Yes, we have finally made it to Germany, to the final meeting and we were all looking forward to seeing our “Train for Europe - Digital Revolution 4.0” adventure running at our final presentation and of course to meeting all the European friends again.
The meeting started with a beautiful welcome dinner at a small restaurant in the middle of Bad Kreuznach, just in walking distance to our hotel. It was the time that we, all those involved in the project, said hello to each other. Of course, we talked a lot about the project, our work, the machine and our trip to Germany.
On our first day, Heinz and his colleague Elina gave us a tour through the city of Bad Kreuznach, to the famous "Brückenhäuser – Bridge Houses" and the historic center of this town in the southwestern part of Germany. For lunch, we went close to the main station to fight hunger in an Asian restaurant. It was delicious!
In the afternoon we went to school and started our meeting with a review and the first work line and group work sessions. The focus of our work in the different groups was the preparation of the final meeting on Friday. Only two more days to fix any technical problems or solving minor problems of our infrastructure, at the camera, the software or our wagons. Some students directly went to the workshop and assembled their installation, others stayed in classrooms and worked on the concept for the final presentation.
On Thursday, the third day of our meeting, we again were spending almost all day at school and in the workshops. Wherever you were looking at, you could have seen students from all over Europe working on the different challenges – either preparing their performance for the final presentation, preparing short presentations and short speeches or working on the technical part of the project – soldering motherboards and cables, screwing and drilling on the showcase, fixing software problems or testing the 360° camera. What an exciting day with everyone involved in the project task and everyone being able to contribute to the project.
In the evening, after having left school at about 6 pm we finally went out for dinner and a drink and enjoyed the beautiful evening in Bad Kreuznach, that cosy nice little town at the Nahe river!
On Friday then we had our final presentation of the "Train for Europe - Digital Revolution 4.0”, a lot of politicians and representatives of the school administration and the local companies were invited. To kick-off our final presentation. After a short introduction by the deputy head mistress Diana Heimann and the project coordinator Heinz Wildgrube, we all were keen on presenting our part to the public. It all went fine and all the students participated in the presentation were very happy that our “Train for Europe - Digital Revolution 4.0” school partnership was running so well. At the end everyone was very happy with the successful presentation in Bad Kreuznach.
On the final day of the meeting, we did not go to school but took a trip to the Rhine valley. This was a beautiful boat trip followed by a demanding hiking tour uphill and then an unforgettable dinner back in Bad Kreuznach, right in the middle of the “Oranienpark” and very close to our hotel, where we enjoyed delicious pasta, said farewell to everyone and exchanged some presents to the different delegations. We had a perfect day! Thanks to Heinz and Martin for all the organisation!
On Sunday, we all had to pack our bags and go back home after a successful final meeting with a lot of new impressions in mind.