May 25th: The Wismut Symposium - Day 1

The conference was held out at the old motor car factory in the adjacent town of Ronneberg. Returning to the hall there was a trip back  in time as I have been here several times in the past 12 years.

The conference went well with a great opening fanfare from ten traditional miners band, or at least three of them

The meeting went well and at 1815 we headed back to the hotel - only to be met by the full miners' brass band and the guild's guard of honour

and then when we finally got into the hotel there were two people on stilts  giving each participant a bottle of special miners\' schnapps

and beyond them await staff with free drinks as a prelude to the evening reception  and a jazz band

.......another long evening coming up.................................................