2026
January 2026
Message from Rosemary
Hello everyone,
Welcome to the first newsletter of 2026 – I hope this finds you well and I wish you all the very best for the year.
I’m organising a Stammtisch this time as Edward is away – and suggest we meet on Sunday February 8th from 4pm at The Castle pub in Newnham Street. We could then go on to the Pizzeria Santaniello close by from 5pm for supper. Could you please let me know if you are able to come along – so that I can reserve a table for us in the restaurant? Please note change of time and venue, see Upcoming Events for more information.
Also our AGM will be on Wednesday March 18th at 7pm in the Biffa Room at St. Mark’s Church in Brickhill. This room is upstairs but there is a lift. As usual there will be refreshments of tea/coffee and homemade cakes following the meeting. This is also the time when membership fees are due – remaining at £15 per person for the year. It would be helpful if you could tell me if you can attend please – to help the Committee with catering.
I look forward to seeing you soon and best wishes.
Rosemary
2025
September 2025
Article published in the Fränkischer Tag newspaper in Bamberg about the Bedfordian visit to Bamberg.
The town twinning between Bedford, located about 50 kilometres northeast of London, and the World Heritage City of Bamberg has existed for 48 years now.
Almost since the beginning of the partnership, it has been filled with life in the annual alternation between Bamberg and Bedford. This year it was a group of about 20 people, most of whom have been with Bamberg for many years, have made friends and are happy to spend a week with their hosts on both sides of the Channel every year.
For 14 years now, it has been Ursula Kalb on the German side, who, as the successor to Sally Schneider, has been organizing the exchange under the umbrella of the German-English Club with its chairwoman Jane Westrop. As an expert on Bamberg and Franconia, she succeeds, as she did this year, in putting together a programme that leaves nothing to be desired by both the English guests and the German hosts.
Of course, the city of Bamberg, represented by the 3rd mayor Wolfgang Metzner and Brigitte Riegelbauer, who is the contact person for Bamberg’s not few town twinnings, invited the English delegation with its German friends to the Rococo Hall in the venerable Bamberg Old Town Hall. On behalf of the guests, Edward Keech, together with the co-founder of the partnership, Graham Hayes, and the former mayor of Bedford, Apu Bagchi, emphasized the vitality of this German-English friendship, which has fewer and fewer language barriers every year. This became clear at the Farewell Party in Geisfeld, where Ursula Kalb and her husband Ludwig acted as hosts, and self-created German-English songs were belted out together.
The English guests soaked up German life and culture on day trips to Aschaffenburg with the Johannisburg Castle or the Pompejanum, to Bayreuth with the Margravial Opera House and even when visiting the small Haßfurt, which is well worth a visit with the Knights’ Chapel or the parish church of St. Kilian.
Ursula Kalb would be happy about “young blood” perhaps already on her next return visit to Bedford next September. Interested parties are cordially invited to contact her via ursula-kalb@gmx.de.
Horst Lange
May 2025
Message from Rosemary
Edward has asked me to contact you with a request to book your flights as soon as possible please – to ensure the flights don’t get fully booked. Once you have booked could you please email Edward to confirm your plans.
Unfortunately he has the list of those planning to come and is now away for nearly two weeks. So if you think I’ve missed anyone – please pass this message on!
Many thanks.
Rosemary
May 2025
Message from Edward
I have now received an email from Ryanair confirming the change to the Monday 8th flight to 20.10 scheduled to land at 22.45. If on time, I calculate that this would get us to Bamberg at 1 am, assuming transfers can be arranged. Earlier there was a daytime flight on the Sunday but this has also changed to 19.35 arriving 22.10 so not much better. I cannot contemplate asking the hosts to come out to meet us at such an early hour and it would get the visit off to a bad start with everyone tired.
The visit itinerary is still scheduled to take place from Tuesday 9th to the Farewell Party on Saturday 13th. Those making their own way by driving or by train are therefore not affected by the problem with the flight time change.
So what options are there?
Jo and I have changed to the Saturday flight at 12.10 to arrive 14.45, which is currently £64.99, much cheaper than the Sunday and Monday flights, and it is possible that we will stay in a Bamberg hotel for 2 nights if not with our host. If you are willing to join us, that will be fine, or if you are in good contact with your hosts, it may be possible to stay with them. I have asked Ursula to look into this for me.
