Germany 2nd Week

I know. You are all waiting to know what has been going on. It's been truly amazing and we are all sincerely sorry for not being able to keep up with the blog. However, when they said GSE was hard work, they weren't kidding.

Our days are filled with incredible learning opportunities and interesting people. Our evenings are filled with long-conversations and new experiences. Typically we are up well past midnight and awake again the next day before 6am. As we are here for only a short time we are trying to get as much out of the experience as possible. This doesn't leave us much time for blogging, email or even quick phone calls.

Emden was truly amazing. As you have seen in the previous posts - it really is working towards a sustainable future. From there we moved to Bruchausen-Vilsen. Once again, we were not disappointed. A very well organized itinerary that saw us each enjoy amazing vocational days, to meeting a German McDonald's frachisee, to an informational and interesting walk thru at the newspaper office to a fabulous learning experience at a world reknown horse-breeding facility, to delightful walk through the cultural center of historical Celle.

My vocational day was spent with Mattiai Construction - a well-known and relatively large construction company in Northern Germany. A great day of touring various projects including a round-about, construction of a new canal and lock system, a bridge project and a new highway construction. It was very interesting to look at the different techniques being applied and to discuss costing and estimating.

And once again, the highlight of the time was the people. Truly wonderful! I think that is what I will take away most from this experience - the opportunity to meet and talk with the local people. To develop friendships, understanding, and to, best of all, plan their future trips to British Columbia.

This morning we are off to Berlin. We are all excited. Berlin has so much to offer and I think these next few days will be beyond expectations. Chat again soon

Moving forward

We have arrived to a new town in Northern Germany, it is late, so will post again in the next day. We will sum up the last few days in Emden and will begin to post our latest adventure. Stay in touch and we will be back here with photos and stories, Good night,

Friesische Freiheit

Here are some photos of our days here in Emden and the area. From the Wadden Sea to Neuharlingerseal, there are many beautiful and interesting places to see in East Frisia. Our Emden coordinator, Remmer Edzards, put together an interesting and exciting itinerary for us.

Our vocational day in Emden

Wow. Today was another great day of learning about Emden's energy industries. We began at a the Stadtwerk biomass facility. Then our Rotarian guide (and captain of our sailing trip yesterday), Wilhelm-Alfred Brüning, showed us his steel manufacturing and design firm. After a delightful mittagessen at Greg and Fred's host home of Dr. Onno Feenders and his wife Krista, we went to tour the E-Ship. The ship is designed around the concept of "flatner rotors." I may be misspelling that, but the general idea is that these rotors spin around creating a negative pressure on one side of the column and positive pressure on the other side, which then is used to provide an energy savings of 30% for the cargo ship. This ship will be used to transport Enercon's windmill components around the world. It was a state of the art ship, but photos are "verboten." Greg or the others may have more to add. I have a feeling we've seen some technology that many people would give their life and limb to see. I am truly amazed at the opportunities we have through this program.

Sky to Sea Cont'd - pics only

oh ya, forgot to mention. This wind turbine we climbed is one turbine in the largest wind farm in the world! Enercon is the Corporation who manufacturs and supplies the wind tubines at 14 million euros a piece this farm is nothing to shake a stick at with 70 turbines!!! This Co. was developed in the garage of a one man and still owned by him and his family!

Sky to Sea

As Fred and Greg have mentioned we are now in Emden - origonally settled in 800!!!

We have been fortunate enough to stay with amzing host families showing us the best parts of this town of only 52 000 residents. Even though this is a small town they deliver some amazing technology, industry, tourism and cluture.

Remmer Edzards is one of our hosts. He is a GM for the local Engery supply company in Emden. He has recenty been a key speaker at the earth summit in Rio De Janeiro - world climate conference. He was commended on Emden being a truly sustainable city.

we've been to the top of a 130 meter wind turbine on the coast two days ago (of which Kim and I climbed all the way down on a ladder!!!!)

Yesterday we walked from the german mainland to the Island of Bultrum through the "Watt Mud". This three hour tour was so interesting as this mud is full of orgamisms and history. Germanys northern sea coastal communities seem to have a reocurring theme of constantly having to maintain shipping channels because this mud fills the waterways and makes the coast impossible to reach. But though 100's of years of practice maintaining waterways is a fine art.

After this was can back and drove to remmers home town (Nueuharlingersiel) on the coat where some buildings still stand from late 1800's then had a wonderful meal at his sisters resturant.

