We’re also looking to add a forum to our Stammtisch blog and I wondered if there is any interest in this? Let me know!

I recently received a request for an internship placement from Germany. Unfortunately my company can’t provide this at the moment, but maybe somebody else has an opportunity? The media management student is looking for a 6-month placement starting on 10 September 2012. He has already worked for PR firm Scholz & Friends in Germany and will soon do an internship with Bundesliga club VfL Wolfsburg. His full application can be forwarded to interested organisations.

Another bi-lingual job opportunity has arisen at Alnwick Castle. They are currently looking for tourist guides for the summer months – eg a Stateroom Guide, who shows guests around the castle rooms or Knights Quest Guide, that dresses in costume. English has to be the main language and as a second language, Alnwick Castle is looking for fluent German, but also French, Japanese and Mandarin Chinese speakers. I can forward the full details to anybody interested and candidates then need to apply directly with the HR manager at Alnwick Castle.

With the London Olympics approaching fast, our Stammtisch member Tanja Cooper thought it would be great to restore the City Stadium right here in the heart of Newcastle and turn it into an Outdoor VELODROME. She is currently looking at potential funders and sponsors and our question was if there are people in our Stammtisch group that have experience with or an interest in such projects. I can then forward you further information that Tanja has already collated and put you in touch with her directly. Maybe when completed, we can all get our bikes and have a Stammtisch outing at the Velodrome?

If you’re missing your weekly fix of Strictly Come Dancing, I can highly recommend Dansbanx to you. John and Catherine Banks used to dance competitively, they’re qualified dance teachers and offer ballroom and latin dance classes here in the region. You can either join into existing classes or take private lessons, whichever you prefer. If somebody is looking for a partner, just let me know and we try to help.

On the food side, I’ve recently discovered Brez’n in Marks & Spencer in Silverlink and they assured me, they bake them every day. Also Lidl (Hadrian Park, near Tyne Metropolitan College) has now fresh artisan rye bread. Another bread recommendation was that Fenwick’s in Newcastle has some very good Russian rye bread. If anybody else has any ‘German’ food and drink knowledge, please let me know so we can share it with everybody else.

Other Christmas events taking place in the region are for example:

4 November – 31 December: Christmas at Alnwick Garden

19 November – 2 January: Christmas at Beamish Museum

Saturday, 3 December: Tynemouth Christmas Festival from 12noon till 7pm.

7 to 11 December: Newcastle Christmas Market

7 to 10 December: Winter Festival: Gatehead’s Saltwell Park will turn into Enchanted Parks.

Sunday, 10 December: Advents Celebration from 5pm in the Martin Luther Church in Clarence Street/Copland Terrace in Newcastle.

There is, of course, our own Christmas Stammtisch on Monday, 12 December at the Mansion House in Jesmond. 

Starting at 7pm with a Glühwein reception, our dinner includes Hühnerleberpastete mit Zwiebelmarmelade (chicken liver pate with onion marmalade), Champignoncremesuppe mit Mandeln (mushroom crème soup with almonds), Gebratene Weihnachtsgans mit Apfelrotkraut, Badischen Klössen und Schwäbischen Spätzle (Christmas goose with apple red cabbage, potatoe dumplings and spaetzle) and Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte (blackforest gauteau), Stollen and Pfeffernüssen (biscuits).

For those that are not so much into the birds, we also offer roast loin of pork stuffed with prunes as an alternative.

Please state your preference when booking. As the Mansion House caters specifically for our group, you need to pay by latest 5 December – cost per person £20 – simply call the Mansion House on 0191 281 0836. If you haven’t told me yet that you’re coming, please email me so I can track numbers for this event.

On Saturday, 26 November the German Christmas Basar will be held from 11am to 2pm at St James United Reformed Church in Newcastle (close to City Baths). And two weeks later, an advents celebration will take place on Sunday, 11 December from 5pm in the Martin Luther Church in Clarence Street/Copland Terrace in Newcastle.

This weekend it’s all happening of course in Durham, where you can enjoy Lumiere 2011 until Sunday. As part of the Winter Festival, Gatehead’s Saltwell Park will turn into Enchanted Parks from 7 to 11 December.

But if you want to experience a German Christmas and don’t want to venture off the island, just head north on the train to Edinburgh, where the Traditional German Christmas Market starts already next week on Thursday, 24 November and lasts until 24 December 2011.

Deutsche Bahn (DB) also has a special offer on – from London you can get to your favourite German Christmas market for €49 in 2^nd Class one-way. Journey times are around 5 hours and for information, just click here for further details. From Newcastle there are also direct flights to Düsseldorf where you can easily get to many markets in the west of the country. Earlier this month, Lufthansa also announced one way fares of £39 from London, Birmingham and Manchester to Berlin, which is also a good gateway to the historic cities of Leipzig and Dresden in Saxony. And maybe with the launch of the new Berlin-Brandenburg Airport in 2012, the North East eventually gets good transport connections again to middle and eastern parts of Germany?

