Nijmegen, Saturday 11th November 2007

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Nijmegen, Kolpinghuis: lecture for RATC II
Saturday 11th November 2007

The second Roman Army Talk Conference was held in Nijmegen, the Netherlands. I could only attend the second of three days, but that was a very good experience nonetheless. The weather was simply awful. The whole day saw torrential rain, and small rivers ran through the streets from the hills down to the Waal river. I had to jump several small torrents to reach the conference centre with my feet reasonaly dry! Once inside, others arrived soon after, also wet and some still a bit sleepy from the program (plus socializing) the day before. The honour to kick off went to me, and though a bit rusty it all seemed to go quite well, there was a nice discussion during the lecture and afterwards.

LEFT TO RIGHT: The Kolpinghuis conference centre in the heart of Nijmegen (although the weather was not as good!). Myself, answering questions about my plumbatae-lecture (plus distribution map). Svenja Grosser, discussing military amphitheatres. Maarten Dolmans selecting the next photo with gruesome medical details about the Roman military medical organisation.

After the lectures we had the fortune of a short letup in the rainy weather, in which we walked through the city center, stopping only from lunch, coffee and a good bookshop, before arriving at the Valkhof museum.

The Valkhof museum has a very good collection of Republican helmets and face masks, which generated plenty of interest of the experts. The museum may be very modern in architecture, but a lot of those severe lines are broken by the scenery outside which is visible through the glass walls.

After the museum saw us go, we took a short up at a cafe before jpining the rest at our final destination of the day, an Italian restaurant.

The evening program was all too short, but involved drinks and good food (Italian - what else!) and socializing with many folks we only write with: LEFT: Wim van Broekhoven reading the Deepeeka catalogue, Christian Köpfer entertaining Hanneke van Broekhoven and Svenja Grosser. MIDDLE: Jef and Tom Pinceel, Annika Devroe, at the head of the table (wearing a blue sweater) Jurgen Schultz, RIGHT: Jeroen Pelgrom, Jurjen Draaisma and Svenja (with beer).

The conference was too short for me and I hope to attend more of them in future! It was good to see people in person who I normally only write with on the Roman Army Talk forum.