Day 3 - Freiburg City Tour

Today was another solid day in Freiburg.  We met our guide Steffan at 9:00 AM for a quick lecture on some of the history of Freiburg, considering the significant investment in energy efficiency and sustainability.  After the lecture, we took a walking tour of Freiburg and went inside the church in the central part of town.  After the walking tour, we went back to the train station where we were able to rent bikes.  We rode off to see two different environmental communities, Riesenfeld and Verbaun.  Freiburg has great infrastructure for bike travel, so on the way out we had very little traffic to deal with.  We stopped for lunch in a nice little Indian restaurant 

The bike tour went through some nice parks near downtown.  It also went through some beautiful woods.  The total distance for today was 25 km biking, about 15 miles.  The last part of the ride was in bike lanes next to a busy road, but everyone  made it just fine.

Tonight Andi and I went to the Red Bear for dinner.  This is a Freiburg restaurant that has been continuously operated in the same location since 1120, almost 900 years!  Dinner was outstanding.  We were going to meet up with the students after, but apparently they claim to be tired and heading in early.

Andi's pedometer says today was equivalent to 29 flights of stairs, 11.1 miles, 24,951 steps.

Selected Pictures

Day 2 - Freiburg Region Tour

Today was supposed to be an easy day.  We did not start officially until 12:30, but we encouraged the students to go check out the awesome market by the base of the church in the morning.  I think most of them did.  Lots of flowers, fruits, vegetables, meats, and woodent implements.  A real neat place!

We met Herr Schulz at 1:00 and got on the bus for our tour of the black forrest.  We toured a couple of energy efficient farms.  One uses agricultural producs and manure to produce natural gas, which is then used to run a nengine and make electricity.  The other farm uses a heat exchange to extract nenergy from the milk of cows.  They also used wood pellets to heat the farm and generated a lot of electricity from solar power.

Finally we got to go see a couple of wind turbines up close.  They really are amazingly tall and huge.

We had dinner in a 200 year old mill, eating locally produced meats, cheeses, and drinks.  This was a neat experience, but  a couple of people had some tummy troubles.  We finished up the day with a quick tour of Burg Hochburg, one of the largest castles in the region, now in ruins.  Overall, it was an amazing day.  The weather was great and the students all got to see a lot of interesting stuff.

Stats from Andi's pedometer:  8.05 miles, 18,143 steps, 26 flights of stairs.

Selected pictures

Day 1 - Freiburg Settling In

We made it!  Last year we had a direct flight from Charlotte to Frankfurt.  This year, we left from Columbia through Atlanta to Frankfurt.  The extra leg just adds to the difficulty.  Everyone traveled just fine.  One thing we tried to show the students is how difficult it is to use mass transit.  Rather than arriving in Germany and hopping on a tour bus, sleeping in transit, then getting off at your hotel we had a more difficult route.  We had to take a bus to the train station near the airport, catch a train (which was delayed) to Mannheim, then wait because we missed our connection, then catch a train to Freiburg, then get our bags from the hotel to the room.  There is limited relaxation as we have to make sure to get to our next connection.

Once we were in Freiburg we feasted on Doner Kebabs, saw the main market, hiked up to the top of the church, walked to the local observation tower, found a beer garden, then had some gellato.  Good day overall, but we are a bit on the tired side...

Andi's pedometer said 6.22 miles and 14,022 steps, 58 flights of stairs.

Tommorrow morning we have to sort out our cell phones and do some business before we start our tours at noon.

Pictures updated as soon as they are uploaded...

Selected Pictures

Welcome to 2013 Maymester Blog for Energy and Sustainability in Europe Course

Tomorrow we begin the journey and we hope for a fabulous, safe adventure for all!  Stay tuned for daily updates and links to pictures.

Drs. Gatzke (Ed and Andi)

Home!

