Luneburg

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Today we took a group trip to the medieval city of Luneburg. This city was the salt producing capital of the known world for hundreds of years. It began producing salt from it's naturally seasoned ground water 1000 years before the United States even existed!

We met up at Hanhoopsfeld at 8 and headed for the station. The 30 minute train ride was a breeze, and as usual we were by far the most boisterous group on board!

A teacher at Hanhoopsfeld school, Mrs. Schmidt, met us at the station and led us up to the town hall in order to begin our tour. A city guide took over from there and for the next two hours our group was immersed and versed in the history of the city and its salt making prowess.

Included in the tour was some interesting information about the punishments for various crimes in the middle ages (I'll leave that up to the individual students to describe), and a foray to the former house of the town hangman.

We got to see the harbor with the only operable medieval crane still in existence in Germany. Inside are two wheels that look like overgrown hamster toys where four men in each would run to provide power for the crane. One lucky individual had only to stand at the window and yell commands to the poor souls who were stuck producing the power.

From there it was off on a tour of the narrow streets of the town on our way to the salt works. This city was producing salt up until the 1980's. The incredibly salty water (26% salt content) was pumped up from the ground, boiled and the salt that was left over was sent to the harbor for export. Our students were able to try their hand at salt making on a much smaller scale. I am proud to say that they all enjoyed great success!

With that, our tour was finished. It was off to lunch and free time in this great town. Shopping was the rule of the afternoon for most. Several however, decided that it was time to sample the local eis (ice cream).

The train and bus ride back to meet our partners was loud once again (that's a good thing)! And thus, the day was done!

The Amazing Race Hamburg 2010 will take place on Tuesday and to the delight of all, the groupings were announced today. This promises to be a fun and exciting event!

Tomorrow is the blind experience which Heidi and I are very much looking forward to! This weekend we are heading to the youth hostel in Lubeck, which is one of the big highlights of the trip!

Things continue to run smoothly and it is great to be back amongst this great group!

-Ben

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