Though the Study tour was only three days, I believe that this is likely to be my longest post yet. The study tour kicked off Thursday morning with a tour of Storebaelt Bridge. Never before have I been on the inside of a highly trafficked bridge and my foremost observation was the noise. The public is not typically allowed to go off the beaten trail to this island, which is the headquarters for the bridge, but when your teacher is the former Danish Minister of Transportation you receive not only an extensive tour from the bridge director but a wonderful meal cooked by the staff. Here are some pictures of the bridge, and the lighthouse on the connecting island.
The Bridge Right before we went inside of it
Taken from under the Bridge looking at the Light house.
After our terrific lunch we headed to Dybbøl Banke, a battlefield where the Danes faced the brute force of Bismark’s army in 1864. It was in this war that Denmark lost its southernmost province of Schleswig-Holstein and the area of the nation was decreased by a third. This is what helped define the type of nation-state that Denmark has become and their political position in the world. The pictures from this battlefield may be slightly fuzzy due to rain. The picture from Dybbøl Banke is following on the right.
That night we stayed at a hostel in Haderslev. It was an amazing hostel, I was quite impressed. Thursday evening after our group dinner we went to a Danish Pub and got to know each other since the rest of the day had been so rushed.
When we woke up Friday morning we ate the delicious breakfast that the hostel gave us and headed off to Germany, Kiel to be exact. There we met with the head of the Schleswig-Holstein Ministry of internal affairs, where he told us about the modern Schleswig-Holstein.
Ministry of Internal Affairs for Schleswig-Holstein.
Next we headed to the Christian-Albrechts-Universitat in Kiel where a Professor there met with us and explained the German consensus on EU policies from an analytical point of view. This was a superb talk, and I feel like he really gave good insight. Looking back on it, I think that he was our best presenter throughout the tour.
Despite feeling that riding the bus was getting to be quite repetitive we loaded onto the bus, and drove the our last stop on the tour, Lübeck Germany. This stop was not centered around the EU but rather history in general, since Lübeck is considered to be one of the most historical cities in Germany. Many historical towns and cities were destroyed due to air raid in Germany, but Lübeck only received one bomb courtesy of the Allied forces, since the captured Allied forces were mainly kept in Lübeck. However, when we arrive there at 7 o’clock at night we did not know this and would not find out until the next day. What we did know though, was that there was a variety of music blaring from different parts of the city and we wanted to know why. Following both our noses (we were hungry) and our ears we turned the corner from our hostel and found a massive German street carnival, with food and drink, games, and party towers. From an American point of view it was an amazing party that would never have occurred in the states, while to the Germans around us it was just their annual street carnival, no big deal. Here are some glimpses of the night’s adventure to the left and then below.
Saturday morning bright and early we were strolling around Lübeck with an expert on the history of the city. Though it is a relatively small city (compared with Copenhagen) the tour lasted around 2.5 hours. Needless to say we hear countless tales of a Lübeck of old, and saw many aspects of the city that I may have otherwise not known to see. Here is my tour of Lübeck.
I don't think that many tourists go to Germany to see a chair suspended in clothesline next to the familys' Germany flag four stories up, But none the less here it is.
Below is one of the main streets leading up to the Cathedral.
Believe it or not this is the entrance to one of Germany's first retirement communities.
The beautiful church of St. Mary's. It is listed by UNESCO for Cultural Significance.
After eating lunch at a famous Sailing association, now turned restaurant, and shopping in the famed Marzipan shop and shop of solely German Gummies, we headed back to the bus to return to Copenhagen. I thought that we would get off the bus to go on our scheduled ferry. You can imagine my astonishment and my neighbors’ laughter as I came to the realization that the Whole Bus was going on the ferry!
EU, German, and Danish Flags - Appropriate ending to the study tour!
