For early arrival participants to ICUME we will offer a free guided excursion in Darmstadt and out of town to Grube Messel (see details below) on Sunday, 13. November 2011, from 12:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. Meeting point will be the main entrance of the congress centre, Darmstadtium. The first part of the excursion takes you to the Mathildenhöhe. After the visit, a bus will bring you to the Grube Messel and back to Darmstadt. Participants to ICUME will be updated about the excursion via E-Mail after registration to ICUME.

A walk through the Mathildenhöhe illustrates the history of the 1899 established Artists’ Colony. The whole ensemble with studio building, Exhibition Hall and artists’ houses is presented. A visit to the House Glückert and the House Olbrich offers insights to the style of living of the experimental Art Nouveau.

Not far from Darmstadt you get an outstanding insight into the earth´s history. Deposits of a volcanic lake preserved flora and fauna for 47 million years. The visitor centre presents the unique fossils of a long gone tropical rainforest and brings you in touch with the methods and the thoughts of geoscientists. You get awareness about the processes in and on the earth and how they influenced life and landscape. On the guided tour you explore the ancient crater and later open pit mine on-site. You get information about the industrial history of the pit as well as on the geology of the site and come in contact with the rock materials and fossils itself.