Koln / Bonn Scavenger Hunt Video

Here is the link to the youtube video of one of the group's scavenger hunt experience....

Pretty cool job, but the song is like 3 years old!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDJjbCSaOpM

Back in Paderborn

Wow did we have a great trip. We learned a lot about German Business and Culture. The students were great - always ready to tackle the next challenge. Yesterday they did a scanvenger hunt in Koln and Bonn and then did presentations about the experience. I will post things soon but I can tell you now: they had a blast and proved to me and more importantly themselves that they can be independent and successful in Germany.

That theme gets more emphasis this week as I morph into Professor and they into student. We have returned to Paderborn and the students are already bust with their German counter parts working on their "Cultural Cheat" assignment. I got a smile out of the conversations I overheard that included moments of hard work, and moments of social recommendations!

I will add more photos and comments after I get some work done ..... I do have this class to teach tomorrow and I should probably verify all is set to go. The students can't be the only ones working on this Sunday evening.

But before I sign off, we want to say good by (aufweidersehen) to the three classmates who headed back today. We will miss you. We wish you soft beds, air conditioning and ice!

Tony ...... Jon....... and Sunjay........

In Cologne after the Rhein

We have had a great trip up and down the Rhein, with our home base being in St. Goar. We arrived wednesday in Koblenz and had a nice 3hr boat trip down the Rhein to St. Goar. We stayed at the "Jungenherberge" which means youth hostel. It was not swanky, but we had a great spaghetti dinner and then hung out on their deck overlooking the Rhein for the evening. Brent Brock won our 15 person card game of "screw your neighbor" pocketing about 3 euros for his victory.

On Thursday we took a feery across the Rhein to St Goarhausen and jumped a train to Rudesheim. We did a bit of shopping there and then took the cable car up the mountain and visited the Neiderwald Denkmal. From there we took a great hike that included a couple great Rhein River viewing points and included a trip through the haunted hole!

After this we took the Sielbahn (chair lift) down into Assmannhausen and had a great wine tasting & lunch. After a quick train ride back to Rudesheim we jumped on another KD Boat and cruised back past Loreley Rock to St. Goar.

Friday we visited Burg Rheinfels and explored the tunnels and paths of this castle ruins. Groups explored dark tunnels using their cell phones as lights. Small groups found their way to different lunch spots and had a last relaxing time in the tiny burg of St. Goar.

Friday afternoon saw a hectic train ride to Cologne and then a nice dinner out as a group at a traditional German restaurant in the Heumarkt platz area of Koln. Many of the group sampled Kolsch style beer - the only beer that is also a language (dialect of German).

Today the students got sent on a scavenger hunt - it will be interesting to see just how good/comfortable the group has become with self navigation (actually small groups) in Germany. We meet together later to share stories and have a final group dinner.

Some photos from Wed - Friday.....

The "Rhein River" group giving their location presentation from a pretty sweet location - the deck of our youth hostel in St. Goar on the Rhein.

The group on the Ferry across the Rhein .... just one of the many forms of public transport we have used on the trip. On Thursday we ....walked, ferry, walked, train, walked (and shopped) cable car up, hiked, chair lift down, walked, train, walked, boat, and then walked. Now that is traveling!

The group outside the restaurant in Assmannshausen....

On the KD Boat leaving Rudesheim on Thursday - the Neiderwald Denkmal is on the top of the hill behind the group. (That statue is the photo at the start of this blog entry)


The ruins of Burg Rheinfels in St. Goar. This castle ruins area was a favorite of the students as they explored all the tunnels and pathways and got a feel for what the largest castle/fort complex on the Rhein once looked like.

Dr. Eckert's Daughter, Emily in one of the many tunnels at Burg Rheinfels.

On the hike overlooking the Rhein...

