RIES EXCURSION OF FRIEDRICH DESSAUER GYMNASIUM – HE-S PROVIDES GENEROUS SUPPORT

Monday, 25 March 2019, 7:30 am. Ms Koller, Mr Krasa and 16 students from the geology course start the three-hour journey to the Nördlinger Ries. Their faces are still awake and motivated, but that will change after the packed programme of the upcoming two days. After all, the excursion is relevant for some of the students' A-levels.

The first item on the programme follows at 11:30 a.m.: the guided tour of the Oettinger brewery, which is an important part of the cultural landscape of the Ries. Here we see the first effects of the crater landscape: the groundwater in Oettingen and the surrounding area is too hard for brewing due to calcareous soil and therefore has to be softened first. Surprisingly, we also learn that many types of beer - such as "Falkenfelser" - contain Oettingen beer. Of course, a short tasting is not to be missed, for which the parents' consent was obtained in advance.

The next stop is the Ries Crater Museum in Nördlingen. Here we are shown the formation and history of the Ries crater in the form of a guided tour of the museum. 15 million years ago, an asteroid hit this area and left behind an impact crater with a diameter of 25 km, which offers all kinds of geological peculiarities, for example its double crater ring. Particularly eye-catching are the Neuschwanstein meteorite and the exposed stone from the moon.

Afterwards we walk to the town centre and climb the 90-metre-high church tower, the "Daniel", which offers a fabulous view over the town and the landscape of the Ries. Around 5 pm and after a short walk we arrive at the youth hostel.

After a breather and dinner, a guided tour of the town follows. In one and a half hours we visit the former free imperial city via its completely preserved city wall, the former soldiers' quarters and learn more about the witch hunts of that time. Afterwards, in a Greek bar, many order a hot chocolate to chase away the cold and get warm again, until we finally fall exhausted into the beds of the youth hostel after the call of the turret.

The next morning, after a relatively short night, we get up at around 7am, as the rooms have to be vacated at 8am and at 8.30am we go with a geologist to visit four quarries and the two Ofnet caves. After the previous very theoretical day, the focus here is on practical work, which many have been looking forward to. That's why, in addition to helmets, which are compulsory in some quarries, hammers, pürckhauer (a drill stick) and hydrochloric acid are in our luggage. Especially at the sight of the hammers, some students fall into a childlike euphoria. We draw, take soil samples, identify stones and find fossils. At the end of the day, we start our journey home completely exhausted and with a lot of new knowledge. It was an exhausting but very nice excursion!