The German group meets on Thursday afternoons when there is no speaker meeting. Our programme is based on an A level course with lots of scope for discussions.

Group visit to Hamburg: June 2025

We visited three Hanseatic ports in northern Germany this year.  We stayed in Hamburg, which combines a large port catering for multiple container ships with an elegant, international city boasting a wide river, lakes and many hectares of parkland.  From there we  enjoyed days out by train to Bremen and Lübeck.

Most German restaurants serve a predictable global cuisine and it’s becoming difficult  to find traditional German food though, not to be deterred, we found at least one establishment that sold time-honoured local dishes.

Group visit to Dresden: June 2024

The German group made its third trip to Germany in June. This year seven of us, including convenor Barbara Finlayson, visited Dresden, capital of Saxony and well known for the painstaking rebuilding of the historic centre that took place following its destruction during the war.

There were indeed many sights to visit, and we were very lucky that Reni Ducksbury’s cousin, who now lives in Dresden, was able to show us around and recommend places to see. In short, we all had a great time.

Group visit to Thuringen: June 2023

No fewer than nine of us journeyed to Germany for the second visit by the German group. The destination was the state of Thuringen. We stayed in Erfurt and travelled from there to Eisenach, famous for Wartburg Castle, and Weimar, well-known for its associations with Goethe, Schiller and the Bauhaus movement.

Barbara Finlayson, convenor of the group, said, “We all had a wonderful time, and I was so pleased to be able to show the group some of the many special sights in my home state of Thuringen.”

Group visit to Nuremberg: June 2019

Where better to practise speaking German than in Germany itself! That was our conclusion when in June 2019 almost all of us spent nearly a week together in Nuremberg, Bamberg and Regensburg. Apart from sightseeing around three of the handsomest cities in Germany, we surprised ourselves by managing to speak German to one another for about half the time.

“We now have such lovely memories of our days in and around Nuremberg,” said convenor Barbara Finlayson as we later sifted through their many photographs, including the one of Bamberg shown below.