Murcia & Granada 2001

   It was a hot summer night
   and the beach was burning.
   There was fog crawling over the sand.
   When I listen to your heart
   I hear the whole world turning.
   I see the shooting stars falling
   through your trembling hands.

Well, not quite, but still, it was hot even during the night, sometimes the beach seemed to be burning, at least when you set your foot on the sand. We should discuss the fog, I think there wasn't any, but I'm pretty sure, that some people had the impression the world was turning after several cups of Sangria or vino fresco or whatever you want to call it. We saw shooting stars, yes, we did! And there were definitely people with trembling hands some time during this great meeting!

Apart from these little but important details, it has definitely to be mentioned that we saw a great deal of the south-eastern part of Spain. Fascinating coastlines, nice Spanish cities with their cultural heritage from the Moores to today, and not to forget El Almendrico's pool and Granada's tapas bars! And I guess hardly anybody got back from the trip to Mar Menor without a sunburn.

The evenings were more than once packed with intense discussions about the future of SymBioSE, and during the Delegate's Assembly written versions of the framework and the objectives have been put together. They can now be viewed on the official web site.
This year's discussions and lectures covered mainly ecological topics, like "Artificial Reefs" and "Microbial Ecology" and many of them were enriched by excursions to actually see what we had previously learned. Lectures were held by Spanish professors from as far as La Coruna, which guaranteed an insight in the different regions and cultural varieties of this fascinating country. Further topics were: analytic microbiology, marine biology, paleontology, nutrition and the Mediterranean diet, anthropology and more.

Simply said: IT WAS GREAT!