We’re wet. Not personally drenched, in the sense that we’re in a minibus (which Jules is in fact driving) and it's the bus that’s being pounded by the rain and not us, but metaphorically waterlogged, as it’s July 1st, and I’m disappointed that the clouds have decided that today is a day for late-spring weather, rather than a celebration of the joys of Summer. We’re en route from the Saarland to Hessen - two German counties or Bundesländer that are very close to my heart. Hessen, because my father used to run German exchanges for the schools at which he taught while I was growing up, and our partner school was in Eschwege, a beautiful town right in the middle of Germany, near Kassel in central Hessen. The Saarland speaks to me for a different reason. As many of you will know, I love board games. Scrabble, Boggle, Cluedo, Monopoly, the list goes on. Since my parents wanted to heighten my familiarity with Germany while I was a pupil at the German School in London (helpfully called the Deutsche Schule London), we used to play a game called Deutschlandreise a lot. The premise is simple. The board is a map of Germany, with a large number of major towns marked out and connected by roads. Each player starts in a particular town, and is tasked with visiting a certain number of other towns across the country. The player that gets back to their starting point first wins, although it’s more complicated than it sounds, as you can block other travellers on their journeys and may have to pick up more stops along your way, which delays the process of getting home. What’s significant right now, though, is that the main aim of the game was of little importance to me. All I cared about was visiting the most northern, southern, eastern and western towns every time we played. In the north, it was Flensburg, a town right on the Danish border (and you all know just how much I love Denmark). In the south, Berchtesgaden, southeast of Munich, sandwiched by Austrian land and only about half an hour away from Salzburg (which is bizarrely due north of the city). In the East, Frankfurt an der Oder, which is within touching distance of Poland. And in the west, the undercelebrated city of Saarbrücken - the capital of the Saarland, about half an hour away from Luxembourg and almost directly on top of the border with France. The Saarland is the smallest of all the German Bundesländer (with the exception of the three German city states of Berlin, Bremen and Hamburg), and has a huge amount of charm - at least to me - for that very reason. I always find it brings me inordinate pleasure to revisit that childhood joy I took in travelling through the Saarland - even if it was only in a board game - when our King’s Singers travels give us our very own Deutschlandreise through the same places. And so now, this Deutschlandreise continues, through Weilburg in Hessen, to Passau and into Austria tomorrow, before we return home on Monday. Tomorrow I’ll be driving. If it continues to rain like this, I might see if someone else would prefer to take the wheel…
We’re wet. Not personally drenched, in the sense that we’re in a minibus (which Jules is in fact driving) and it's the bus that’s being pounded by the rain and not us, but metaphorically waterlogged, as it’s July 1st, and I’m disappointed that the clouds have decided that today is a day for late-spring weather, rather than a celebration of the joys of Summer. We’re en route from the Saarland to Hessen - two German counties or Bundesländer that are very close to my heart. Hessen, because my father used to run German exchanges for the schools at which he taught while I was growing up, and our partner school was in Eschwege, a beautiful town right in the middle of Germany, near Kassel in central Hessen. The Saarland speaks to me for a different reason. As many of you will know, I love board games. Scrabble, Boggle, Cluedo, Monopoly, the list goes on. Since my parents wanted to heighten my familiarity with Germany while I was a pupil at the German School in London (helpfully called the Deutsche Schule London), we used to play a game called Deutschlandreise a lot. The premise is simple. The board is a map of Germany, with a large number of major towns marked out and connected by roads. Each player starts in a particular town, and is tasked with visiting a certain number of other towns across the country. The player that gets back to their starting point first wins, although it’s more complicated than it sounds, as you can block other travellers on their journeys and may have to pick up more stops along your way, which delays the process of getting home. What’s significant right now, though, is that the main aim of the game was of little importance to me. All I cared about was visiting the most northern, southern, eastern and western towns every time we played. In the north, it was Flensburg, a town right on the Danish border (and you all know just how much I love Denmark). In the south, Berchtesgaden, southeast of Munich, sandwiched by Austrian land and only about half an hour away from Salzburg (which is bizarrely due north of the city). In the East, Frankfurt an der Oder, which is within touching distance of Poland. And in the west, the undercelebrated city of Saarbrücken - the capital of the Saarland, about half an hour away from Luxembourg and almost directly on top of the border with France. The Saarland is the smallest of all the German Bundesländer (with the exception of the three German city states of Berlin, Bremen and Hamburg), and has a huge amount of charm - at least to me - for that very reason. I always find it brings me inordinate pleasure to revisit that childhood joy I took in travelling through the Saarland - even if it was only in a board game - when our King’s Singers travels give us our very own Deutschlandreise through the same places. And so now, this Deutschlandreise continues, through Weilburg in Hessen, to Passau and into Austria tomorrow, before we return home on Monday. Tomorrow I’ll be driving. If it continues to rain like this, I might see if someone else would prefer to take the wheel…
