Luebeck Guided Tour

Lubeck

On our tour of Lubeck, we were lucky enough to enjoy very beautiful weather, unlike our tour of Hafencity. Our delightful tourguide pointed out the crooked and sloping buildings due to their duration. We went down several very narrow streets that led to small open spaces with entrances to houses. We were told that these houses used to house up to 8 people per househould, resulting in a total of 80 people in extremely tiny living spaces. We also visited St. Mary's Church which was surprisingly colder than the outside temperature. We discovered the drastic change in temperature was due to the fact that the church has never been heated as it takes far too much money to heat such a large church. We also learned that the organ in the church is extremely elaborate. It takes the organ player about 30 minutes to just get up to the organ, depending on the physical state of the player. We were also told the story of the devil sitting outside of the church.

by Laila

by Laila

by Laila

by Laila

by Laila

by Laila

by Laila

Hamburg---Green Capital

   Hamburg is the European Green Capital 2011. The title well deserved as most of us realized while staying in Hamburg. The streets of Hamburg appear to be very clean and that is not only due to the well organized trash disposal system but also due to contribution and willingness to be ecologically friendly of the citizens of Hamburg. As we heard during the presentation there has been a lot of work done to achieve this highly valued status. However, Hamburg will not stop on what they have achieved already, this trend will continue improving the ecological standard of the city and make it more attractive to live in. 

     One can always find a bicycle to be rented out and the system of rent and return is sophisticated enough not to create jams or unnecessary and unpleasant moments waiting. Hamburg also pays close attention to its environmental programs. For the years to come there is a well planned and organized system to reduce Carbon Dioxide pollution into the atmosphere by 80% until 2050 which will be rather challenging. But where would humanity be if we did not set ambitious goals and pursuit them.

     Another interesting idea created by the organization in Hamburg was the "Train of Ideas". We found it very creative to compress the most important ideas and achievements of the city and try to share them with their European neighbors. Frankly Veniamin and I would like to visit this "Train of Ideas" when it will be passing Zurich in May. After all it is important to challenge oneself but after achieving certain goals share your progress with other, so that the environmental health of the planet will no longer be an issue.

by Veniamin and Emil

The Food

Exquisite Food in Hamburg & Copenhagen

For 10 straight days we had the pleasure of eating the most diverse and tasteful foods. For these 10 days, pesto pasta was not on the menu for once. The trip started with Pakistani food complete with mango lassi. We had the pleasure of experiencing succulent Portuguese cuisine the next night and the enjoyable dinners continued throughout the entire trip with dinners at Thai and Asian/Japanese restaraunts, steakhouses, and traditional Danish cafes. Each and every night the group would leave the restaraunt with full bellies and happy taste buds. We students were pleasantly surprised in every city we visited to find such diverse and cultural dining options. The best part of our dinners of course though, was the fact that they were completely paid for! :)

 by Laila

by Laila

by Laila

by Laila

The food in the travel

The first time in my life have I ever experienced such diverse food in my life. I have never ate so much amount of international food in ten straight days. Our first cuisine on the travel was an unexpectedly good Pakistani restaurant, unlike the chicken curry in the grotto the Pakistani's chicken curry was much more succulent than what we have expected. But our food adventure did not stop there! Another night our professor will take us to restaurants we could never have imagined going to. One night we went to an above average Asian restaurant, another Japanese, the next day Portuguese and so on. And sometimes during the day, our professor would take us to the best cafes in town just for a light meal. Overall, I believe that the food was one of the most important experience on our travel and I hope that I can repeat the travel again after I have lost the weight I gained from the food.

By Haitham