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Independent schools have one very big advantage ? long holidays. With upwards of 8 weeks each summer you just need to get away for a while, and what better place than abroad? We handily have friends all over Europe, and one summer we ended up in the south of Germany, staying in a place called Kirchheim nearish to Stuttgart and Ulm (though not the same Kirchheim I now live in ? there?re a lot of them about). Here we spent days in extensive swimming complexes basking in the sunshine and playing with the various wonderous inflatables. We also hiked various mountains and discovered the local kids? areas where I added to my theory that you should *always* judge a ...  Read the complete review

We arrived in Salvador in the middle of a strike. But it seems there's always a strike in Salvador. The electricity workers were on strike for a 140% rise because they hadn't had one since April and it was now August. The hotel workers joined them after a couple of days for similar reasons, and we had to clean our own rooms and make our own beds, we even had to cook our own breakfasts if we wanted something hot. The management put the food out at the crack of dawn and left us to fend for ourselves. Every morning we woke at 6 am to the sound of whistles, yelling and loud hailers, as the strikers formed their picket line right outside the hotel. This racket went on ...  Read the complete review