We’re wet. Not personally drenched, in the sense that we’re in a minibus (which Jules is in fact driving) and it's the bus that’s being pounded by the rain and not us, but metaphorically waterlogged, as it’s July 1st, and I’m disappointed that the clouds have decided that today is a day for late-spring weather, rather than a celebration of the joys of Summer. We’re en route from the Saarland to Hessen - two German counties or Bundesländer that are very close to my heart. Hessen, because my father used to run German exchanges for the schools at which he taught while I was growing up, and our partner school was in Eschwege, a beautiful town right in the middle of Germany, near Kassel in central Hessen. The Saarland speaks to me for a different reason. As many of you will know, I love board games. Scrabble, Boggle, Cluedo, Monopoly, the list goes on. Since my parents wanted to heighten my familiarity with Germany while I was a pupil at the German School in London (helpfully called the Deutsche Schule London), we used to play a game called Deutschlandreise a lot. The premise is simple. The board is a map of Germany, with a large number of major towns marked out and connected by roads. Each player starts in a particular town, and is tasked with visiting a certain number of other towns across the country. The player that gets back to their starting point first wins, although it’s more complicated than it sounds, as you can block other travellers on their journeys and may have to pick up more stops along your way, which delays the process of getting home. What’s significant right now, though, is that the main aim of the game was of little importance to me. All I cared about was visiting the most northern, southern, eastern and western towns every time we played. In the north, it was Flensburg, a town right on the Danish border (and you all know just how much I love Denmark). In the south, Berchtesgaden, southeast of Munich, sandwiched by Austrian land and only about half an hour away from Salzburg (which is bizarrely due north of the city). In the East, Frankfurt an der Oder, which is within touching distance of Poland. And in the west, the undercelebrated city of Saarbrücken - the capital of the Saarland, about half an hour away from Luxembourg and almost directly on top of the border with France. The Saarland is the smallest of all the German Bundesländer (with the exception of the three German city states of Berlin, Bremen and Hamburg), and has a huge amount of charm - at least to me - for that very reason. I always find it brings me inordinate pleasure to revisit that childhood joy I took in travelling through the Saarland - even if it was only in a board game - when our King’s Singers travels give us our very own Deutschlandreise through the same places. And so now, this Deutschlandreise continues, through Weilburg in Hessen, to Passau and into Austria tomorrow, before we return home on Monday. Tomorrow I’ll be driving. If it continues to rain like this, I might see if someone else would prefer to take the wheel…
We’re wet. Not personally drenched, in the sense that we’re in a minibus (which Jules is in fact driving) and it's the bus that’s being pounded by the rain and not us, but metaphorically waterlogged, as it’s July 1st, and I’m disappointed that the clouds have decided that today is a day for late-spring weather, rather than a celebration of the joys of Summer. We’re en route from the Saarland to Hessen - two German counties or Bundesländer that are very close to my heart. Hessen, because my father used to run German exchanges for the schools at which he taught while I was growing up, and our partner school was in Eschwege, a beautiful town right in the middle of Germany, near Kassel in central Hessen. The Saarland speaks to me for a different reason. As many of you will know, I love board games. Scrabble, Boggle, Cluedo, Monopoly, the list goes on. Since my parents wanted to heighten my familiarity with Germany while I was a pupil at the German School in London (helpfully called the Deutsche Schule London), we used to play a game called Deutschlandreise a lot. The premise is simple. The board is a map of Germany, with a large number of major towns marked out and connected by roads. Each player starts in a particular town, and is tasked with visiting a certain number of other towns across the country. The player that gets back to their starting point first wins, although it’s more complicated than it sounds, as you can block other travellers on their journeys and may have to pick up more stops along your