There used to be a tower in the middle of a forest. Just at the border between Germany and Czech Republic. Somewhere. I don’t know if it is still there, but I guess so. I hope so. It was one of the best places ever to see a sunrise.

Imagine this big orange ball of fire coming up from the crowns of the trees, it’s literally in front of you. Then, magically, someone plays the perfect song for the moment. And someone else says something you are also thinking in the same very moment: …woooow…(Just perfect)

The tower was the symbol of Klingenthal. We had it in the construction game. We had it in the video-game (remember the video-game? we had to carry the camera and the recorder and extension cable and the microphone and the music…). TiNa, our DarkRoom leader, avoided having a tower on every working group picture, but made sure that the general group picture showed it…(no, I didn’t say showered it :p)

What else do we remember of Klingenthal? the house was quite big, with a tennis table and a billiard table in the NAP room. Roberto’s working group was huge and cosy, and everybody gathered there…and the NAP field where Idoia amused us with her games and we played volleyball. And the terrace!! on sunny afternoons it was really warm, we were lucky to have an inflatable swimming-pool!! The cucumber-eating contest took place there (what was it, Lilly? 11 cucumbers in 2 minutes?), as well as Idoia’s really early “fitness Klaas”.

In the corridors you could always find something interesting, like T.R.A.N.S.I.S.T.O.R., this cool robot built by AIME, under Mexican supervision. Or Leonid, who would ask you ``how many hours did you sleep last night?’’ and then try to count your heart beats…Leander would look for material to build his devices, Klaas talking about using a flash to illuminate the Moon…Somebody showering somebody else in order to keep him/her out of the game…or Irene talking about underwear.

But actually, we did work and produce a lot of cool projects. There were working groups about galaxies, practical observation, ancient astronomy, distances in the universe, photography, intelligent machines for exploration and cosmology…To know more about spectroscopy, CCD imaging, drawing, aztecs, sunspots, gravitational lensing, sundials, the sonar, the expansion of the universe, Mars, sailing, the magnification method, photo development, variable stars, odometry, stars clusters, Egypt, water melons, cookies, music, english cakes, candles, work, fun, poetry, deadline panic, coffee and tee, Calvin and Hobbes… I would address you to the report book. I will only finish remembering the crazy shower party: the camp was nearly over, it was really cold outside, and we could only do something…shower inside!! Luckily, the walls were waterproof and we flooded the house. But it was fun, and then we spent 2 hours on the common work of drying it up again. We are a good team, are we not?

By Ana Ruiz M. (Spain)