Civic visit to Hemmoor 12-15 September 2008

Our next meeting in Hemmoor is 12th to 15th September 2014

 

This visit commemorated 40 years of the 3-way twinning of Swaffham, Couhé and Hemmoor so was a special occasion in the lives of all three communities. The 24 strong party from Swaffham travelled by Ryanair to Bremen and thence by coach to Hemmoor. We were in Hemmoor in good time for lunch, having left Swaffham at about 3.00am to make sure we caught the 6.25am flight!

A well packed programme was planned for the weekend and started on the Friday evening with a Welcome in the Schutzenpark where traditional soup and bread were served in a gathering which got steadily noisier as old friendships were renewed and new ones begun.

Mayors, Town Clerks, Councillors and Twinning Club officers attended the Saturday morning business meeting whilst most of the rest of the visitors and hosts went off to Osten to see the transporter bridge, church and bottle and archeological museum. After lunch with our host families we were able to visit the Trade Fair where the theme was Health and as you can see from the picture, two of our members were at pains to ensure calorie levels were being maintained (as if that was ever going to be a problem on a twinning weekend!!).

Saturday evening saw everybody attending the Civic dinner and dance in the Schutzenpark again. This was the occasion for the formal speeches and whilst we were all hoping this part of the proceedings wouldn’t take too long, by the time four speeches had been made, and translated into two other languages, everybody was ready for food and dancing!

Sunday was when the Hemmoor Twinning Club hosted everybody to a splendid lunch in the Festhalle at Osten. The format was different here, with speeches from Twinning Club Chairmen nicely timed to be between courses – an excellent idea. During the meal a slideshow of photos from 40 years of twinning in Hemmoor, Couhé and Swaffham was played on a continuous loop and attracted much attention, comment and many memories.

Monday, sadly, was departure day. Our German hosts had arranged for us to visit the Bremen University Science Park on the way to the airport and we spent a fascinating couple of hours playing with all sorts of interactive displays, both indoor and outdoor, before heading into Bremen for a look round the city.

We’d had a superb weekend and very many thanks are due to all our friends in Hemmoor who played their part in looking after us and making the groups from Swaffham and Couhé so welcome once again.

As a Twinning Association we were delighted that the group from Swaffham included several newcomers to twinning weekends and below are some comments from two of the couples who came along:

"It ran like clockwork, here in the UK, RyanAir and the host association got everything right. For our first experience of twinning it was perfect. Our hosts were extremely friendly and we made new friends from both the Swaffham and Couhé groups. We had a wonderful time at the receptions and organised visits, as well as the informal visit to Stade provided by our host and a farm tour provided by our other new German friends. Such a difference from business trips, a chance to meet the real people."

" No need to have worried about whether we would get on with our hosts. We hit it off straightaway and their kindness and generosity was wonderful, way beyond any expectations. No need to have worried about whether our German was up to scratch because our hosts’ English was better than our English. They had a fantastic sense of humour. Who says Germans are humourless? We were taken to lots of interesting places and felt we really got to know Hemmoor and the surrounding area. We saw field after field of maize, orchard after orchard of trees laden with apples, tried regional food such as traditional seafarers’ Labskause, drank brandy after lunch, attended a concert of beautiful and moving sacred music. Everyone we met showed us kindness. We ate too much, probably drank too much, certainly talked too much. What more can we say – to us, twinning was a wonderful opportunity we are so grateful to have grasped”