Also not too far from Berlin is the Harz National Park, which is partly in the states of Saxony Anhalt and Lower Saxony and covers an area of 24,700 ha. Click here for images and information on Christmas events in the region and here for a Deutsche Welle film about the countryside, its towns and villages and legends. 

I hope that has put you in the mood for Christmas and travelling near and far and look forward to seeing many of you at our annual Christmas dinner.

There will be Christmas stalls at Tynemouth Village Green (just in front of King’s School), with mulled wine, hog roast, an opportunity to meet Santa & to feed reindeers, late shopping and carol singing.

The Priory Theatre is also showing some Christmas films – unfortunately Polar Express is already sold out, but there are still some tickets for A Wonderful Life (these can be bought for £5 at Tynemouth shops such as Children of the Revolution, Ruby & Frank’s, Allards’ or Busy Lizzies for the 7pm show.

The largest independent library outside of London holds its annual book sale on Friday 25/Saturday 26 November (10am to 4pm) and Sunday 27 November (12pm to 4pm). Thousands of books will be available on a range of subjects, but also LPs, CDs etc all at reasonable prices.

There will be an entry charge of £1 and all proceeds will go to the Lit & Phil appeal.

You can look forward to a Glühwein reception, Hühnerleberpastete mit Zwiebelmarmelade (chicken liver pate with onion marmalade), Champignon-cremesuppe mit Mandeln (mushroom crème soup with almonds), Gebratene Weihnachtsgans mit Apfelrotkraut, Badischen Klössen und Schwäbischen Spätzle (Christmas goose with apple red cabbage, potatoe dumplings and spaetzle) and Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte (blackforest gauteau), Stollen und Pfeffernüssen (biscuits).

The cost per person is £20 and pre-payable to the Mansion House either by debit card or cheque. If you’re planning to join us, please let me know so we get an idea on numbers.

The German Christmas Basar will also again take place on 26 November from 11am to 2pm in St James United Reformed Church in Newcastle (close to City Baths). If you are looking to get involved with a stand or in any other way, please contact Michael Mehl directly, email: germanchurch@gmail.com.

All about Christmas in Germany – visit Discover Germany website for lots of information on the best places to go and information on traditions. And if you want to be spoilt after trailing along Christmas markets, why don’t you relax in one of Germany’s Best Wellness Hotels.

Export capability, engineering & technology and strong medium sized companies contribute to the success of the German economy. In a recent Handelsblatt article, various correspondents compared the German economy with the US, Britain and France to see what has been done differently – click here for their analysis. Guardian correspondent John Kampfner gave his opinion this week on the recent commons debate about Europe – click here to read his comment piece.

Both Germany and Britain have still many historic sites dating back to the Roman frontier days. Hadrian’s Wall Heritage is working with their colleagues from German Limes and if you want to find out more about their work, click here for their newsletter. If you’re interested in this topic, please drop me a line.

And a last piece of information: in the UK we eat frozen desserts like chocolate mousse, strawberry cheese cake and blackforest gateau from Coppenrath & Wiese, while the Germans are on Diet Chef from Scotland to loose weight. Any thoughts?

The Broad Chare had a fantastic German menu to choose from and  there were also plenty of German beers.

If you have missed out, you can visit the gastro pub any time and sample some of the WEST beers still on tap (I think the Hefeweizen and St Mungo’s is still there). There are half pint, pint and Mass (Stein) glasses for those with a bigger thirst. Also if you like your dark beers, check out Düsseldorf’s Schlösser Altbier.

Just to give you an idea what’s on offer: Gulaschsuppe (Classic goulash soup), Gemischter Salatteller (mixed Autumn salad plate), Wurstsalat (classic Baden style sausage salad on Bauernbrot), Matjes Hausfrauenart (marinated herring fillets with apples, onions, gherkins and Yoghurt), Eisbeinsülze (jellied ham knuckle), 2 Münchner Weißwürste mit süßem Senf (Munich style veal sausages flavoured with lemonzest and fresh herbs), Bratwurst auf Sauerkraut (grilled pork sausage with sauerkraut), 4 Wienerwürste mit Kartoffelsalat (Frankfurter style sausages with German potato salad), Schweinebraten mit Blaukraut und Reiberknödel (roast pork with red cabbage and potato dumplings), Gebratene Schweinshaxe, Sauerkraut und Kartoffelbrei (roasted pork knuckle with sauerkraut and potato puree), Eisbein mit Sauerkraut und Meerettich (poached ham knuckle with sauerkraut and horseradish), Jägerschnitzel (hunter’s pork escalope with wild mushrooms), Hasenpfeffer (jugged hare), Leberkäse mit hausgemachtem Kartoffelsalat (German meatloaf with potato salad), Münchner Sauerbraten mit Semmelknödel und Preiselbeeren (marinated braised beef from the Rheinland with bread dumplings and cranberries). And for desserts there is Apfelstrudel (apple strudel), Kaiserschmarrn (hot caramelised pancakes with sultanas and apple sauce), Dampfnudeln (sweet yeast dumpling with vanilla sauce) and Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte (proper Black Forest gateau).

