The September visit to our friends in BM was an amazing success. The journey got off to an interesting start as there were a lot of supercars travelling with the coach on the Eurostar, mostly sports cars on a rally and a Rolls-Royce SUV, so for any car enthusiast, it made the normally rather dull journey in the tunnel a memorable event.

By happy coincidence, the coach carrying the Fougères twinning guests arrived simultaneously with the Ashford contingent. As usual, there were a good number of planned activities. There was a walking tour of the town, in particular, we all got to see first-hand the repairs, restorations and in some cases improvements, following the tragic floods which caused extensive damage to the town and loss of life in July 2021.

We all enjoyed the trip to see the ‘James Bondesque’ huge Effelsberg Radio Telescope located in a valley just outside the town. The huge instrument is the second largest in the world, for lunch we all enjoyed German sausage & chips in the picnic area of the telescope café.

We all enjoyed the students from all the three twin towns giving presentations about the environment & tackling climate change, as well as the mayoral speeches. The students all did very well in what was probably a quite daunting experience for them.

The visit ended with a lovely meal at the Wolfsschlucht restaurant, which was a very jolly event, with excellent speeches and exchange of gifts. We were blessed with sunshine throughout the time we were in Bad Münstereifel and everyone got home safely in good time.