Greetings Everyone!

I hope you all have survived a very turbulent two years – it has certainly led to difficult and changing times.

Both Brexit and Covid 19 have had enormous repercussions on our organisation. Something we can discuss at our forthcoming AGM.

There have been a lot of changes since our association was more active: one activity coming up is the celebrations on May 7th, planned in Biberach to mark 30 years of our twinning. We have an invitation  there for the celebration.

Adrian and I are planning to travel there by car. I’m hoping others are also considering doing the same. Please consider going – perhaps by car, car-sharing or possibly by Ryan Air to Memmingen (although their timetable is much reduced) or from London to Munich or Stuttgart, onward by rail.

It would be really good to be able to have a number of us go to Biberach! I look forward to hearing from you. If you want to speak to me please call or email.

Look forward to hearing from you and hope to see you soon!

Take Care

Joy Phillips

Chairman TTA

Marianne Wilhelm has kindly provided us with a news report and some pictures  from Biberach:

Dear friends,

Here is some news from Biberach: Due to high Covid figures, the Christkindlesmarkt was finally cancelled on the 23rd of November, 4 days before the beginning of the market. The stalls had already been put up the week before and some sellers had started to decorate, as we had. But we were lucky, as we were offered a stall on the Wochenmarkt, the food and flower market, on Wednesdays and Saturdays from the 1^st to the 11^th of December. Christmas markets such as the Ulm Weihnachtsmarkt were abolished in Baden-Württemberg as of last Saturday, December 4^th, whereas the weekly markets can continue.

People here in Biberach are happy that products from the twin towns are on sale again this year. There hasn’t been an opportunity to do so since the Christkindlesmarkt two years ago, so there are always beaming faces when we are discovered. Our range of English goods is not very big this year, but we offer basics like various orange marmalades, lemon curd, fudge, shortbread and English tea. Last week a customer came along with a bag, bought 4 jars of orange marmalade plus 5 jars of orange marmalade with whisky, beamed all over his face and said we had saved his Christmas. The orange marmalade with whisky was the first to be sold out. Sales are also going very well otherwise. There are always customers in front of the stall. In addition to English goods, there are products from Georgia and Valence. Bernard from Valence, despite his more than 80 years and Corona, did not miss the chance to get behind the wheel of his packed van and come to Biberach.

Our friends from Asti and Schweidnitz (Swidnica) have refrained from visiting Biberach this year due to the high Corona numbers, unfortunately. But we hope for next spring, the Musikfrühling on 7 May. We are looking forward to celebrating with our friends from the twinning towns the 30th anniversary of the partnership with the Tendring District and the 40th anniversary with Asti in the evening after the market in the morning.

On 11 January we held the first meeting with our Biberach friends since Christmas  2019. Marianne and Petra had organised a Zoom meeting online, which proved to be a very easy and enjoyable way to make contact again. We shared our experiences of lockdown, vaccination, the weather, favourite reading material and many other everyday interests. There will be another meeting on 15 February so if you would like to join please be sure to contact Joy for details.

Marianne wrote an article for the Schwabische Zeitung which appeared on 15 January together with a screenshot of some of the participants:

6 people from Biberach and 9 people from Tendring  took part . The last face-to-face  meeting had taken place on the Christkindle market in Biberach in 2019. Therefore it was a great pleasure to see each other.

Since the meeting we have also received some pictures of the recent snowy weather in Biberach:

An outdoor bar!

Cross-country skiing:

And a walk in the woods: