This past Thursday, Friday and Saturday everyone in the DIS program went on their short study tours. DIS strongly believes that travel and getting to see real world examples of what you are studying in class is essential to supplement what one leans in the classroom. Each DIS student has a “core class”, mine is European Politics: The EU, and goes on two trips, a short and a long study tour, with members of that class and their professors to a destination that relates to the course content. Our short study tour took us to Lübeck and Kiel, Germany and Sønderborg, Denmark, to study how the government and the EU deal with Danish-German border relations and to learn some of the history of that region. For our long study tour in March, we will be taking a week-long trip to Brussels to have an up-close look at how the EU works.
Day 1: Lolland and Lübeck
Our first stop was the Lolland Kommune in Lolland, Denmark, a municipality located in the very south of Denmark. We talked to Thomas Knudsen, who is Head of Administration for the municipal government there, about the plans to build a tunnel from Lolland, Denmark and to just south of the border in Germany. We discussed the very positive reaction of citizens in the town and of the EU to this proposed bridge, how it will bring jobs, and how municipal governments work with regional and the state (national) government in Denmark.
After Lolland, we boarded a ferry that would take us over the border to the small little town of Lübeck, Germany. This ferry was SO cool, maybe because I’d never been on a large, cross-border ferry before. Our large coach bus drove onto the ferry, we got off the bus and hung out in the ferry’s mall/cafeteria, and then proceeded to get back on the bus before the ferry docked so we could drive onto land. And then we were in Germany! And thanks to the Schengen agreement, no passport needed!
Once in Lübeck we were treated to a guided tour of historic Lübeck by Mr. Manfred Kolossa. It is difficult to describe the ridiculousness that was Manfred and this tour, but I will try. He is an older man who has been giving tours of Lübeck for 50 years; he is now retired and does this in his free time. He is clearly passionate about the town and extolling its virtues. Lübeck has some of the oldest medieval roots in Germany and is also unique in that it was only bombed once throughout the two world wars and only a small section had to be rebuilt. Manfred gestured, exclaimed and told story after story, interspersed with many sexual jokes. Between his only so-so English and cultural references most of these jokes went over our heads - we could decipher something about bathing virgins in champagne and marzipan being an aphrodisiac, but that was about it.
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| Manfred Kolossa, who gave us a tour of historic Lübeck |
Our evening in Lübeck concluded with a delicious dinner at Schiffergesellschaft, which used to be a meeting hall for a band of marines that were dedicated to helping military widows and orphans. The restaurant is full of ship models and other old time memorbelia dating back to 1564. They also serve a mean cut of roast beef and some delicious potatoes. After dinner we have the opportunity to go ice skating in the market place square in Lübeck under a beautiful array of Christmas lights, it was incredibly picturesque.
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| Ice Skating rink in Lübeck |
Day 2: Lübeck, Kiel and Sønderborg
We started our morning in Lübeck by getting a taste of a product that Lübeck is famous for producing: Marzipan. This delicious almond paste treat has a large industry in this small town and Niederegger’s, the shop that we went to, is the most famous producer. Niederegger Marzipan Shop uses more almonds and less sugar than typical marzipan, making even a skeptical marzipan consumer such as myself admit that this treat is quite delicious. We were shown the process by which marzipan is manufactured and packaged and saw large sculptures made entirely of marzipan. Niederegger’s has this confection in every form imaginable, including in the shape of pigs, bears, fruits and vegetables.
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| This castle is made entirely of Marzipan |
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| Marzipan fruits and vegetables at Niederegger Marzipan Shop |
From Lübeck we headed on to Kiel, another town in Northern Germany, also in the region of Schleswig-Holstein. We visited the Schleswig-Holstein parliament, a regional parliament that has representatives to the national government based in Berlin but also has an office, together with Hamburg, at the EU in Brussels. This analogy is not perfect, but imagine if each of the 50 states in the US had an embassy in Washington D.C. We learned about how in Germany regional governments have a lot of autonomy in the fields of education, police and justice and media and broadcasting.
After parliament, we enjoyed a delicious lunch at Restaurant Louf, and then headed back over the border to Denmark. We arrived in at the University of Southern Denmark in Sønderborg around 5pm and heard a lecture about the German-Denmark border region and how EU policies make possible the logistics of living in Germany in commuting to a job in Denmark, which many people do.
The day wrapped up with dinner in a restaurant, titled beef house in Danish, that reminded me of a Friendly’s in the United States, although with slightly faster service. We went out to a bar afterwards, where we made some nice (and drunk) Danish friends, and then went to a club and danced the night away. It is always fun to be in a club in Denmark or Germany and be belting out the words to Rihanna’s "Only girl” or Katy Perry’s “Teenage Dream” right along with the locals.
Day 3: Sønderborg
The last day of our trip we got to visit Dybbøl Bank, the sight of the battle of 1864 between Germany and Denmark in which Denmark thoroughly got their butts kicked by the Germans. The war was over the territory of Schleswig and Holstein and whether they would be part of Germany or Denmark. The Germans had better guns, more men, better uniforms and a better orchestrated military attack plan. Still, the Danes commemorate this sight, sometimes called the Danish Gettysburg, making another another unique thing about Danish culture that they are perhaps the only country that would have a large historical sight to commemorate a war that they lost. I think it’s kind of cool, coming from America where we generally like to celebrate ad nassuem battles and wars we have won and quietly tuck under the rug the less than glorious moments in our history.
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| Our tour guide explaining why even the German uniforms were superior to the Danish ones |
In Sønderborg we also saw Sønderborg Slot, a castle that was built back in the 1200s, I believe, and housed Christian II as a prisoner and later Christian III and his wife. Denmark is full of old castles with pasts such as this one that reveal their long and colorful history. Learning about Danish history is a treat because we are not privy to a history that dates back nearly as long in the United States.
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| Sønderborg castle and the waterfront |
The trip was really fun, well organized and interesting. It’s nice to be back home in my room is Roskilde, which hadn’t felt very much like home until we were staying in hostels in Lübeck and Sønderborg and thoughts of my own my bed in Korallen Kollegium sounded heavenly.
I have a busy week ahead with more actual assignments due than I have had so far, but I will try to keep the blog fairly updated about my upcoming adventures. Thanks for reading!
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