After days packed with lots of sightseeing and walking around large cities, today’s drive from Bamberg to Leipzig was the opposite. The journey wove through farms and small country villages. This scenic route driving style is the favourite way to travel for both of us.
Another thing that we care about is sustainability and finding out ways that we can help to sustain the world that we want to travel. Germany is the perfect place to see this.
All over Germany there are biogas plants – about 9,000 of them. Germany has the largest biogas market in the world and it’s a key to the overall sustainability of the country. Farmers take their animal and vegetable waste and let it rot in huge “digesters” which causes natural biogas to be emitted. This gas is then caught in massive canopies that look like a cross between a hot air balloon and a jumping castle. You can see the green canopy in the photo below, under the wind generators which also provide renewable energy.
These biogas digesters not only produce gas but also consume all the natural animal and vegetable waste – especially around the meat industry. This means that the country has less waste, more free energy and less carbon emissions. It’s great to see how it is possible to make small changes for a global impact.
Continuing our journey weaving through the fields and pastures, we headed towards the little town of Wogau. If you drive through and blink, you’d miss it. However, it was a very important place for Keith. His grandfather was born there.
When his “Opa”, Herman, was growing up in this village he learned to be a bricklayer as a trade. He then used that trade to move from village to village all over the country avoiding the draft of the Second World War.
As we drove through the tiny town we wondered how many of the brick buildings we saw were built by Opa.
After Wogau, we continued on to Leipzig. Not only did the countryside change, but so did the weather. Although the day started off cool, it soon reached around 36 degrees!
Time to check into the hotel…. that had no air conditioning.
Time to change hotels!
We found a new hotel with air conditioning and had a quiet afternoon. Bringing our laptop on the trip meant that on days like this we could lie in bed and watch a movie on the computer and just relax. After all, this is a holiday.
Cool Stuff We Did 