It is of course possible that some of you will have commitments at the weekend which would prevent you flying on the Saturday. In that case, there is another option of flying on the Sunday or Monday evening, then instead of trying to get to Bamberg at such a late time, there is a Premier Inn not far from the airport so book a room overnight there (Sunday currently 47 euros), then journey to Bamberg in the morning. I could possibly come to help you with the train journey, if necessary, although I am sure some of you are seasoned travellers able to make that journey.
I am sorry that this is not as simple as it used to be, when in the past we could book a coach for transfers at either end, but now understandably everyone prefers to make their own way and so we do not have the numbers.
At this stage I would ask that you email me with your travel preference as what I would like to avoid if possible, is people having to make their way alone. That way I can hopefully co-ordinate taxis at this end and help with the transfer to Bamberg.
Regards.
Edward
March 2025
Message from Rosemary
Following e-mails and many apologies due to clash of commitments, we have changed our AGM to Tuesday 1st April at 7 p.m. in the Wren Room at St Mark’s Church as usual.
We hope to see you there.
February 2025
Message from Rosemary
Hello everyone,
We are holding our AGM this year on Friday March 21st at 7pm in the Wren Room at St. Mark’s Church Hall in Calder Rise. We hope to see many of you there and subscriptions for the next year will then be due (£15 per person).
Refreshments will be served at the end of the meeting and an Agenda issued on the evening. The Minutes of last year’s AGM were circulated last April but a few copies will be available on March 21st. It would be very helpful if you could let me know if you are unable to attend the meeting so that your apologies can be recorded.
Also we invite you to our Annual Dinner on Sunday April 27th. This will take place at Pavenham Park Golf Club from 4pm, with dinner at 5pm. The menu is attached and Edward would appreciate your menu choices by April 13th latest please. Payment can be made directly in to the BBA account. We hope you will be able to join us.
Also it is with sadness that I heard from Ursula today that Sally Schneider has passed away; some of you will remember her as a great supporter of our twinning and responsible for organising visits to Bedford and Bamberg for so many years. Her role in establishing the twinning visits between our towns can’t be underestimated.
Best wishes
Rosemary
January 2025
Message from Edward
Hello Everyone
I am grateful to those of you who came up with a suggested venue for our first Stammtisch of the year. The key is a place with enough seating that we can hopefully just turn up without booking so those wishing to attend can decide at the last moment.
So I have gone along with the suggestion of Maypole Farm in Kempston, a venue that we have used in the past. It has been suggested that we do a Saturday lunchtime for a change so I propose that we meet on 8th February at 1 pm, then we should be back home before dark.
There will be a committee meeting on 10 February so we should be able to firm up on dates for future events.
January 2025
Message from Edward
Hello Everyone
I wish all of you a happy New Year.
It is time to work out our programme for the forthcoming 12 months and of course it is our turn to travel to Bamberg. My previous email set the dates from Monday 8th to Monday 15th September – that is still the case but Ryanair have changed the flight times with the outward flight at 18.00, later than ideal. I have contacted Ryanair who advise there is no point in changing to a different flight at this stage as they may change again.
There is currently a lunchtime flight on the Sunday so that could be an option.
For those of you looking to join the visit and yet to book a flight, I would ask that you do nothing yet apart from keeping that week free. At this stage I would ask that you let me know if you are hoping to be with us and if you have already confirmed with your hosts. I am fairly confident that there will be hosts for any newcomers. Ryanair expect to email me 3 months before the flight to confirm the revised flight times, when a change can be made without additional cost.
Our St Nikolaus evening in December went well thanks to the committee and now it is time to start planning future meet-ups. It has been suggested that we do a lunchtime Winter Stammtisch and I feel a Saturday would be less busy than a Sunday. Jo and I can only make Saturday 8th February so it will be a case of come and join us if you can make it. We do not plan to book anywhere but I wonder if anyone has any suggestions of a suitable venue that could accommodate a few of us from say 1 pm. The venue will then be confirmed in good time.
I will need to agree with the committee dates for our AGM towards the end of March and our Annual Dinner towards the end of April, so look out for a future newsletter.