Information about Kiel

Kiel is the state capital of Schleswig-Holstein, the northernmost state of Germany, between Denmark and Hamburg. Schleswig-Holstein is the land between the seas, it is located between the North Sea and the Baltic Sea. Kiel is at the east end of the Kiel Canal, the world's busiest artificial waterway, which connects the Baltic Sea with the North Sea. As a major harbour, Kiel is the home of the Gorch Fock, a tall ship of the German Navy.

Kiel is also the home of the largest sailing event in the world, the Kieler Woche which takes place every year at the end of June.

Besides sailing (Olympic Games 1936 and 1972), Kiel is also famous for Handball (German record Champion THW Kiel), soccer (German Champion 1912 Holstein Kiel), football (German Champion 2010), smoked fish (Kieler Sprotten) and the uniform of D. Duck (Kieler Anzug).

In 1665 the Kiel University was founded as Christian-Albrechts-Universität and was, after the union of Schleswig and Holstein in 1773, simultaneously the northernmost German and southernmost Scandinavian university.

To get a first impression of Kiel watch: Smalltown Kiel: A day in the life of Kiel, in miniature.

Kiel offers a broad variety of accommodations. The WAK guesthouse is fully booked, but there are other budget accommodation opportunities, regular hotels, and luxury hotels available. Since Kiel is a compact city, all hotels are easily reachable by bus or bicycle (bekpek rents bicycles).

Budget accommodation (30€/night)

• bekpek hostel
• Youthhostel
• Peanuts hostel

Hotel (50-80€/night)

• Nordic Hotel (7 hotels)
• G-Hotel
• Hotel Duevelsbek
• Hotel Berliner Hof
• Intercity Hotel

Luxury (>100€/night)

• Steigenberger
• Maritim
• Atlantic

The best way to travel to Kiel is by ferry from Oslo, Gothenburg, or Klaipeda, which arrive (nearly) every day in the center of the city.

If you travel by plane, you can fly to Kiel with your private plane, to Hamburg with all major airlines, or to Lübeck with low-cost airlines (Ryanair, Wizzair).

If you arrive at Hamburg airport, the Kielus bus or KielEXX shuttle will take you to Kiel in a little over one hour. There is one Kielius an hour, and when you buy the Kombiticket, a Taxi will take you directly from the Kiel Bus terminal to your hotel. On weekdays and sunday afternoon, you have the chance to take KielEXX directly to you hotel (a little more expensive than Kielius but faster, reservation recommended, but usually there are seats available in the shuttle bus). A return ticket is a little cheaper than two separate tickets and you can upgrade to KielEXX and just pay the difference, or take the Kielius and the get difference refunded if you have a KielEXX ticket. The bus leaves just outside the terminal in Hamburg (turn to the left, bus stop C). It is not recommended to take a bus or the S-Bahn to Hamburg central station and take the train from there, as this does not save you any time nor money on your way to Kiel.

If you arrive in Lübeck, you can travel to Kiel by train in 90 minutes (change at Lübeck central station).

If you travel by train to Kiel, you will find many high speed (ICE) connections via Hamburg which will take you to Kiel central station.

If you travel by car or bus, you can reach Kiel via the Autobahn:

• from the North (Denmark, Flensburg) via the A7 to Rendsburg, then the A210
• from the South (Hamburg) via the A7 to Neumünster, then the A215
• from the South/East (Lübeck, Berlin) via the A20/A21

If you arrive with the ferry in Puttgarden, you will take the scenic route through the countryside (B202).

Once you are in Kiel, the ferries and busses of the KVG will take you to any place in the City and to the nearby beaches.

Taxis are available at Kiel Central station and many other locations in town.

The distances in Kiel are fairly short, you can easily get around by bicycle or bus. A weekly bus pass for the city costs 18.70€ (as of August 2012). As there is no hotel in walking distance to the University (at least 20 minutes), all participants probably want a weekly pass for the bus. This will also be handy, if we have lunch in Mensa1 (4 minutes by bus instead of 15 minutes walking up-hill). You can not buy a weekly pass on the bus, but only in certain "Vorverkaufsstellen" or at a vending machine in the central train station close to the “Umsteiger”.

Bus map: bus map

See also Open Streetmap for the location of the bus stops.

You can also plan your trip on Nah.sh where you can enter the adress or name of the bus stop and times you want to travel. See for example a trip on Sunday morning from the WAK guesthouse: Since there are only few busses on Sunday morning, it might be faster to walk (Elendsredder, Steenbeker Weg, turn left after Lubinus into footpath (Schwarzer Weg) which ends in Leibnizstrasse). During the weekdays the quickest way will be walking to Knorrstrasse, taking line 6 (leaving at 08:11) to Leibnizstrasse (arring at 08:22) and then walking to the Physics department.

Bus to the University:

• 60S, 81 (Universitätsbibliothek)
• 6, 61, 62 (Leibnizstrasse)

Busstop at the WAK:

• Schleusenstrasse: 91 (Monday-Saturday), 92 (Sunday) - change at Universität/Westring
• Schleusenstrasse: 501, 502 - change at Waitzstrasse/Holtenauerstrasse
• Auberg: 11 - change at Waitzstrasse/Holtenauerstrasse
• Knorrstrasse: 6 (Monday-Friday)

The summer school is hosted by the Extraterrestrial Physics department in the Institute for Experimental and Applied Physics of the Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel.

The physics department is easily reachable by public transport. The Extraterrestrial Physics group is located in Leibnizstrasse 11 on the 4th and 5th floor. The main entrance is just across from the library (Bus stop: Universitätsbibliothek). The lectures will take place in LS11 room 309 (3rd floor), coffee will be provided in 416 (4th floor).

We are planning some social activities for the summer school.

• old town, Rathaus
• museum
  • Warleberger Hof
  • Schifffahrtsmuseum
  • Freilichtmuseum Molfsee
  • Computermuseum
  • U-Boot Laboe
  • Marineehrenmal
• beach (Falkenstein, Schilksee, Strande, Laboe)
• canal
• biking
• sailing
• surfing
• beergarden

http://erlebnisraum.kieler-foerde.eu/

• Lübeck (Queen of the Hanse), old-town (UNESCO world heritage site), Marzipan, Buddenbrooks
• Schleswig (Schloss Gottorf, Vikings in Haitabu)
• Flensburg (rum and beer)
• Plön (castle, 5 lakes)
• Friedrichstadt, the Dutch city
• North Sea beaches and Watt (St Peter-Ording, Sylt)