Twinning Visits
Visit to Wulften July 2013
17 members of Williton Twinning Association set off early on Tuesday 30 July to join Neung sur Beuvron on a visit to their twinning partner Wulften am Harz in Germany. The visit started in the schutzenhaus (village hall) with a formal greeting from the Mayor Herr H Kruse and the Chairman of Wulften twinning Herr Hermann Wassmann, before departing to our hosts homes for supper.
Next day we visited a producer of fruit wines in Katlenburg, some 8km from Wulften. Some of us walked there, others cycled and the rest went by coach. After a picnic lunch at Katlenburg Castle, we visited the library, which contains over 50,000 books, in piles up to the rafters, all saved from the rubbish dumps after the fall of the Berlin wall. A most amazing experience! Later in the afternoon, the Wulften Archery Club gave us a demonstration and then some of us had a go. The day ended with a barbeque in the schutzenplatz (village square) organised by the Kyffhauser (Archery club).
On Thursday morning, we visited the factory of Otto Bock in Duderstadt – a vast complex manufacturing prosthetic limbs by the thousand. After lunch, we went on a walk around Duderstadt, which was in East Germany before the wall fell. We then visited the Borderland Museum – a chilling insight into life in divided Germany before 1989 and re-unification. The day finished with a delicious buffet supper in the schutzenplatz.
On Friday, another very hot day, we had a guided tour round Wulften, seeing various points of interest and some of the local businesses. In the afternoon, we took the coach to Burg, where we had tea and cakes and a guided tour of its castle. On the way back we visited Rhumequelle, a beautiful fresh water spring.
Saturday was spent in various ways with the host families; some of us visited the local market, some driving through the Harz mountains and some visiting a Whisky distillery – yes a German Whisky. In the evening we all gathered in the schutzenhaus for a celebration dinner, proceeded by a display of dancing by children from the village. After another delicious meal, we all managed some dancing with music from the Wulften Accordion Band.
On Sunday morning, we all gathered in the schutzenplatz to say our goodbyes.
It was a wonderful few days in temperatures of 36℃ in the shade most of the time. We are now all looking forward to 2014 when hopefully we will meet again in Neung to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Williton/Neung Twinning.
Contributed by John and Lyn Lapham