Central Europe Chapter Coordinator Armin Schreiner shared that members from Central Europe and beyond met on the weekend of Sept. 5-7 in Essen, Germany. Member and co-host Dirk Hannemann arranged a wonderful weekend filled with exploration and great topics.
After record-breaking participation in Salzburg earlier this year, Essen was meant to be a nice and cozy meeting in a very down-to-earth environment, a region known for blue-collar miners and steelers.
Being Armin’s home base, he happily invited a few travelers to party and stay at his house in Sprockhövel after the social “early bird” gathering in Hattingen’s romantic (crafted) old town on Friday. He didn’t count on the fun carrying on until about 4:30 in the morning — no need to say more.
On the morning of the conference, following re-acquaintances, a special welcome was extended to new members Eivile Cipkute from Lithuania, as well as Lea Kuklinski-Forselen and Olaf Güttler, both from Germany.
There were five travel presentations: “Essen in the Ruhr Valley” by Dirk, “Cruising with Kids” by Katja Kirste, Madagascar by Jill and Uwe Bussmann, “South Seas Paradises” by Armin, and the Arabian Peninsula by Dorota Wydro. Quiz wizard Reinhold Baer (author of the September “Just for Fun” in the Centurian) dished out a challenging quiz, and Volker Sayer provided some magic as a member of the German Magic Circle.
Dirk guided us through parts of the UNESCO World Heritage Site “Zeche Zollverein” just before our hearty dinner on the premises of “The Mine.” We had two very different Sunday excursions this time, some followed Dirk and those who learned a lot about the roots of voodoo culture and its artifacts in the “Soul of Africa Museum” together with Armin.
