Farewell Lunch

After six weeks, Heidelberg Summer School ended on Friday, 17.

For the final event we organised a farewell lunch with Schnitzel, German potato salad and drinks at SRH campus. Time to say goodbye - but also to share some stories of a great time at Summer School - not only for the international students, but also for their buddies and all the staff members. Thanks a lot again to the international students for bringing us some gifts from your home countries. We really appreciated!
 

 
We thank you all for a great and interesting time here at SRH. We hope your expectations have been met and that each of you had a great time here at Summer School so you will remember your time here in Heidelberg for a long time.

 

Heidelberg Kulturbrauerei - Part II

Here are some photos of the brewery tour at Heidelberg Kulturbrauerei on Thursday, 09 July!

Excursion to Rudolf Wild & Co. - Capri Sonne

On Wednesday, 08 July we went to Eppelheim (near Heidelberg) to visit the company "Rudolf Wild & Co", which is famous for its juice box drink "Capri Sonne" (also known as Capri Sun). This drink, packed in 200 ml aluminium pouches, is not only popular in Germany, but also sold in over 100 countries around the world. Nowadays the drinks are also sold in re-sealable pouches. Especially children love the huge variety of flavours.

We were first given an introduction about the product and the company and learned about the company's history and the huge variety of fruit flavours used for the juice pouches such as orange, strawberry kiwi, tropical fruit or safari fruits etc. We were also shown some old, new and international advertising spots and learned that even boxing legend Muhammad Ali promoted Capri Sonne a couple of decades ago. Fortunately we got some Capri Sonne pouches for free, which was very refreshing with regard to the hot weather outside but also inside the factory. After that we had to put on white protective clothing in order to visit the producing and packaging process. 

Inside the factory the air smelled very sweet - because of the flavours that were used. Unfortunately we were not allowed to take any photos inside.

Just before leaving the factory everybody of us was given a cardboard box, each filled with 10 pouches of Capri Sonne - probably enough for the next excursions.

Wine-tasting in the vineyards of Schriesheim

Germany is not only famous for its well-known beer culture but has also some very characteristic wine regions. One of them is “Baden”, Germany's third biggest wine region. The "Badische Bergstrasse" is one district of these regions and surrounds Heidelberg. On a hot, humid and sunny afternoon we had an excursion to the vineyards of Schriesheim, where we visited the "Winzergenossenschaft Schriesheim" (cooperative wine-growers association) for having a wine-tasting in the picturesque vineyards there.

The sampling consisted of different types of regional wine such as "Spätburgunder" (Pinot Noir), "Grauburgunder" (Pinot Gris) or Gewürztraminer. We tried to recognise and describe the range of perceived flavours and aromas that are characteristic for the different wines. A staff member of the association took the time to answer all the questions about wine-making. 

He explained how wine-making generally works and how the different types of wine differ from each other in terms of taste, colour, harvesting, grapes etc.

Most of the students haven't done a wine-tasting before. Now they learned that you don't necessarily have to be a wine connoisseur to identify all the different wines. We also learned something about German wine classification, wine culture, consumption, the soil, storage, packaging and the fermentation process. Fresh cheese and German bread, typical for German wine tastings, made the sampling perfect.

In the end everybody was convinced that German wine does not have to hide behind French, Spanish or Italian wines. Almost everybody bought some bottles of wine to share it with their family and friends back home.

Arrival Day - Flammkuchenhof Heidelberg & Scavenger Hunt (Part II)

The Second part of SRH Summer School has started for our international students from South Korea, China, Australia and USA! After arriving in Heidelberg everybody was starving - of course, it's been a long and exhausting trip for them (some of the arrivals have been delayed). Therefore we went to Flammkuchenhof Heidelberg (a 20 minutes walk from SRH) where we had an all-you-can-eat-dinner of different types of "Flammkuchen", incluclassic variations topped with onions, ham and cream but also special ones (American, Turkish, Mediterranean, Bavarian, savoury, fruity, fish, modern, sweet etc.). Our Korean students showed their extraordinary skills when playing some football with some German kids.

 
On the next morning, Summer School officially started with its Welcome Day. 
After that, it was time for another Scavenger Hunt including a German dinner at "Palmbräugasse". It was great start of Summer School and a good opportunity to get in first touch witch German culture.

Excursion to Strasbourg

From Heidelberg to Strasbourg (German name: Straßburg) it is just a 2 hours drive by bus. Some students didn’t even realise that we had just crossed the French-German border. Especially the American students were fascinated by the idea of travelling across different countries without security controls or passport controls. 

After arriving in Strasbourg heaps of street vendors “welcomed” us with a huge range of knick-knack articles like watches, selfie-sticks, belts and some extraordinary umbrella hats. We should have bought those funny umbrella hats because suddenly heaven opened and it started raining. Instead of that some students spent their money for some typical French pastry. After it had just stopped pouring down the whole group was heading towards “Au Brasseur”, a French restaurant in the picturesque and historic Old Town of Strasbourg. There we had different variations of Flammkuchen (a regional, both German and French type of “Pizza”, topped with onions, ham, sauerkraut, mushrooms etc.). 

Afterwards, still stuffed with Flammkuchen, we hit the road to the European Parliament, also located in Strasbourg. Its “Louise-Weiss building” was completed in 1998 and is used by parliamentarians for the monthly sessions of the Parliament of the European Union. The building skin is a huge face of glass, symbolising the democratic transparency of the European Union. Inside we learnt how European Parliament works and how decisions are made there. The guide was impressed that our international students were able to answer all the questions about the EU flags, capitals, member states and some other facts – thanks to some lectures at SRH. 

 

 

In contrast to America, the European Parliament has to deal with plenty of cultural differences between its member states (e.g. language). Therefore every debate is translated into every of its official 24 languages. After a long and interesting day in Strasbourg we headed back to Heidelberg. It was very interesting to see the combination and mixture of German and French culture in Strasbourg and to learn something about European politics – not only for the American students but also for the European participants of this excursion.

Kulturbrauerei Heidelberg

On Wednesday, 17 June we went to the Old Town of Heidelberg and visited the "Scheffel’s Kulturbrauerei", a traditional German beer brewery. We were given an introduction of the beer brewing process and learned about the ingredients used for this process. It was explained, why and how different ingredients like malt, barley or hop influence the taste of beer and how fermentation works. Afterwards we had the opportunity to sample some beers like Helles (Pale Lager), Ale and Weißbier (Wheat beer) as well as some original freshly baked German Brezel (Pretzels). Taste differs, so everybody had his or her own favourite - but Weißbier was probably the most popular beer. After that, we had some more beers outside (thanks to this sunny day in Heidelberg) and talked about the difference between German and American beer culture. It was an interesting excursion to Kulturbrauerei and there will definitely be some more opportunities to taste more German beers.