If you want to get into the Oktoberfest mood – click here to see a short Stern video about this year’s Wies’n. And if you think you understood most, you’re maybe also ready to do Stern’s test ‘Bayerisch für Anfänger’. Being Bavarian, I thought I’d do very well, but was told that I must be a ‘Flachland Tiroler’.

I hope to see many of you next week at The Broad Chare – if you need any more information, please let me know!

Popolo’s in Newcastle (Pilgrim Street) currently have an Oktoberfest Beer Menu, which includes Augustiner, Hacker Pschorr, Hofbräuhaus, Löwenbräu, Paulaner and Spaten. Why don’t you join us on Monday, 26 September at Popolo’s from 6pm for a few beers?

If you want to sample from around 60 UK ales, you need to head to Tynemouth today and/or tomorrow (16/17 September). In its 5^th year, the Tynemouth Beer Festival, it is held at the Cricket Club (just behind the Rugby Club) and will feature live bands, plus many other drinks to try out and hot and cold foot. Entry is £5, you get a beer glass, programme and pen or for £10 it includes drinks vouchers.

WEST Brewery are, of course, also holding their own authentic Oktoberfest and this is probably one of the few places in the UK, where you can wear your Dirndl and Lederhosen without getting funny looks. If there’s some interest to go up to Glasgow together, let me know as I’m definitely heading north in the next few weeks!

If you’re heading south, why not call into Stein’s in Richmond-upon-Thames, a traditional Bavarian beer garden right on the river. They serve Schnitzel, Schweinebraten, Käsespätzle, Nürnberger sausages, Leberkäs, Currywurst und Obatzda to be washed down with German beers, wines and Radler. The dessert menu includes Sachertorte, Apfelstrudel, Dampfnudeln etc.

You will have all heard of various social networking sites, such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Xing or Twitter. I’ve recently found two new ones in Germany, which I thought might interest you – My Social Petwork (social network for pets) and InterNations (which connects Expats worldwide).

Have a very good weekend and maybe see you soon in Popolo’s.

This week, Tommy Jaud’s bestseller  Resturlaub saw its movie premier in Germany. A very funny novel about a man having his midlife crisis plays partly in Franconia and in Argentina. The trailer looks very silly (more a Hangover type of film) and won’t be an Oscar contender, but possibly quite entertaining.  Another bit of ‘easy reading’ would be Bavarian crime novels by Rita Falk. Winterkartoffelknödel was her first book and features an imaginary little village near Landshut. It also includes a glossary of Bavarian terms and some of her gran’s cooking recipes. Click here for a brief interview with the writer.

How real some of these stories described by Rita Falk are, just watch the news in Germany. Parts of Bavaria are currently on alert – no, not rioters – but because of an escaped cow. Yvonne has been on the run for the past two months and even Ernst, a bull brought in this week to provide a ‘honey trap’ has been unsuccessful. For a news video from Stern, click here.

Maybe while walking around Germany, you come across our fugitive cow and what else you can discover is described by Andreas Kieling who recorded his experience in ‘Ein deutscher Wandersommer’. And if you’re around Germany by bike, the ADFC (Allgemeiner Deutscher Fahrrad Club), Germany’s Cycling Club, provides some suggestions of tours on the 150,000 km of cycling routes in Germany. Deutsche Bahn obviously offers holidays by train.

2011 is also the year of the car. 125 years ago Carl Benz invented the first automobile and Bosch, the company of the inventor of the spark plug – celebrates its 125^th company anniversary. Information on events places about the car, can be found by clicking on Automobilsommer Baden-Württemberg, Mercedes-Benz Museum, Porsche Museum, Boxenstop Tübingen, BMW Welt and the VW Museum.

We are currently trying to organise our Stammtisch events list for the autumn/winter and have been in discussion about a book swap event, a travel event, a beer festival and a historical link event (possibly Limes/Hadrian’s Wall). If you have additional ideas or know of venues where they will be able to serve German food, please let me know.