way, which delays the process of getting home. What’s significant right now, though, is that the main aim of the game was of little importance to me. All I cared about was visiting the most northern, southern, eastern and western towns every time we played. In the north, it was Flensburg, a town right on the Danish border (and you all know just how much I love Denmark). In the south, Berchtesgaden, southeast of Munich, sandwiched by Austrian land and only about half an hour away from Salzburg (which is bizarrely due north of the city). In the East, Frankfurt an der Oder, which is within touching distance of Poland. And in the west, the undercelebrated city of Saarbrücken - the capital of the Saarland, about half an hour away from Luxembourg and almost directly on top of the border with France. The Saarland is the smallest of all the German Bundesländer (with the exception of the three German city states of Berlin, Bremen and Hamburg), and has a huge amount of charm - at least to me - for that very reason. I always find it brings me inordinate pleasure to revisit that childhood joy I took in travelling through the Saarland - even if it was only in a board game - when our King’s Singers travels give us our very own Deutschlandreise through the same places. And so now, this Deutschlandreise continues, through Weilburg in Hessen, to Passau and into Austria tomorrow, before we return home on Monday. Tomorrow I’ll be driving. If it continues to rain like this, I might see if someone else would prefer to take the wheel…
We’re wet. Not personally drenched, in the sense that we’re in a minibus (which Jules is in fact driving) and it's the bus that’s being pounded by the rain and not us, but metaphorically waterlogged, as it’s July 1st, and I’m disappointed that the clouds have decided that today is a day for late-spring weather, rather than a celebration of the joys of Summer. We’re en route from the Saarland to Hessen - two German counties or Bundesländer that are very close to my heart. Hessen, because my father used to run German exchanges for the schools at which he taught while I was growing up, and our partner school was in Eschwege, a beautiful town right in the middle of Germany, near Kassel in central Hessen. The Saarland speaks to me for a different reason. As many of you will know, I love board games. Scrabble, Boggle, Cluedo, Monopoly, the list goes on. Since my parents wanted to heighten my familiarity with Germany while I was a pupil at the German School in London (helpfully called the Deutsche Schule London), we used to play a game called Deutschlandreise a lot. The premise is simple. The board is a map of Germany, with a large number of major towns marked out and connected by roads. Each player starts in a particular town, and is tasked with visiting a certain number of other towns across the country. The player that gets back to their starting point first wins, although it’s more complicated than it sounds, as you can block other travellers on their journeys and may have to pick up more stops along your way, which delays the process of getting home. What’s significant right now, though, is that the main aim of the game was of little importance to me. All I cared about was visiting the most northern, southern, eastern and western towns every time we played. In the north, it was Flensburg, a town right on the Danish border (and you all know just how much I love Denmark). In the south, Berchtesgaden, southeast of Munich, sandwiched by Austrian land and only about half an hour away from Salzburg (which is bizarrely due north of the city). In the East, Frankfurt an der Oder, which is within touching distance of Poland. And in the west, the undercelebrated city of Saarbrücken - the capital of the Saarland, about half an hour away from Luxembourg and almost directly on top of the border with France. The Saarland is the smallest of all the German Bundesländer (with the exception of the three German city states of Berlin, Bremen and Hamburg), and has a huge amount of charm - at least to me - for that very reason. I always find it brings me inordinate pleasure to revisit that childhood joy I took in travelling through the Saarland - even if it was only in a board game - when our King’s Singers travels give us our very own Deutschlandreise through the same places. And so now, this Deutschlandreise continues, through Weilburg in Hessen, to Passau and into Austria tomorrow, before we return home on Monday. Tomorrow I’ll be driving. If it continues to rain like this, I might see if someone else would prefer to take the wheel…
