Due I am an owner of MINI car, I am a big fan of this brand and its products! Cars of this brand are not only really cool, nice and cozy, but they also have a deep and rich history since the year 1959. I have decided to share with you several interesting facts that you might enjoy! :)

Originally, the cars was built under two different brands at the British Motor Corporation which were the Austin and Morris names. MINI became a marquee in its own right in 1969. In the very beginning it was British brand but now BMW produces MINI cars. Despite this fact, they always are associated with Britain because of their roofs with flag.

The Classic MINI has been thought to be the most popular car ever built! It sold approximately 5.3 million units. Recently it was even voted Britain’s favorite car of all time! Moreover, in 1999 the brand was voted the second most influential car of the 20^th century, behind the Ford Model T, and ahead of the the Volkswagen Beetle. Legendary automaker Enzo Ferrari (who started Ferrari, obviously) also had 3 MINIs in his garage.

MINI cars have a unique front wheel drive layout allowing four people to fit comfortably in relatively small space. Frankly speaking, I had an experience of driving my car with even six people inside the car but the world record is 66 people! It only looks small – this car can more than you think.

MINI cars (Cooper and Cooper S models) are very successful as rally cars, winning the Monte Carlo Rally several times.

The last but not the least, all four members of the biggest band in the history of universe – the Beatles – drove MINI coopers!

Yesterday I had a flight from Berlin to Moscow and, while I was waiting for the departure, I have decided to conduct a small investigation in airports ratings and to find out the most loved/hated ones and the reason for that. These ratings might be very useful for travelers :)

According to CNN, world’s most loved airports are:

10. Auckland Airport, Auckland, New Zealand

9. Montevideo Carrasco, Montevideo, Uruguay

8. Victoria International, Victoria, Canada

7. Zurich Airport, Zurich, Switzerland

6. Tampa International, Tampa, United States

5. Ushuaia-Malvinas Argentinas International, Tierra del Fuego, Argentina

4. Munich Airport, Munich, Germany

3. Seoul Incheon, Seoul, Korea

2. Singapore Changi, Singapore

1. Hong Kong International, Hong Kong, China

However, most #1 loved airport is the busiest freight airport in the world, it is one of the most accessible in operations today due to express services to/from downtown, remote check-ins for cargo carriers. Moreover, it has lounging, golfing, fine-dining, 4-D movie theater, etc. for travelers.

As for me, now it is really interesting to visit airport in Munich which is #4 and to discover it! :)

In contrast, here is the list of world’s most hated airports, according CNN research:

10. São Paulo-Guarulhos International, São Paulo, Brazil

9. Perth Airport, Perth, Australia

8. Tribhuvan International, Kathmandu, Nepal

7. John F. Kennedy International, New York, United States

6. Jomo Kenyatta International, Nairobi, Kenya

5. Ninoy Aquino International, Manila, Philippines

4. Toncontín International, Tegucigalpa, Honduras

3. London Heathrow, London, England

2. Los Angeles International Airport, Los Angeles, United States

1. Paris-Charles de Gaulle, Paris, France

Surprisingly, the most hated airport is in Paris. The reasons for that are the following: grimy washrooms, broken scan machines, lack of signage and gate information screens, dismissive and indifferent staff and so on. CNN strongly does not recommend using it for transfer, only if you want to visit wonderful Paris!

If you are really interested in these researches, please, visit links provided and find much more interesting information!

Few days ago I witnessed an event on Kurfurstendamm where the crowd of bikers with their bikes participated. From one point of view, it was really great because all of them produced specific driving noise thus created cool atmosphere. On the other hand, it was completely impossible to cross the street as the flow of bikers was endless! This led me to the thoughts about European concerns about pollutions and to the contradiction connected with bikers-event.

So, I have decided to investigate this issue in the context of the German ‘green’ behavior and found out several interesting ‘green’ logistics tools which are used in Germany nowadays.

In the context of urban passenger transport ‚green‘ tools are: city cycling, mobility stations, business mobility through ridesharing and, what was the most surprising for me, wirelessly-charged E-bus line! BVG runs electric buses since August 2015 and transports about two-thirds of a billion passengers per year by electric traction. The buses charge wirelessly and contactless exclusively with green electricity; they are not only absolutely emission-free but also produce low vibration at the time! Within one year, the four buses run approximately 200.000 kilometers at total, saving 260 tons of CO2 emissions.

