2026
August
Message from Edward: More Information About Bambergers Visit
Hello Everyone
It is just over one month now until our guests arrive.
I am grateful to those of you who have already let me know if you want to join the trip to the Black Country Museum. There are still a few seats left on the 33 seater coach which will be allocated on a first come/first served basis, so you will need to be quick if you wish to join the visit (check availability with me before paying the £40). I may be able to change to a 39 seater, but that is not guaranteed. I need to confirm numbers to the Museum next week.
Similarly for the River Cruise, if you have not sent £5 or £15.80 if requiring the Cream Tea over to the BBA account, please do so and advise me accordingly. I need to make payment for the Cream Teas by 14 August, otherwise you will be limited to the snacks available to purchase on board.
The menu for the Farewell Dinner on Thursday 11 September is now available, please ask if you would like to see it, and let me have your choices by 14 August.
Please let me know if you have any queries.
Edward
July
Message from Edward: Itinerary for Bambergers’ Visit in September
Saturday 5th
The group are flying Ryanair 7633 from Nuremberg to Stansted and scheduled to land at 16.25. I will meet them in an Expresslines coach and would estimate arriving around 19.00 at Mowsbury Park car park (Wentworth Drive) all being well. Please check online for flight info before setting out for the car park.
Sunday 6th
The morning is free and then we plan to hold a Welcome Party on a John Bunyan Riverboat Cruise from 14.30 for 3 hours. The BBA will cover most of the cost of the cruise but we will ask for a token £5 contribution from each attendee. We hope all hosts will be able to take part and any other members are welcome to join the trip. There is also the option for a Cream Tea at a cost of £10.80 which needs to be paid in advance, otherwise light snacks and drinks will be available to purchase on board. Please confirm if attending and transfer either £5 or £15.80 to the BBA bank account.
Monday 7th
We plan a day trip to the Black Country Museum, with the coach departing at 9.00 from my home at The Walled Garden, Church Lane, Pavenham, MK43 7PU. The journey will take around 2 hours so you will be able to use our toilet if necessary before we leave. Therefore I would ask that you arrive by around 8.30 so I can get cars parked within our garden. Anyone who can car-share would be good. The group entrance price is £20 and I will ask for a £20 contribution to the coach cost, making £40 altogether. I will pay for these personally so please confirm ASAP if you wish to join the trip and transfer £40 to my personal bank account (contact me for details). I suggest you may wish to have your main meal there at lunchtime – there is a cafe at the entrance, another at the Museum as well as a fish and chip shop, also a pub. The coach will depart 17.00 from the Museum.
Tuesday 8th
It is possible that we can have a Reception with the Mayor but this is still to be confirmed. An update will be provided ASAP.
Adrian and Ian have offered to introduce our guests to the game of cricket under Bedford Cricket 4 Fun. Just come and watch, or if you wish to take part, all equipment is provided. Please be at Mowsbury Park Wentworth Drive car park from 17.30.
Wednesday 9th
This will be an optional day trip to London by train and you will need to buy a weekday off-peak travelcard to include the London underground (£27.50), ideally in advance. I plan to catch the 10.16 from Bedford and everyone will be able to return on a train of their own choosing. I will sort out places to visit and try to avoid it being too strenuous. Details to be provided in due course.
Thursday 10th
This is a free day although I am proposing a visit to Delapre Abbey near Northampton which is best to book at a cost of £5. I am not intending to do a group visit so just make your own way and arrive at your own convenience.
Our Farewell Dinner will take place from 17.00 at Pavenham Park Golf Club. This will be some pre-meal appetisers, a main course and dessert followed by coffee and mints. Serving will be from 18.00. As always, this is complimentary for guests and hosts. Otherwise the cost is £30 for other members wishing to attend – please confirm if you wish to attend and make payment to the BBA account once you provide menu choices.
Friday 11th
This is a free day – perhaps your guests want to do some final shopping.
Saturday 12th
The return coach to Stansted departs at 8.00 so please arrive in good time to give our guests a good send-off.
January
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.