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Welcome to our unique sustainable design tours of Germany,
in the past known for its old world charm.
Today the country has undertaken a leadership role
in all facets of sustainable and ecological living that is admired worldwide.
Our tour highlights special areas of Germany that have many beautiful gardens, parks, and landscapes,
but also the ecological designs found in many aspects of the larger society.
Germany has one of the world’s largest solar powerplants.
The federal government is actively promoting the use of renewable resources and renewable energy.
Large wind generators and solar panels are seen throughout the country.
There is a federal law requiring product manufacturers
to take back their packaging for reuse or recycling thereby reducing waste.
Roof gardens are required in some cities
to improve the air quality and beauty of the surroundings.
Alternative transportation, such as trains, light rail and bicycling is prominent all over Germany.
The automobile’s presence in city centers has been lessened
so its citizens may enjoy a better and safer living environment with less noise, pollution, and more room for pedestrians.
Architects are designing progressive,
green buildings that are environmentally friendly,
and landscape architects are designing inner city natural gardens and parks.
All of this green thinking and living is admirable,
but in Germany it permeates to a larger consciousness of living in harmony with the Earth.
Germans enjoy very much being in their gardens and in nature,
and place a high priority on having plants all around them, even in urban environments.
Instead of relying on harsh chemicals at swimming pools,
Germany and Austria have started “swimming ponds” that recreate the natural cleansing processes
that take place in natural ponds in large sized ponds that allow for safe and nontoxic swimming with frogs and fish.
Even playgrounds in Germany are very creatively designed,
often using natural materials, such as wood.
They are integrated into their surroundings with natural plantings.
Playgrounds are found throughout Germany in many locations.
Even the garden shows build temporary and permanent playground so children always have activities.
In Germany there exists a garden culture
where people actually live in their gardens providing food, aesthetic beauty, a place for physical activity, and stress relief.
Examples abound of the strong horticultural ethic from the “Schrebergaerten”
or community gardens found in every city
where apartment dwellers spend their free time growing fruit trees,
vegetables, and flowers organized in orderly rectangular grids,
to the bountiful flowers proudly displayed around many houses and buildings in towns and cities,
to richly planted school gardens, to the intensively planted and well maintained burial sites in cemeteries
that people visit often and function as public parks,
to the use of dry stacked natural stone retaining walls,
and to the “Obstwiese” or orchard meadow.
One of the most important examples of Germany 's strong garden culture is
the one of its kind “Bundesgartenschau” (BUGA) or Federal Garden Show,
hosted in a different city once every two years.
The garden show is the Olympics of the design and horticulture professions.
There are design competitions for the master plan and each of the various concept areas.
Millions of visitors typically visit the show which runs from spring to fall and thereafter continues as a public, urban park.
The garden show typically includes large planting areas,
a conference building, various dining facilities, music performances,
seating areas, recreational facilities for all ages, landscape artworks, cemetery space,
agricultural fields, a sustainable natural resources exhibit where hemp is prominent, and wildlife habitat.
The Federal Garden Show is occurring this year in 2009
in the beautifully historic city of Schwerin in northern Germany near the Baltic Sea.
Our next ecotour will start on August 17th 2009 and will continue for 9 days.
On this amazing adventure ecotour,
we will discover many green and sustainable places in northeastern Germany.
Here is a brief itinerary of our tour.
Day1, Arrive at Frankfurt,
on their own travelers will catch the train to the beautiful Baltic Sea city of Schwerin
to meet up with your Tour guide and begin your trip with a two night stay in Schwerin.
Enjoy a casual walk in the beautiful old town that afternoon.
Later that evening, enjoy a welcome reception from your tour director and team.
Day 2, Today we will visit the magnificent biennial 2009 Federal Horticultural Exposition held in Schwerin.
This amazing show will dazzle you with many gardens and sustainable concepts.
Day 3, in the morning, we’ll visit the German Garden Show again.
After lunch, we will take the fast train to Germany’s capital city Berlin
where we will stay for the next three nights.
We will do a walking tour or optional bicycling tour around this bustling metropolis that afternoon.
Day 4, This morning we visit the new rebuilt Reichstag’s dome,
designed by British architect Norman Foster, which offers a fantastic view of Berlin.
Afterwards, we will walk around Berlin’s rebuilt center with its Potsdamer Platz and famed boulevard, Unter den Linden.
In the afternoon we visit the Hanfhaus (Hemp Store)
to see the latest in fashionable hemp clothes, bags, and foods.
The rest of the afternoon you will be given time to explore the city on your own.
Day 5, today after breakfast, we visit the city Potsdam,
which is slightly to the southwest of Berlin.
Here we visit the historic Karl Foerster garden and nursery.
Mr. Foerster was the impetus for the widespread use of perennials, grasses, and ferns in German gardens.
He was a personal inspiration for my father, Wolfgang Oehme,
rousing in him of the merits of herbaceous plants
that would later be the foundation for his award winning landscape design work.
This afternoon we visit Berlin’s acclaimed botanic garden,
also an inspiration for Wolfgang Oehme during his studies there.
Day 6, in the morning we board the fast ICE train to Magdeburg
where we will tour the highly innovative mixed use building by Hundertwasser
that features roof gardens and a courtyard.
This is the last building to be built that was designed by the Viennese fairy tale artist and architect.
That afternoon we will take the train to Bitterfeld where we will spend the next four nights.
Later that afternoon, we will visit renowned landscape architect Wolfgang Oehme’s perennial and grass garden at Amber Lake.
Day 7, first thing in the morning. We will drive north to visit the “one-of-a-kind” Ferropolis,
“City of Iron”, where derelict coal mining excavators loom like giant Brachiosaurus dinosaurs.
Here we learn about the areas history of coal mining.
a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
In the afternoon we visit another World Heritage Site,
the English style Wörlitz Park, a garden for Prince Leopold III on the outskirts of Dessau.
Day 8, first, we will head south to Chemnitz
to visit some gardens with swimming ponds by landscape architect, Rainer Ihle.
The afternoon will be coming back to Bitterfild
to spent bicycling on the loop trail through the ecopark and its lakes and forests.
Along the way, we will climb the new observation tower
for a bird’s eye view of the revitalized former coal mined landscape that is now an innovative ecopark.
Day 9, After breakfast we say goodbye as our tour ends.
We welcome you to join us on our journey to this fascinating country
all with a small group of fun, like-minded people.
Green Harmony Tour is presented by Roland
For further information, please contact us at