On Tuesday, we let the group sleep in a bit to recover from traveling. However, we encouraged them to eat the expansive buffet at the hotel and wander over to the main church square to see the big German market with flowers, fruits, vegetables, meats, and other vendors.
Around noon, we took our bus out to a castle. The rain started as we headed up the hill, but the clouds parted just in time to take photos at the castle. Our main guide showed up after the castle and took us off for the afternoon. We stopped at a farm producing heat and electricity from biogas (created from agricultural waste and corn energy). Then we went to a farm where they use heat from dairy milk to preheat water, along with wood chips. This farm also has an excess of photovoltaic cells and rents land to the local windmill co-op. Again, it rained a bit.
We went to visit two large windmills. We could go inside the towers, but we could not go up for safety and time reasons. Once more, thunder threatened so we had to run for the bus. We did stop briefly at a new windmill. They put the final 20 ton blade on today as we watched!
Our final stop was a 200 year old mill where we had local foods for dinner. Black Forest Ham, blutwurst, leberwurst, fleischwurst, applejuice, bread, butter, cheese, jam, and apple wine. After dinner we toured the old mill and watched it in operation.
Overall, a great day considering the weather. We were able to do all the activities when it was not raining, so I call it a success.
Total miles this day: 7.5 miles.
Wednesday, May 14, 2014
Monday, May 12, 2014
Day 1 - Frankfurt to Freiburg
We met with all students arriving to Frankfurt at the Fernbahnhof in the airport.
Our train changed tracks at the last second and we found ourselves sprinting up escalators and stairs, across a platform, and back down the escalator/ stairs. Very exciting! And nerve wracking ... But, we are a good group already and we all made it on the right train!
When we got to our hotel in Freiburg, the rest of the students were awaiting our arrival. Our group is now complete with 22 students.
After checking into our rooms, we began our walk to the city, up the church tower (google Freiburg Minster), into the church, up a small mountain, then a rest afterward at the bottom of the mountain in a quaint Biergarten.
Now we eat dinner and head to bed for a good night's rest.
Total miles walked today: 7.3 miles
Friday, May 9, 2014
2014 Maymester - Contact Information
We made it to Germany!
The following numbers have been confirmed as working, if you or your parents need to reach us:
803-220-6572 (this is also a FaceTime contact)
Both are USA phone numbers.
The German phone we have here hopefully will be activated by tomorrow. It is a third form of contact and should be dialed from the USA as follows:
011 49 15777994294
We also get real-time email at:
Gatzkemail@gmail.com
We very much look forward to seeing you on Monday morning in Frankfurt!
Look forward to the exercise....we have been up for 29 hours and have already logged 5.8 miles since we landed, with a lovely walk around some beautiful lakes and a small hunting palace.
Tschüß!
-Andi and Ed
Sunday, May 26, 2013
Day 14 - Going Home
Everyone scheduled to go to Atlanta made it through security and onto the plane. As I blog, the plane should be landing very soon... Then most are flying to their personal destinations.
To summarize our personal ENERGY efforts this trip: We each walked ca. 102 miles, 229,673 steps, and 327 flights of stairs!
Saturday, May 25, 2013
Day 13 - Neuschwanstein
Today we had a free day. Andi and I went with four of the students on a train ride out to Fussen, a small town in the Alps home to Neuschwanstein, the most famous castle in Germany (and the worlds?) Andi and I had been before but it was fun to go again. The students had a good time and we got back to Munich in time for the Champions League Final. They are opening the Oktoberfest fieldgrounds just a few blocks from out hotel for a public viewing with thousands of fans watching the game broadcast from London. Hopefully FC Bayern will win and all the locals will be happy. It worries us with the students, hopefully they realize that they have an early flight tomorrow...
Andi's pedometer shows 7.04 miles, 15,393 steps, and 66 floors climbed (that was a big hill and a castle with a lot of stairs!).
Day 12 - TUM Hofbrau Haus
Today was our last program day. We had arranged tours at the Technical University of Munich which is in an outlying suburb of Munich. The train line to Garching was under repair, so we had to leave early so that we could catch a train to a train to a bus to a train. That worked very well, so we arrive half an hour early. Since we had time, we ran over to the TUM Math building where they have slides from the fourth floor down in their atrium. We had a fun time!
At 10:00 we started our tour of the Max Planc Institute for Plasma Physics. This facility performs fusion research. After a presentation, we were able to tour the reactor. We were allowed to stand just a few feet from a fusion reactor! Last year they were operating, so we had to stay outside the main chamber. We also saw their control room and energy storage flywheel system that can supply hundreds of megawatts during their 10 second shots. Our host allowed us to eat at their IPP cafeteria which is supposedly better than the traditional student cafeteria.
After lunch we went to visit the TUM chemistry department. We had a nice lecture on batteries and fuel cells from our host and then we toured a few labs. After finishing the TUM tour, we headed back to Munich. A few of us stopped at the Allianz soccer stadium to check out the home of FC Bayern, a team competing this Saturday in the Champions League finals.
After a little shopping, we headed over to the Hoffbrauhaus for our dinner. Sadly, the reservations were fouled up and the other USC group was not able to join us. We had a good time singing along with the oom-pah band!
Saturday is a free day. A few of us are headed out to Neuschwanstein and some are headed to Dachau. We finish this up and fly out Sunday morning.
Thursday, May 23, 2013
Day 11 - Zugspitze
Today was a fun day. We caught an early train off to Garmisch-Penkirken at the base of the Alps. We had some stress early on because our discount ticket was technically good only after 9 AM and we needed to leave at 8:30 to catch our connection. The train conductor gave me a stern talking to at 8:55 but we manged to move on.
In Garmisch, we got onto the cog wheel train. Due to construction, we took a bus around one section. Then we took another cog wheel train through a long tunnel to the glacier. It was cloudy but still beautiful so we had snowball fights and did some sled riding. After some food and drink, we took the gondola up to the Zugspitze, the highest point in Germany. Again, we had clouds to deal with but overall it was a pretty neat experience. I think the students enjoyed it a lot.
After coming down the mountain we spent some time in Garmisch. Garmisch is a small little alpine village with plenty of tourist shops and restaurants. We also toured around a bit before getting on the train back to Munich.
Andi reports from the pedometer just 5.9 miles, 14 flights, 13,330 steps.
In Garmisch, we got onto the cog wheel train. Due to construction, we took a bus around one section. Then we took another cog wheel train through a long tunnel to the glacier. It was cloudy but still beautiful so we had snowball fights and did some sled riding. After some food and drink, we took the gondola up to the Zugspitze, the highest point in Germany. Again, we had clouds to deal with but overall it was a pretty neat experience. I think the students enjoyed it a lot.
After coming down the mountain we spent some time in Garmisch. Garmisch is a small little alpine village with plenty of tourist shops and restaurants. We also toured around a bit before getting on the train back to Munich.
Andi reports from the pedometer just 5.9 miles, 14 flights, 13,330 steps.
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