Looks like we made it!  Some folks left out early, having friends and family in Munich.  Some others were headed on to visit friends in Greece and they headed out a bit before we had to leave for the airport Thursday. We had about a dozen going home with us and all was uneventful.  The worst part was the uncertainty trying to catch a train to the airport; the first train was out for maintenance / scheduling.  Even with our limited language skills, we knew enough to not get on the wrong train going the wrong way.  Ten minutes later a working train appeared and we were off.

The plane ride home was relatively pleasant, but TSA and security in Philadelphia were terrible.  We got to CLT and headed out without incident, saying goodbye to the last few students.  However, 9 PM Eastern is 3 AM in Germany so I was a but dodgy getting home.  This morning I had fully intended to head to the gym, then work in the yard, then get my car worked on, then put in a full day of work.  In reality, I am still overwhelmed physically from the trip so I may just rest.  Consider the itinerary:

Drive to Charlotte
Fly to Frankfurt
Train to Freiburg
Hike up mountain to observation tower
Bus tour to:
    Biogas Farm
    Wind Farm
    Energy efficient Farm
    Barn for dinner with local foods**
Walking / biking tour of:
    Freiburg downtown
    Overview lecture
    Rieselfeld and Verban communities
    Heliotrope rotating home
Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy
    Gasification / Pyrolisis
    Photovoltaics
    Hydrogen production and fueling
Train to Stuttgart
    Zoo or Downtown (Museum / church) tours**
   Frühlingsfest**
Car Museums of Stuttgart
   Mercedes Benz
   Porsche
Train to Ulm
   Climbed tallest church tower in the world**
Train to Munich
   Downtown tour**
BMW Museum tour
BMW Factory tour
Train trip to Alps (Garmish)**
Deutsches Museum (German Museum of Technology and Industry)
Technische Universität München department of Technical Chemistry
   Catalysts for biofuel / biogas production from algae / lignin
   Electrochemistry for Fuel Cells and Batteries
   CO2 chemistry for polymers
Max-Planck-Institut für Plasmaphysik Tokamak Fusion reactor
Hofbräuhaus München**
Fly to PHL to CLT
Drive home

No wonder we are a bit tired!  We did not leave a lot of room in the schedule for resting.  The students did very well with everything.

I took about 6000 photos and a few movies.  They will be available at Dropbox.  We are attempting to get photos from everyone in the same place, here:

Dropbox Photos

I am sending out information on how to post their photos there, so check back in a week or two once we get a wider selection.

One more time, my wife and I had a terrific time escorting this terrific group of students to Germany and back. 

Day 11 - Fusion Research

Today was a highlight for me.  We went to the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics and saw a working Tokamak fusion reactor.  The ASDEX Upgrade reactor in Garching is a couple of decades old, but it still produces usable information about materials and magnetic dynamics.  We also discussed stellerator designs for fusion reactors a bit, an interesting design for future consideration.  Hopefully the new ITER reactor in France has no troubles! Our guide Angelo was very helpful and Reiner was also very informative about the materials processing / materials testing plant..

We said our sorrowful goodbyes after the fusion reactor, as some students were headed out for Austria.  The afternoon was free, so Andi and a student and I headed to the English Garden in Munich.  After lunch, Andi and I headed to Dachau.  We met back with the group at the Hofbräuhaus München for our final dinner.  Many students are staying in Europe, but we fly home with about half of them tomorrow.

For any parents that are reading this, the students this year were absolutely perfect.  They were very well-behave and respectful.  They arrived on time and tried their best to pay attention during lectures and events.  They all appeared very mature and we were vary proud to have them with us during the last two weeks.  We thank you for allowing them to come with us.  It is evident that they were all raised very well, as they were all joyful to be around.  They certainly represented the University of South Carolina very well.

Day 11 - Photos

May 16, 2012 - Activity Data Report

Today:

8.4 miles
> 18,000 steps
~ 17 flights of stairs

All in all, this tour we accomplished:

80 miles of walking
> 180,000 steps
> 245 flights of stairs.