Case Competition in Paderborn

Yesterday we had the case competition at Uni Paderborn. The day started with a welcome from Martin Schroeder, the Associate Dean of the Business College, and then Dr. Andeas Eggert presented the research he is working on involving the concept of Value-Based Selling. This was followed by a presentation by Dr. Eckert on how to give better presentations. Then the real fun started. Teams of 2 German students and 3 or 4 WMU students had 4 hours to work together to create a case solution. We reconvened at 4pm and each team made a 15 minute presentation. After we all freshened up at the hotel or home we got back together at the Paderborner Brauhaus for a celebration dinner. Since it was a beautiful night we sat in the Biergarten and had a wonderful meal and even better companionship. The best part of the day and the evening was the way the students embraced each other and the friendships formed and the lessons learned. It was definitely one of the best days on the trip.

The photos below are the groups and the students at the Brauhaus celebration dinner.

The Groups......

This was the Winning Team!

Some casual shots of the students at the Paderborner Brauhaus Biergarten

The First Week in Review

We have finished the first week with great success. We arrived in Paderborn about an hour ago. Many of us are sitting in the lobby working on the internet. It is a beautiful afternoon/evening and we will be going down to the Fruhlings Fest at 6pm.

The montage below are shots from week one..... Hamburg, Wolfsburg and Berlin. The things we have done.... Harbor Tour, Uni Hamburg Lecture, VW Tour, the Autostadt, Deutsche Bank, Bike Tour, Berlin Zoo and lots of great meals.

Bike Tour of Berlin

We had a great day in Berlin. We did the Fat Tire Bike Tour that lasted from 10am until a bit after 3pm and included a great deal of both German and Berlin history. We visited "Berlin Wall" related sites, Berlin History sights, German History sights and WWII related sights. We also had a wonderful bike through the Tiergarten to a great Biergarten for lunch. Many of the students ate sausage products while others tried their first "Flamkuchen" which is like a very thin crust pizza. All 23 of us successfully rode our bikes over streets, paths, sidewalks, curbs and cobblestones on routes through Berlin. Our guide Rob was great. If you are ever in Berlin we highly recommend the Fat Tire Tours - find them easily online.

A few photos....
The group in the Platz infront of Humbolt Universitaet. This is where the infamous Nazi book burning happened.


A few of our feet stuck on the East German side of the Berlin Wall. Most of the wall has been taken down and replaced with just a simple cobblestone line. Berlin has tried to embrace unification and not dwell on the division of their city, but us tourists make it hard for them to move on completely.


This is the group at Checkpoint Charlie. It is named because it was the third crossing between East and West and the third letter in the military alphabet is charlie (alpha, bravo, charlie....). It is now purely a tourist attraction but our guide gave us a great history lesson about the wall, it's checkpoints and killing zones, and the way in which it finally succumbed to the will of the people and fell in 1989. Paula Eckert, when she was on study abroad as an undergraduate crossed through Checkpoint Charlie after 4-5 days behind the iron curtain.


This last shot is at the last significant part of the wall that Berlin has left standing. We would have been on the East German side. Ironically, because everyone wants a piece of the wall, it is guarded by a fence!

Deutsche Bank & Berlin

We started today with a great trip to Deutsche Bank and their branch of the future. This functioning bank branch is a labratory for them to try out innovative branch concepts. It was very different then any branch we have ever seen. The day finished with a short presentation about Deutsche Bank's commercial lending division, especially the segment that deals with businesses around Berlin. Dr. Eckert's friend Thorsten Koch was our host and set up a wonderful day for us that not only included a great program but also great meals - breakfast and lunch!

After the time with Deutsche Bank the group went their separate ways and many went to the Berlin Zoo while others did some other sightseeing. We reconvened at the Zillemarkt restaurant in Savignyplatz, which is the heart of the West End neighborhood in Berlin. The group was adventourous with their menu item choices and had a great time. Post dinner many headed out to experience some Berlin nightlife. Tomorrow we do a bike tour of Berlin during which we will stop at many of the major points of interest including check point Charlie, the Brandenburger Tor and the Reichtag. It should be a great day and the weather is supposed to be sunny and mid 70's!







Some of the photos below from the day....

Happy Michigan Kids on public transportation.... some say it couldn't be done!

The Berlin location group giving their presentation outside of Deutsche Bank. They produced a great brochure on Berlin and told us some of the city's history.

Some of the group after visiting the Berlin Zoo