Imaginings
stories, creative nonfiction, poetry, and other imaginative accounts of the natural world
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Day 7. Danube Excursion: Bratislava—Munich
by Lea Wiser Bratislava → Munich Spending a night on a boat and waking up to views over the glimmering river is not something that happens every day. After a long night, a hearty breakfast helped us to regain our energy for the last guided tour with Peter Pisut, who specializes in the historical…
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Day 6. Danube Excursion: Vienna—Bratislava
by Laura Kuen Vienna → Orth → Gabčíkovo → Bratislava Traveling from Vienna to Bratislava, our day’s topics branched in quite different directions: water power and nature conservation. We first visited the Austrian National Park Donau-Auen in Orth and later the Gabčíkovo Dams, Slovakia’s biggest hydroelectric plant. Conservation in the Donau-Auen The national park, which spans the distance…
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Day 5. Danube Excursion: Krems—Vienna
by Christoph Netz Krems → Vienna Research Channels, Sterlets, and the Danube Island of Vienna With another early start, it was lucky that the memorable apricot jam, a local specialty, provided a good incentive to get up in time for breakfast. Only five minutes behind schedule, we departed from Krems, with its beautiful historic center…
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Day 4. Danube Excursion: Linz—Krems
by Stefan Bitsch Linz → Hütting → Grein → Melk → Krems Dangers of the Danube: Floods and Rapids throughout History On the fourth day of our excursion, the group had the opportunity to learn from Christian Rohr (University of Bern) and Severin Hohensinner (University of Natural Resources and Applied Life Sciences in Vienna), who…
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Day 3. Danube Excursion: Passau—Linz
by Lea Wiser Passau → Linz Our third day on the Danube excursion was both eventful and thought provoking, packed with activities covering a broad range of subjects: from environment and sustainability to modern history and the Nazi regime, to where these two subjects intersect—the city of Linz. Jochenstein Our first stops, the Donaukraftwerk in…
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Day 2. Danube Excursion: Deggendorf—Passau
Written by Leon Gomoll Deggendorf → Vilshofen → Jochenstein → Passau Bridge-Building and Nature Conservation on the Donau Early Modern Bridges and Politics in Bavaria On the second day of our field trip, we learned about Early Modern bridge-building in Bavaria. Martin Keßler’s talk focused on the politics of bridges, using as an example the…
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Day 1. The Danube Excursion: Munich—Deggendorf
Written by David Stäblein Munich —> Winzer —> Mühlham —> Deggendorf The bus ride from Munich to Deggendorf along the Isar river The landscape en route from Munich to Deggendorf is dominated by the flat valley of the river Isar. The river has carried a lot of material from the Alps to the lower part…
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Danube: Environments, Histories, and Cultures
A Place-Based Workshop 4–11 June 2017 Winding through Central and Eastern Europe, the once longstanding frontier of the Roman empire, the Danube, has carved its way into the landscapes and cultures of the countries it traverses. But the marks of humans, imprints of the Anthropocene, are also clearly visible on the river itself—and on the…