As for the cargo delivery, there also some ‘green’ logistics solutions for decreasing CO2 emissions, they are: smartPORT strategy for managing all available modes of transport, transport planning with microscopic emission modeling via software instruments, cargo bikes and unusual eHighway trucks. eHighway system combines the efficiency of railway with the flexibility of road transport without losing necessary flexibility in the way of using active pantograph: the truck may be connected (run by electricity) or disconnected (run by fuel) to the contact lines at all speeds – and this system looks like trolley-truck.

These ‘green’ approaches are really innovative and promising today; to my mind, in the nearest future they will become a part of everyday life in Germany and, hopefully, will contribute to the environmental sustainability!

Once I had an experience of intercultural negotiations with Americans and Germans at Potsdam University, and at the very beginning of our negotiations we had an interesting and rather funny task to come up with stereotypes about other nationalities which participated in negotiations.

Frankly speaking, I expected to hear that all Russians play balalaika every evening, have bears as domestic animals and atomic reactors to heat houses but it was truly surprising indeed.

The first one was about too serious Russians. Honestly, I had never noticed that my nation representatives are really serious (you can see it especially in public transport) until I started living in Berlin. Now I compared people and can see this great difference between people in Moscow and people in Berlin: Germans seem really happy, kind and open (even in the morning) in comparison with gloomy, serious and sometimes angry Russians. It may look like life in Russia is too severe and makes people so, but it is not the real reason for that! In fact, outside the home Russians think too much about work and how to manage all the important things and only at home or with friends they have an opportunity to relax with family and become happier!

This leads to the second stereotype: Russians always drink vodka. Well, I should say that Russians may also drink wine, beer, vermouth, etc. In addition, they do not necessarily drink all the time: the majority prefers to drink on special days and holidays only :) Moreover, there are example of other nations drinking too much (English, Irish, German, etc.)

The last one was about endless Russian winter. Firstly, it depends on the specific part of our country. And secondly, despite winter can last more than half of the year, we do always have very nice and warm summer!

To conclude, now I know few stereotypes which are not actually stereotypes, they are real facts: Americans always speak very loud and Germans sneeze even louder! :)

Do you know about the opportunity to buy the Museum pass Berlin which allows you to visit and explore around 50 museums during three days and which costs only 24 euros (12 euros for schoolchildren and students)?  If not, just visit Museum portal and find more (the list of museums and exhibitions, useful offers, Berlin Welcome Card, etc.)!

I have already tried this museum-experience and found it really awesome! This three-day ticket provides you with open doors of numerous exciting museums in Berlin! First of all you can visit traditional museums, such as:

• Old National Gallery with 19^th century art
• Old Museum with its permanent exhibition ‘Ancient Worlds’
• Bode Museum which houses an impressive collection of sculpture
• New Museum housing antique masterpieces and sculptures (incl. famous bust of Nefertiti)
• Pergamonmuseum with classic antiquities
• Museum of Natural History which has ‘Evolution in Action’ exhibition
• German Museum of Technology representing the history of transport, communication, production, etc.

Of course, all of them offer you to admire incredible unique historical exhibit items but Berlin also has lots of other museums which present, for example, contemporary art, computer game history, East and West Germany history, war between Germany and the Soviet Union, German-Jewish history, etc. As for me, I have chosen two museums to explore and, undoubtedly, it was unusual experience.

The first was Berlin Museum of Medical History which exhibits different medical instruments and equipment, valuable books, microscopes and about 900 exceptionally rare pathological and anatomical specimens of human organs, healthy and diseased. So, it’s not a sight for the faint-hearted!

The second was Gay Museum* which is one of the largest and most important institutions on the history and culture of the LGBTIQ communities in the world for now. Apart from history and culture, there is also an exhibition with astonishing gay comics that I liked most due I have never even heard about such a thing!

In conclusion, three days are not enough to visit all of them, unfortunately; so that you should thoroughly plan your route and then have a nice museum-trip in Berlin!

