With Germany experiencing the coldest winter for 13 years we decided to change our plans for the weekend and took our sledge out instead.

This gave us not only a rare chance to go sledging on the hills of Camp King, but also to talk about some of the things that German residents – and possibly long-term visitors – need to know about: Winter tyres, snow-clearing duty and a lack of salt.

Sledging in Camp King

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The White Tower in Bad Homburg

Our last visit to a tower in this summer took us to Bad Homburg where we visited the White Tower (Weißer Turm).  The tower is located in the middle of the castle, and it took us a while to find the right entrance and then where to get the key from.

Once we had the key, we had the tower almost to ourselves.  The tower contains a museum so that rather than just climb to the top, you can read about its history at different levels on the way up.

Currently the tower costs 1EUR for adults and 50 cents for children to enter.  The car park “Schloß” near the entrance and most of the buses that go through the town stop nearby.

To find out more, listen to the podcast:

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This week the Monday Podcast took a trip to Venlo – a town situated just over the Dutch border.

It is easily reached from Germany via the A40 and A61 motorways and many people go over the border to shop, as some things are considerably cheaper on the Dutch side, coffee being the prime example of this.

The town played a pivotal role in the Second World War, as it was an indicent that took place there between British, Dutch and German intelligence that gave Germany a reason to invade the Netherlands, citing the incident as proof that the country was no longer neutral.

For those wishing to sample the Dutch culture, but not able to speak the language, Venlo offers a good opportunity as most of the people serving in shops and cafés also speak German and the menus in restaurants are often in both languages.

To find out more, listen to the podcast:

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