Today we where lucky enough to have one of the rotarians take us on a sail boat tour out of Emden and over across to the Netherlands, where we had a little fun getting interrogated by the friendly police. They enjoyed a nice cup of kaffee with us! We have having the time of our lives seeing wonderful places, learning interesting aspects of germany and their government, history and people! AND I think we are learing some german!! ;)

Bremen - photos for the last post

A Terrific Time So Far

It has been an amazing trip. I apologize for not keeping up - we are on a very busy schedule. I will post some pictures as soon as I can get near some wireless internet.


For me, it was a great vocational day last week. I spent the day touring the Lloyd-Verft shipyard where I was able to tour the work being done on the PolarStern and observe the world famous LLoyd-Verft ship lengthening process. I learned much about German engineering, quality and labour laws - also how Germany is able to stay competitive with much different labour laws and rules governing hours of operation.

The tour of Bremen was truly amazing - a great chance to see some truly historic buildings and mingle with German people and tourists alike.

A grand bbq at the President´s house just outside Bremerhaven - great food, great friends and lots of fun! It was our first chance to complete our presentation in German. Our hosts were kind enough not to laugh - or cry.

After that has been the move to Emden - possibly one of the greenest cities in the world. We have done so much here already and created so many new memories. I think I´ll need more time. Tschuss for now

WOW

These past few days have been incredible, the people are interesting, the culture is amazing and the knowledge i am learning is mind blowing, lol. Sorry to those who are following: i have not been good at keeping up with the blog; but i am doing the best. Bremerhaven was a great place to start this exchange, but now we are in Emden, still along the coast west of Bremerhaven 2 hours. We are arrived Friday, had a nice lunch at a local hotel restuarant and met our host families for this stay in Emden. The hospitality is great, our families makes us feel welcomed.

Today we were on top of the world! We started with a local tour of the city and had lunch at another restuarant along the coast - the schnitzel was grand! After a nice hardy lunch we climbed 135 meter wind turbine. ( the tallest wind turbine in the world!) it was a hard climb, never thought i would be so tired from climbing a ladder - but it is a work out. These turbines are produced locally and generate energy for local inhabitants and businesses. One wind turbine can produce enough power for 5,000 homes! There are 70 wind turbines in Emden - There a plants here shipping wind turbines all over the world. We will post pictures shortly. (my battery is dead and my charger has stopped working, so i can not use my camera) my team will post up some pictures.

Hello to everyone back at home, Goodnight and stay intouch.

vocational day

My vocational day was very interesting. Dr Schöne, the vice director and facility vet, was a wonderful host and toured me around the faciliy. My agenda for the day was a trip to the local zoo. the zoo is a major landmark for it's community as it has been in existance for 82 years now.

the theme is Polar probably to match up with the Polar research center that was established many years ago as well. the exception to the rule are the Chimps, which remained fter the last renovation due to popular request. I can see why as they are so interesting to watch them interact!

I had the privilage to see all the behind the curtain action. My day started with a 7am meet with the staff for team chat and then carried on to see everyones daily routins, like feeding the Polar bears in the morning..10kg of raw meat for the BIG male bear!

Aslo, got to watch care in action with a little oh so cute arctic fox. the female keeps bitting the end of it's tail for some unknown reason other than the possiblility of just being nasty :)

I also spend time with the educational staff who taught me about the "Zoo school" they host for local school. The day ended with a local fish lunch and Kaffee :)

This si an integral part of the town of Bremerhaven and you can see with the care of the facility and how well the people work together. The#ve even been making a reality tv show about this zoo, it's animals and the zoo keepers for the last three years! the locals love it!

Rosemary's vocational day

Tuesdazy was most interesting for me as I spent it with Walter Klemeyer, a local Rotarian and a labor law lawyer and his brother Peit who is also in the practice. We went to the Rathaus- courthouse twice , once to defend an employee vs. an employer who has be observed as practicing unfairlz< according to union laws and another where an employee felt she was treated unfairly when the company closed and changed her exit benefits. Although I could not understand all of the German , I could read body language and knew the outcomes prior to hearing it in English. I also met with a lawyer in the firm who does divorce law and we shared common interest in our work with displaced homemakers. A funny thing has been happening to many of us as we use-or try to use more German we are unable to find the correct English word or term and my thinking English is in a different structure.