Liebe Teilnehmer,
vielen Dank, dass ihr gestern Abend den DeutschAkademie Stammtisch im Café Berio mit uns verbracht habt. Wir hatten viel Spaß und freuen und auf das nächste Treffen am 9. Juni. Viel Spaß mit den Fotos!
Euer DeutschAkademie-Team

 

How often do you travel with planes? How are they constructed? And what is inside of them?

Have you ever thought about these questions? Airbus plant in Hamburg offers exciting insights into the final aircraft assembly process! There you may also find answers to all of your numerous questions about aircraft production as well as gain some knowledge about Airbus products and see real-sized Beluga!

Now I will just tell you several interesting things about Airbus:

1. Company’s production facilities are mainly located in four European countries, which are: France, Germany, United Kingdom and Spain; the final assembly is located in France, Germany and Spain depending on the aircraft model;
2. Final assembly production is held manually (by peoples’ hands not by robots) to ensure the absence of errors; assembling of the aircraft tail part is the final step in the whole assembling process;
3. The initial color of aircraft fuselage is green; it gets its final color (white, pink or combination of colors) at the painting shop;
4. Airbus A380 is so enormous that Airbus A320 may stand under its wing;

• A380’s price is about $432 mio
• The diameter of A380’s engine is the same as the diameter of A320’s fuselage
• If A380 had only economy class, it would have 853 seats for passengers;
• If you could get all the wiring out of the A380 and put it straight on the road, it will be approximately 1000 km

5. Airbus A300-600ST (Super Transported) is called Beluga

• Beluga is an aircraft for carrying aircraft parts (and even aircraft fuselages);
• Beluga is also used for the transportation of oversized cargo such as large volume loads for NASA’s space program;
• There are only five Beluga aircrafts in the world, so they are exclusive!

Want to try this experience by yourself? Just visit this link and do it!

Liebe Teilnehmer,

wir wünschen euch viel Spaß mit den Fotos der Streetart Tour durch Kreuzberg vom letzten Freitag!
Auf dem Kiezspaziergang haben wir uns innerhalb von 2 Stunden zwar nur vom U-Bahnhof Warschauer Straße bis zum U-Bahnhof Schlesisches Tor (1 Station!) bewegt, aber sehr viel über Streetart und Graffitis gelernt. Wir haben viele Kunstwerke aus verschiedensten Materialien auf Hauswänden, Straßenschildern und unter Brücken entdeckt. Sicherlich habt ihr das ein oder andere Kunstwerk an Orten entdeckt, an denen ihr zuvor schon mehrmals gewesen seid und geht jetzt aufmerksamer durch die Straßen. Die Handschrift einiger Streetartists könnt ihr auch an anderen Orten in Berlin oder in eurer Heimat wiederentdecken :)

Yesterday I arrived from Leipzig which is really great and which is only 160 km away from Berlin – it may take just 2 hours of your time to get there and to see this wonderful city!

Leipzig has been a trade city since it was situated many years ago at the intersection of two important Medieval trade routes (Via Regia and Via Imperii). Despite this fact, the city is not very big – one day was really enough to walk it throughout and to visit all the main city sightseeing points, for example:

1. Zum Arabischen Coffe Baum. This café is probably one of the oldest in Europe – the first mention about it refers to 1556.
2. Bach Museum. The museum dedicated to Johann Sebastian Bach will tell you about composer’s life in Leipzig, about his family and work as well as provide you with the opportunity to listen to his every composition.
3. Panorama Tower. On the top of this building you may have the greatest look at the city and, if the weather is fine, have a nice time at the roof-top bar.
4. Nicholas Church and St. Tomas Church. Johann Sebastian Bach was responsible for these two admirable churches many years ago, and nowadays organ concerts are held also there.

Talking about logistics, the main accent should be made here is DHL hub in Leipzig (this hub is the largest hub in the whole Europe!) with its own fleet of aircrafts and own airport. As the nighttime is the most intense for the hub and the most exciting time for visitors, the excursion takes place after 9 pm and finishes by the midnight time. During these few hours you have an incredible opportunity to watch the process of smart approach of parcels sorting, of very fast containers reloading, and to admire DHL’s aircraft fleet. The company spent around €350.000.000 to create this huge hub, consequently, it improved service and timeliness of DHL deliveries in comparison with its ex-central depot in Brussels. Find more information here and visit Leipzig to see everything in real life!