[Travel] Your school trips

[vegster]

At secondary school in 1974 we gad a school trip to London, ostensibly to view art at either The National Gallery or go to the British Museum..the teachers stuck to that itinerary but we were all told we were free to go and do what we liked instead of doing galleries
Needless to say it ended up in chaos as a group decided to hit Soho. Me and a couple of pals went to St Pauls and then on to the Natural History museum. Great fun in those days as a 50p ticket hit us unlimited bus and tube travel.

 

[Stat Brother]

We've told Jnr, now he's in secondary school, he can only go on one 'proper' trip.

He came home a few months ago asking to go on a ski-trip.

Naturally I said 'how much?'

He started to get cagey talking about subsidised if enough go.
So I changed tact and asked 'ok then, where is the school ski trip talking place?'
To which he replied...








...California.

I think it was about £1500.

 

[Guinness Boy]

We've told Jnr, now he's in secondary school, he can only go on one 'proper' trip.

He came home a few months ago asking to go on a ski-trip.

Naturally I said 'how much?'

He started to get cagey talking about subsidised if enough go.
So I changed tact and asked 'ok then, where is the school ski trip talking place?'
To which he replied...








...California.

I think it was about £1500.

I was going to say "you have to wonder what goes on in the minds of the teachers". I mean, a price tag that most parents can't get near AND a 14 hour or so flight full of delinquent (but, presumably, middle class at that price) "cherubs". If I was sat anywhere near them I'd ask for my money back off the airline and try to trip up one of the teachers when he was on his way to the Kermit.

But, of course, what goes through their minds is "YIPPEE, A F***ING FREE SKIING TRIP TO CALIFORNIA, WOOOOOOHOOOOOO"

 

[Guinness Boy]

Talking of skiing though, I can't My one attempt at snowboarding, in Japan in my mid 30s, nearly led to permanent paralysis. Therefore my school trips were of the "patisserie, creme de menthe, bangers and vomiting" variety.

Shame as I missed the skiing trip to Austria when I was in 6th Form when my friend Doug, who has been known as "Doug Mare" ever since, got so pissed on schnapps that he passed out for nearly a day and had his eyebrows shaved and his face coloured blue, as in like the Blue Man Group. No social media in those days so thank Christ for Polaroids.

 

[cloud]

I can't remember any of the actual trips, but I do remember the same view out of the coach window, going down the A23 through somewhere like Earlsfield, then always having to drop someone off at Bolney Stage, then back to Brighton.

 

[Stat Brother]

At what point of the day were these eaten:-




before or after crossing the A27.

 

[jackcgull]

Pike House, Battle. With added day trip to Dungeness!

 

[Is it PotG?]

Singleton Open Air Museum, my egg sandwiches leaked into my duffel bag. Camping at Burwash I only packed one pair of socks. Shit 'appens.
Next Burwash trip we got caught at about midnight trying to' access' the girls' quarters.

 

[lawros left foot]

Howletts?

No , it was bigger than that.

 

[Thunder Bolt]

I only remember one field trip to the Cuckmere Valley for geography. I think there were trips abroad to a school ship in the Med, but way out of our price range.

 

[Grassman]

Pike House, Battle. With added day trip to Dungeness!

Funnily enough I was gonna say Pike House, I absolutely loved Battle as a kid. Even funnier at my Secondary School we had a day trip to Dungeness power station - there was a strike at the time and we had to cross the picket line - scabby kids!

 

[Napier]

Cuckmere Valley for Geography, Imperial War museum for History and Fishbourne for History as well.

 

[ManOfSussex]

Best field trip was a GCSE Geography one on 'Concentric zones' - We basically walked from Stanmer Park to Churchill Square, culminating in every phone box en route in central Brighton being stripped of all the hookers calling cards, which were then swapped and traded on the coach back like Panini Football stickers. If you were to compare it to The Panini Mexico World Cup 1986 collection for example, then the 'Tahitian beauty 2 minutes from Brighton station' was the Diego Maradona/most valuable one to get, if I recall correctly.

 

[Badger]

French exchange trip to some small town just outside Paris when I was 14. I could barely speak a word of French and didn't exactly make much effort to use the few phrases I did know. Thankfully our teacher knew this and we spent most of the trip away from our exchange students. We did all the tourist stuff in Paris, went to the Asterix theme park, and visited one of the Champagne cellars where as a 14 year old I was allowed to buy a bottle, but not drink it (they have some weird laws over there).


The worst was probably an "adventure" trip to North Wales. It pissed it down every day, but of course we still had to go out hiking. There was some comedy on the way home when we got pulled over for a random emissions test and failed. We'd actually borrowed the minibus from Oakmeads School, typical Burgess Hill.

 

[Invicta]

Week in Devils Bridge in Wales staying in what I imagine was an ex POW camp. It was during the 1981 cup final and replay so missed half of the season's live TV football. Never went back to Wales until the play off final in Cardiff.

 

[Gwylan]

We hardly had any trips at our school (save for the inevitable trip to the Cuckmere valley) but in our 6th form, I did go an 'educational' cruise round the Med (it was a bit pricey so was my birthday and Christmas present combined).

It was most memorable for Tony Towner's Fridge getting mightily pissed in Greece (then under a military dictatorship) and getting him back to the ship, while he was shouting drunken imprecations against the government.

It was also memorable for the amazingly choppy seas in the Straits of Messina, leading to copious amounts of vomit flying around the ship.

 

[Saunders]

Trip to St Malo. We were due to stay in a farm house accomodation (converted stables) but it was so infested with fleas that we got moved to a school dorm in St Malo. First night they served us horse meat at the farm which went down well with the girls especially.

The two teachers supervising us spent most of their time shagging each other and we spent most of our time either playing space invaders or discovering beer. Didnt learn much French.

Edit also add in the memorable trips to Dieppe where school mates spent the entire sea trip throwing up punchuated by insulting french kids and returning back home.

 

[drew]

We've told Jnr, now he's in secondary school, he can only go on one 'proper' trip.

He came home a few months ago asking to go on a ski-trip.

Naturally I said 'how much?'

He started to get cagey talking about subsidised if enough go.
So I changed tact and asked 'ok then, where is the school ski trip talking place?'
To which he replied...








...California.

I think it was about £1500.

Know the feeling. My daughter had her ski trip to New Hampshire! £1400 plus all the gear and spending money. At least they gave us about 18 months to pay for it.

 

[atfc village]

Swanage scenes 1981

 

[Dick Swiveller]

Went to a farm by Beachy Head followed by a trip to the Unigate dairy. And we had to watch Romeo and Juliet in Regent's Park on what I remember as one of the hottest days in history.

On the upside, Thorpe Park when it was just models, a farm and a handful of rides including a log flume that stayed on the level and just went through a shed with animatronic frogs singing the Frog Song. And a Cinema 180 - remember them?