dinner we had our own little flooding event when one of the showers leaked enough water to flood the entire room and even some of the hallway. The poor inhabitants of that room mopped it all up. As if to even things out, one girl from another room couldn'T shower at all, as there was no more water.
To relax from so much late action we played some games in our spare time and went to bed again at 10pm.
Wednesday
The next day started with breakfast and preparing lunchboxes for a longer trip that was on today's schedule. We started at 9am for the Haaralmschneid. In the beginning it was all smoothand easy but then the road got harder and harder. We had to stop several times for a break and had many opportunities to take photos. It was really hard, but we didn't know that it get harder yet. 200m from our destination the path dipped down and then back up on the other side to the summit.
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When we finally reached the top, we took a lot of pictures of our group under the summit's cross.
None of us expected, that going down would prove to be more dangerous than climbing. A lot of us skidded and slipped, lost their footing and even hurt themselves.
We were exhausted and our legs hurt as the way home seemd to be ever longer. We arrived at home just in time for dinner and then relaxed with games in the evening as it has become our small ritual. When we went to bed this evening, most of us fell asleep very quickly.
Thursday
This day would be less exhausting as the days we had at the "Bergwald-Erlebnis-Zentrum-Ruhpolding" before. No climbing up to 1594 meters like the day before, thank you.
Fortunately, we had a funny guide called, Thomas Dankemeyer, who briefed us and set the task for today. He told us that we were to discuss the question whether a new lift and a new skiing-region was needed at Haartalmschneid or not. It worked out like rolke-playing with some of us taking the roles of local farmers, memebers of the Rohpolding-Ski-Club and so on.
We had to find a solution that everyone could agree to and came to the decision that Ruhpolding really doesn't need a new skiing-region. The main reason was, that it already had more slopes in the past, which had to close as they lacked visitors and money. Instead it would be smarter to invest into and expand the existing regions.
In the afternoon we went outside and played a game helped us understand the importance of natural resources.We went into the forest and Thomas told us about illegal woodcutting he witnessed, when he worked in Namibia. We even played another game that helped us understanding the problem more closely and experiencing the world's leading power's fight for more and more resources.
The remainder of the evening was spent - well who would have guessed - with our traditional card and tabletop games.
Friday
On Friday, breakfast was as usual. After it, everyone packed their bags. At 9 am, there was a short last meeting where we filled out the survey for 5 days without network, told how everybody was doing and said goodbye to the managers. The train journeys went well, unlike the transfers. Most of the time it was tight and we had to run. It was more relaxed on the ICE. Unfortunately, the WiFi we were promised was bad. At the end of our voyage, everybody wished a nice weekend to each other and went. Luckily our journey went without any problems.
Students of Class 8A