Thursday, May 21, 2015

Day 11 - 5/21/2015, Zugspitze

Today we went to the top of Germany.  We took a train from the Hauptbahnhof out to Garmisch.  From there, we took a train up the mountain to Grainau where we hopped a bus to Eibsee then caught a funicular to a platform where we jumped in a gondola.  It was snowing at the top, but we were not in blizzard whiteout conditions.  There was plenty of snow for snowballs, and some of us made it out to an observation platform through three or four feet of snow.  We weren't too wet and cold during this adventure.  The restaurant at the top of Germany had decent goulash and great hot cocoa.  The return trip from Zugspitze went down a long long gondola directly to Eibsee.  Thankfully for the clouds you could not see very far, this is one of the scariest things we ever do.  Safe, but scary.

https://picasaweb.google.com/105622415255178546785/Day11Zugspitze02?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCKP4guzawKvVWw&feat=directlink

Day 10 - 5/20/2015, IPP

Wednesday was another rainy day in Munich.  We got up and lead a few students around for a rapid fire tour of various churches in Munich.  We saw five churches between 10 and 11:30, plus we caught the Marienplatz glockenspiel at 11.  The crypt for the kings of Bavaria was open so we stopped in there as well.  Quick tour and the few students that came with us seemed to really enjoy it.

In the afternoon we went out to the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics at the Technical University of Munich Research Center.  The first thing we did was take the students over to the math building to ride their slides.  They have slides from the third floor to the first.  Then we spent a few hours touring the ASDEX upgrade fusion reactor.  They test various materials and methods for fusion reaction confinement, hoping to one day run controlled fusion reactions for power sources.  The new ITER reactor in France should actually make power, if it works. 

That night we came back and the students went off to a memorable Mexican dinner.  Andi and I went to the Augustiner Keller near the Hauptbahnhof.

https://picasaweb.google.com/105622415255178546785/Day10ChurchesAndIPPFusionReactor?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCIXKsu61-_K12wE&feat=directlink