Day 3: 5/13/15, Freiburg

10:13pm:

We had a long day of hiking and biking while learning about Next Energy principles in action in Freiburg.

This evening we had a hail storm, but we are ok.

MILES WALKED TODAY:  6 mi

MILES BIKED TODAY:  9 mi 

Day 2: 5/12/15, Freiburg

8:50pm:  Today was farm day!  We traveled to see how farmers have adapted their way of farming to include producing energy from biomass, warm cow milk, wind turbines, and solar panels.

First, we traveled by bus to castle Burg Hochburg in Emmendingen.  We went in and walked among the ruins.  Then we traveled into the mountains to a farm that grows grass, harvests it, mixes it with local farm animal dung, at creates energy from the fermentation.  Then, we traveled to another farm where the energy is harnessed from warm dairy cows' milk, and many solar panels lined the large farmhouse roof top.  On this farm are large wind turbines, which we were able to directly approach and even go inside two different ones.  Finally, we went to a farm where a new wind turbine may be built to help the farmer financially...and at this farm, we ate dinner.

We ate quark, butter, Black Forest Bacon, liver wurst, blood wurst, and plain wurst (like bologna).  We also had freshly baked bread, strawberry marmalade, apple juice, spring water.  All of this food was made at this farm by Herr Schillenger's family.  We ate it on a wooden board with only a knife-much like the old days.  And we ate inside the old home of the Schillenger Family.  It was a grain mill / home and the mill was powered by a water wheel.

We are current with the time here, but are still tired at day's end.

WALKING MILES LOGGED:  6.5 mi

Day 1: 5/11/15, Freiburg

1:00pm:  We have all arrived in Freiburg at our hotel safely!  Off to hike to fight the jet lag...

8:30pm:  After eating Döner Kebap (like a gyro), we hiked into the city, and up the 329 steps of the steeple of the Freiburg Münster.  What a joy it is to see the same man we first saw in 2008 sitting at the top accepting admission.  An older gentleman whom I wonder what his back story is...

Once we got back down we the hiked up the Schlossburg Lookout Tower on Schlossberg mountain...these students are super excited, have a great attitude, and are a pleasure to be around considering they all have had a long day of travels on very little sleep.

The goal was to keep them busy so they got to bed at a normal time tonight and quickly combat jet lag.

We have a late start tomorrow with out activities beginning at noon.  This will give all of us time to sleep in a bit, grab a great breakfast here at the hotel, and explore the open-air market around the Freiburg Münster.

Links to pictures will be coming soon!

WALKING MILES LOGGED:  7.2 mi

Food in Germany-

A few things to remember when eating in Germany.  They like pork, so there may be pork in anything.  In the hotel in Stuttgart they even serve a spread that is lard with bacon bits in it.  I guess you put it on your sausage?  If you don't eat pork, you can ask "Ohne Schwein?" which means "without pork?" and is pronounced "oh-neh shwine" pretty much.  Ja is yes, nein is no.

If "ohne" is without, "mit" is with.  So you might say "Ein Doner mit scharf." which means "One gyro sandwich with spicy sauce."  You could even ask for a coke with ice as "Cola mit eiswurfeln" but they may laugh at you or give you a single cube.  "Eis" pronounced "ice" means ice cream only. And "pepperoni" are tiny spicy peppers.

Even though we will be doing a lot of walking, the food is pretty heavy and tasty.  One student said after the first week she only had one pair of pants that would fit so she wore them every day.

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/236x/c0/64/87/c064876fcf21e76084084b2217162c30.jpg

http://a4.mzstatic.com/eu/r30/Purple2/v4/a2/1b/b8/a21bb88f-59c0-c4d5-71a3-da8eb895b72e/screen568x568.jpeg

Pictures

I have had troubles this year with pictures, both due to internet and Google/Picasa issues.  I finally got the good folders uploaded and online. I posted 1800 photos of 5000 I took, not including any of the many GBs of GoPro footage Andi took (to be put online later)

The link to all the albums at once (for 2014 and 2013) is here:

http://picasaweb.google.com/gatzkemail

Day 13 - Free Day in Munich

Saturday started out a bit cloudy, but later the weather really picked up and it became a beautiful day.  We checked in with all the students in the morning.  Some were headed to Dachau concentration camp and some were just bumming around downtown Munich.  Andi and I went out to the Nyphenberg palace to walk the grounds.  We had seen the palace years ago.  We ended up at the Hirsch Garden, the largest beer garden in Germany.  We had learned that in German beer gardens, you can bring your own food but you are expected to buy their drinks.  They also serve food, so we had chicken, schweinhaxen, and grilled fish on a stick.  We ran into some of the students back at the hotel getting ready to watch the soccer game.

There is some construction on the subway, so we are concerned that they leave plenty of time to get to the airport on Sunday.  It is not confusing once you figure out what is happening...

Day 12 - Deutsches Museum

Today we went to the Deutsches Museum, the German technical museum.  They have collections on everything technical, including steam engines, planes, rockets, electric motors, chemistry, physics, chemical processing, textiles, ceramics, pharmaceuticals, photography, plastics and many many more.  We did not have a traditional tour guide, as in years past the guide was usually a bit boring, especially at the end of the trip after we have talked about solar power and nuclear power and wind power and energy many times over.  So today, we tried something new: a treasure hunt.  Find the biggest steam engine.  What color is the V2 rocket?  One fun activity was walking through the 700 m mine, which was very realistic and included salt, ore, and coal mining sections.  For lunch, many of us hit a local all-you-can-eat sushi place, then some of us went on to the Deutsches Museum Transportation museum.  That museum was tiny in comparison, we made a quick run through it in less than an hour.  Tonight is our dinner at Hoffbrauhaus, then tomorrow is free.