Our trip to Crete May 4 to 10, 2025
On Sunday 4th of May we had to get up very early to go to Schiphol. Our plane left at 6:30 in the morning! It was fun, but it took a bit too long to fly. We were happy when we arrived. At the airport we were picked up by a taxi van that took us to the host families. Once we arrived at the host family we immediately felt at home. It was not that exciting, because we had already seen the children in the Netherlands. We had some time to rest and we played a lot of games.
Monday 5 May was a normal school day in Crete. We were taken to school by car. There was a warm welcome with lots of dances and performances. After that we played games on the square with 6th graders. After the break we had a workshop with 1st graders, where we drew our families and the food from our country. All our drawings came together on a large sheet of paper and they hung it in the hall.
After lunch we went to the swimming pool. The 2th graders have swimming lessons there. Unfortunately we were not allowed to swim along. It was fun to play a game together.
At 13.15 school was over and we did all sorts of fun activities with both host families and the parents of the children who were also into the Netherlands + their children. We did this all week after school.
On Tuesday 6 May we made boats with recycled materials. That was really fun, because we had made a lot of friends for the whole week. After the boats we had a Lego workshop. We were given the assignment to build something that would allow children in wheelchairs to enter the school. Because the school had a lot of stairs. We thought it was a high building and a difficult task, because the school was already on a fairly high mountain. Which made it very difficult to get to the entrance of the school with a wheelchair. After the break we learned a lot about olive oil and we even tasted it. We could also taste it on ice cream, which we were a bit disappointed with, but the children from Crete loved it!
On Wednesday 7 May we went to Agios Nikolaos with the 6th graders. There we played a game with the teacher’s telephone, where we visited all the monuments of Agios Nikolaos. We had to answer questions there and learned a lot about the myths and stories of Greece. After the break we made a painting with some Greek children on the music of the four seasons of Vivaldi. It was a bit strange, but also funny.
On Thursday 8 May we started at school with a name game and a globe, so we got to know the children of 4th grade. By playing games we started to get to know the cultures of our own country, Spain and Greece better and better, which taught us a lot.
At 10:00 we went by bus to Spinalonga. The boat trip was beautiful, because the water was very clear blue. The boat trip was one of the nicest things of this week. On the island we learned about the history of the island and we could see what it looked like. It was a bit hot there.
Friday May 9th we went to make an insect hotel and a barefoot path together with the Spanish children. Later we got the presentations of the Greek children who had been to Spain and the Netherlands. Then we were finally allowed to give our presentations on a very large stage. It was in a large hall with many children and some parents from school. We found this quite exciting. But in the end it was also over quickly.
In the evening there was a party in a park where we got something to drink and eat. We played football with the Greek children from 6th grade. This was really fun!
On Saturday May 10th we had to leave again and that was not so nice, because the host families were very sweet and were so nice to us.
Greetings Sverre, Roef, Lars and Tychon