Walter also took me on a walking history tour of Bremerhaven near his office. He walks or bikes everywhere including to the Rathaus except today we took his Smartcar which he likes because it is energy efficient and can be parked nose in and use little space. He was a most gracious host for the day and at lunch he and Peit introduced me to a great fish lunch - their favorite- fried herring which is then chilled and served with fried potatoes and eaten fish skin and all-yum. We have eaten so much good fish in Bremerhaven, we are spoiled. It was a most interesting day. Each member of the team reported a vonderful and enriching vocational day- thanks to thoughtful planning.

More pictures

- My vocational day on Tuesday - i was not allowed to take photos inside.

Dinner with Rotary club on ship in Bremerhaven harbor - fish was really good. Thank you.

Group day touring fish company. I learned alot. Could not take photos inside, but i believe there will be other photos published.

- great museum, I recommend for you to see this (yes, you the one who is reading this, lol)

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

I'll be brief as others are waiting to add their own parts. I only wanted to include some photos.

Today was another busy and very informational day. It started off with a tour of Deutchesee's frozen fish and seafood packing facility. It was really interesting to learn about the seafood industry in Germany, how the ingredients are selected and how the company has strived to remain a leader in quality and innovation.

After that it was off to a tour of a wire rope factory where steel cables are produced. Again, it was very interesting to learn about and understand German engineering, production practices and quality control operations.

Finally it ended with a tour of Deutsche Auswander Haus - the Immigration Center and Museum for Germany. This was an incredible time as it allowed us to pick an actual immigrant, learn their history and follow their path from Bremerhaven to the New World. An exceptionally well-done exhibit that was very interactive and informative. It was followed by an opportunity to investigate your own immigration roots. All around a great day.

Meeting Bremerhaven Mayor and visiting Klimahaus

We missed the update for yesterday's events. We had an action packed day beginning with meeting the mayor and getting to visit with him for over an hour. It was inspiring and an honor to meet part of the visionary team that redeveloped the fishing harbor area bringing the Klimahaus, Sail City Hotel, and tourism amenities to the harbor.

The afternoon went by all too fast at the Klimahaus. It is a great place to learn, interact, and meet people featured in the exhibits from all over the world along the longitude in Bremerhaven (Niger, Cameroon, Sardinia, Samoa, Alaska, Switzerland, and Germany...). Too much to share now but here are a few pictures of the day.

Rosemary joins the authors

I am pleased to be on the author list at last. Coordinating computers has it's challenges-alltogether we have solved it. Our Rotarian hosts are vonderful. Germany is a fascinating country with gracious people. Our team, as you have read is fully engaged in an interesting schedule of learning and exploring the locale. Guten abend.

Day Two

Building on Kim's post - what an amazing day. The photos here are from the top of Sail City. Looking north over Bremerhaven's new harbours and east over the city center with the wind turbines and farmland in the distance. As Bremerhaven is a port city, much of it was destroyed during the Second World War and had to be rebuilt. It has also gone through a tremendous change since then. It used to have a huge fishing industry and a large ship building industry and has had to adapt to changing circumstances.

The Lloyd Werft tour was amazing. Once a thriving ship building area it has been re-created to specialize in ship overhauls, specializing in ships lengthening - where the aft and bow are seperated and a new length of ship inserted. It is also a huge shipping port and over 1 million vehicles travel through the port every year. We saw everything from cars to boats to farm tractors to tanks and firetrucks all waiting - either having been just unloaded or being prepared for shipment.

The container port is one of the largest in the world and we had the chance to see a container ship being loaded. A tractor trailer unit carrying two containers enters the wharf, unloads, re-loads and exits the facility in twelve minutes. Talk about planning and precision!

I am back at the Wharf for my vocational day and I hope to take the opportunity to learn about the logistics, operation and efficiencies of such an amazing facility.

Bremerhaven harbor tour

After arriving yesterday to wonderful hosts and a great Rotary Club to greet us in the Bremen aiport, we drove 60 km to Bremerhaven where we will stay for 6 days. We all managed to stay awake all day, probably due to friendly conversation and walking in the park. Today began with a visit to the Sail City Hotel at the harbour where we went up to the 20th floor to take in a great view of Bremerhaven and the area. It was quite windy, but the sun warmed us while we got oriented to the city sights.

Lunch was at Kutterfischer in the fish harbor area. The main attraction here is the fresh fish, much of which is salted or smoked and is delicious!

Then we took a double decker bus tour of the harbors of Bremerhaven. Through our hosts' translations, we learned about one of the biggest shipping harbors in northeastern Europe, along with Amsterdam and Hamburg. The enormous ships here import and export up to 2,000 vehicles each, and the cargo container shipping operation is equally impressive in sheer volume of products getting moved in and out.

Gute nacht!
Kim