We’re wet. Not personally drenched, in the sense that we’re in a minibus (which Jules is in fact driving) and it's the bus that’s being pounded by the rain and not us, but metaphorically waterlogged, as it’s July 1st, and I’m disappointed that the clouds have decided that today is a day for late-spring weather, rather than a celebration of the joys of Summer. We’re en route from the Saarland to Hessen - two German counties or Bundesländer that are very close to my heart. Hessen, because my father used to run German exchanges for the schools at which he taught while I was growing up, and our partner school was in Eschwege, a beautiful town right in the middle of Germany, near Kassel in central Hessen. The Saarland speaks to me for a different reason. As many of you will know, I love board games. Scrabble, Boggle, Cluedo, Monopoly, the list goes on. Since my parents wanted to heighten my familiarity with Germany while I was a pupil at the German School in London (helpfully called the Deutsche Schule London), we used to play a game called Deutschlandreise a lot. The premise is simple. The board is a map of Germany, with a large number of major towns marked out and connected by roads. Each player starts in a particular town, and is tasked with visiting a certain number of other towns across the country. The player that gets back to their starting point first wins, although it’s more complicated than it sounds, as you can block other travellers on their journeys and may have to pick up more stops along your way, which delays the process of getting home. What’s significant right now, though, is that the main aim of the game was of little importance to me. All I cared about was visiting the most northern, southern, eastern and western towns every time we played. In the north, it was Flensburg, a town right on the Danish border (and you all know just how much I love Denmark). In the south, Berchtesgaden, southeast of Munich, sandwiched by Austrian land and only about half an hour away from Salzburg (which is bizarrely due north of the city). In the East, Frankfurt an der Oder, which is within touching distance of Poland. And in the west, the undercelebrated city of Saarbrücken - the capital of the Saarland, about half an hour away from Luxembourg and almost directly on top of the border with France. The Saarland is the smallest of all the German Bundesländer (with the exception of the three German city states of Berlin, Bremen and Hamburg), and has a huge amount of charm - at least to me - for that very reason. I always find it brings me inordinate pleasure to revisit that childhood joy I took in travelling through the Saarland - even if it was only in a board game - when our King’s Singers travels give us our very own Deutschlandreise through the same places. And so now, this Deutschlandreise continues, through Weilburg in Hessen, to Passau and into Austria tomorrow, before we return home on Monday. Tomorrow I’ll be driving. If it continues to rain like this, I might see if someone else would prefer to take the wheel…
We’re wet. Not personally drenched, in the sense that we’re in a minibus (which Jules is in fact driving) and it's the bus that’s being pounded by the rain and not us, but metaphorically waterlogged, as it’s July 1st, and I’m disappointed that the clouds have decided that today is a day for late-spring weather, rather than a celebration of the joys of Summer. We’re en route from the Saarland to Hessen - two German counties or Bundesländer that are very close to my heart. Hessen, because my father used to run German exchanges for the schools at which he taught while I was growing up, and our partner school was in Eschwege, a beautiful town right in the middle of Germany, near Kassel in central Hessen. The Saarland speaks to me for a different reason. As many of you will know, I love board games. Scrabble, Boggle, Cluedo, Monopoly, the list goes on. Since my parents wanted to heighten my familiarity with Germany while I was a pupil at the German School in London (helpfully called the Deutsche Schule London), we used to play a game called Deutschlandreise a lot. The premise is simple. The board is a map of Germany, with a large number of major towns marked out and connected by roads. Each player starts in a particular town, and is tasked with visiting a certain number of other towns across the country. The player that gets back to their starting point first wins, although it’s more complicated than it sounds, as you can block other travellers on their journeys and may have to pick up more stops along your way, which delays the process of getting home. What’s significant right now, though, is that the main aim of the game was of little importance to me. All I cared about was visiting the most northern, southern, eastern and western towns every time we played. In the north, it was Flensburg, a town right on the Danish border (and you all know just how much I love Denmark). In the south, Berchtesgaden, southeast of Munich, sandwiched by Austrian land and only about half an hour away from Salzburg (which is bizarrely due north of the city). In the East, Frankfurt an der Oder, which is within touching distance of Poland. And in the west, the undercelebrated city of Saarbrücken - the capital of the Saarland, about half an hour away from Luxembourg and almost directly on top of the border with France. The Saarland is the smallest of all the German Bundesländer (with the exception of the three German city states of Berlin, Bremen and Hamburg), and has a huge amount of charm - at least to me - for that very reason. I always find it brings me inordinate pleasure to revisit that childhood joy I took in travelling through the Saarland - even if it was only in a board game - when our King’s Singers travels give us our very own Deutschlandreise through the same places. And so now, this Deutschlandreise continues, through Weilburg in Hessen, to Passau and into Austria tomorrow, before we return home on Monday. Tomorrow I’ll be driving. If it continues to rain like this, I might see if someone else would prefer to take the wheel…
