Karlsruhe Visit – Deborah Hutchinson
In a month of outings we have just enjoyed a memorable 4 days in Karlsruhe. My husband Charles, John and his wife Jenny and Kathryn Meir formed the advance party who travelled over for the annual Asparagus Dinner of the Karlsruhe Bar. A party of lawyers from Ghent, our other twinning partner had also been invited. It was my first time at the Spargelfest and what a ‘Fest’ it was. Their asparagus is big and white and you are presented with 3 stems on your plate. When those are deliciously devoured 3 more arrive, a process which is repeated until the stomach shouts stop! The record for the evening I think was 26 but your President is made of less stern stuff and notched up a mere 10½. Traditionally the Spargel is followed by strawberries which are grown side by side in the local fields. They were equally delicious.
The trip had been meticulously thought out and our generous hosts attentive to our comfort and every detail. On the Friday they had arranged for a privileged tour of the university’s Science Park where we were introduced to KATRIN – a huge 200 ton chamber whose purpose is to see if a neutrino (to save you googling – a fundamental particle which travels close to the speed of light, is electronically neutral and 50 trillion pass through the human body every second) can be weighed. The scale of the experiment was mind boggling. The chamber was built 250 km from Karlsruhe but had to travel 8800km down rivers and through seas to get there and the final 30km from the Rhine to Campus Nord involved passing through a village street with only 3cm clearance.
We visited a building where they converted straw into carbon neutral fuel and then went on to see the world’s largest Cloud Simulation Chamber where cloud formation was discussed. We learned that those dust particles which you see dancing in the sunlight streaming in through a window, are called ‘aerosols’ which are vital for cloud formation and also relatedly ice formation. We were shown how pure water remains liquid and pourable at sub zero temperature but on coming into contact with dust particles instantly forms ice. We all came away inspired and wanting to swap our dusty legal files for the labs where files were all about dust.
That evening we were joined by Stephen and Jane Warner and a wonderfully supportive party of 5 from Rothera Dowson for the annual tripartite twinning weekend. Stephen will report on what happened next, in our next bulletin. I would like however, to record my thanks to Kathryn who is a german speaker, and who made it all so easy for her non german speaking travelling companions. As the educational part of the weekend was on the topic of Employment Law it fell to Kathryn to respond to the points raised by the German Employment Judge during his lecture – a task she performed brilliantly.
The longstanding relationship of the Nottinghamshire Law Society with the Bars of Karlsruhe and Ghent is a special feature of our Society. Those of us who have had the pleasure of meeting and forming friendships across the legal divide have found it an enriching experience and it is one I commend to you. Next year the weekend will be in Ghent, and then it will be our turn again.
