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The Munich AGM weekend - 21 – 23 January 2005
With winter making itself felt all over Europe and worse to come, taking the train to Munich was by far the best option. Phill and I have become regular travelling companions and Friday morning we met in the draughty expanse of Bern station to spend the rest of the morning zig-zagging our way through northeastern Switzerland and southern Germany to finally arrive in Munich, where we were met by our host, Mike Molloy, and Ole Nielsen, freshly arrived from Brussels. There was no time for leisurely greetings as we were scheduled to visit the Postbank to undertake yet another attempt to open a workable Euro bank account. Although we had a long wait and a tedious procedure to get through, with many forms to sign and explanations to give, the whole exercise seemed to have been completed successfully and the first transactions have been undertaken by our treasurer. Then we were off across and deep below Munich to the youth hostel, an old building in a relatively quiet area, with no lift and rooms on the fourth and fifth floors. One by one further members arrived and by the time we had to leave for the restaurant, a sizeable group had formed. With a table full of local specialities, all of which consisted of huge portions of meat accompanied by ‘knoedel’ or chips and enormous glasses of beer and wine, conversation was soon in full swing, getting to know the new members who had come and reminiscing with the regulars. A brisk walk in freezing temperatures either brought us back to the YH or to the next bar for further refreshment.
Saturday everyone was up bright and early, and after breakfast we were soon settled in our hired coach and leaving the city behind we headed off for Noerdlingen, its museum and the impact crater, with the weather cold but reasonable. Details of the trip from Ole follow my weekend report. The museum was definitely a highlight and its modern infrastructure in a medieval barn quite unexpected in such a small town, but Noerdlingen, which has always been famous for its crater of unknown origin was put fairly and squarely on the map when none other than Eugene Shoemaker (remember the Shoemaker- Levy comet?) came here to investigate and found rocks that proved that the local topography could only have been formed by the massive impact of an asteroid of 1 km diameter. Difficult to imagine such a cataclysmic event, but the museum does a wonderful job of trying to depict events as they happened, very graphically and simply. That this is an important area of investigation can be seen in the modern research centre, not far from the museum. Having seen the rocks, listened to the explanations and descriptions, watched the multimedia presentations and leaving quite a few Euros in the little gift shop, a treasure trove of maps, books and CD-ROMS, it was again time to savour the culinary delights of Bavaria, this time in the form of a mutton stew. Whilst a few decided to lengthen the midday break with an after-lunch coffee, the rest walked up to the church to admire the suevite from which it is built, only to find it closed. The afternoon was spent at various exposures and a viewpoint from which practically the entire crater can be seen. The weather had, by now, deteriorated to such an extent that could endanger the reproductive capabilities of all metallic primates in the area and we returned to Munich in a full blown snowstorm and roads that had been turned into veritable glaciers.
The AGM itself went well. The branch has had a successful year with some very good trips. Although the gold panning did nothing to swell the branch coffers, providing just a few small flakes for the participants, it was announced that the accounts are in good condition, which led the treasurer to pronounce, ‘We have money in the bank. We should spend some sensibly’. This is the first time I have come across a treasurer who is willing to spend, when most guard their treasuries tighter than Fort Knox, but a lively discussion ensued with a final decision to a) produce a CDROM of geo-photos from our various trips as a gift to all members; b) invest in a domain name for the website and c) purchase a branch GPS. With the treasurer tapping his watch, the proceedings were wound up and we set off again to yet another eating house, this time in the city centre at one of the famous Bavarian brewery temples of calorie excess. Local specialities seem to be primarily enormous portions of domesticated animals, with vegetables and salads merely for decoration, but we all enjoyed it and a further brisk walk af terwards may have been useful for waistline damage limitation.
Whilst Phill and I were travelling back to Arctic conditions in Switzerland on Sunday, those remaining met up again to visit a mineral exhibition. My thanks to Mike Molloy for organising this event. Just about everything went according to plan, and the feedback has been, without exception, positive. Hope to see you all next year in Geneva, where we are hoping to show you the Morcles nappe from a completely unconventional perspective!
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© OUGS Mainland Europe.
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Last modified on Tuesday, May 03, 2005 at 20:19