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Archive for the ‘Culture’ Category

Comedy, Books & Holidays

Posted in Books, Events organised by Others, Travel on March 19, 2013| Leave a Comment »

Dear Stammtisch Friends

It’s been a while since our last Stammtisch and I hope that I can soon organise a venue that will provide some delicious German cuisine.

However, in the absence of food, maybe a bit of humour will make up for it? Germany’s Comedy Ambassador to Great Britain, the very funny Mr Henning Wehn, will be in the North East next month. You may already have tickets for either the Gala Theatre in Durham or the Stand in Newcastle. If not, the Gala Theatre still has tickets for the evening of Sunday, 14 April and they are £12.50/each (the Stand is already sold out). Maybe we’ll see you on one of those nights?

Our Stammtisch members have also been offered a 10% discount for a cottage stay in Perthshire, Scotland for 2013. There are three cottages available, with en-suite bedrooms, modern kitchens and their own private terrace with bbq and garden furniture. They also welcome up to 3 dogs for free and there are storage facilities for your outdoor equipment. For further info, images or testimonials, visit http://cottagesinperthshire.co.uk.

And if you’re travelling to Germany with your kids, you may want to do a brief stopover in Nuremberg. That’s where the Deutsche Bahn opened the Kibala – the new Kinderbahnland – in the DB Museum.

If you are newcomer to the UK and are still struggling a bit with the colloquial English or cultural differences, we’ve had a book recommendation – ‘What’s for tea? – Englisch wie es nicht im Schulbuch steht’ by Claudia Hunt, may just be the one to read. 

We also received another recommendation of a novel entitled „DAS LEBEN IST WIE DER WIND“ von Helmut Jost Krüger. Prussia in the 18th and 19th Century provides the backdrop for the lives of a family over a period of 140 years. The novel is available via Kindle at Amazon.

I also wanted to briefly introduce you to the Cinnamon Trust, which is a national charity that offers support  to people in their last years and their much loved and needed companion animals. If you would like to help their efforts, visit the website. They look for example for volunteers that walk dogs or foster animals if their owner needs to go to hospital.

Well, that’s it from me for today – let me know if you have any particular food wishes, then I can chat to some of the venues, I’ve got in mind. What is your favourite dish that you’re missing and I will try my best!

Enjoy the last snow flakes!

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Autumn News

Posted in Film on October 24, 2012| Leave a Comment »

Dear Stammtisch Friends

The nights getting longer and with the first snow forecast, here are some ideas to keep warm:

The Tyneside Cinema will show this week the German film Barbara, which won a Silver Bear at this year’s Berlin International Film Festival. If you go tonight – Wednesday, 24 October – the film will be on at 5.45pm and then followed by a La nguage Cafe session that you can join if you want to.

Also if you missed out on the Brandling Villa’s Oktoberfest and fancy some German food, then head down to the Broad Chare at the Quayside. Until the end of the month, they have some German dishes on the menu, such as Bratwurst, Sauerkraut & Kartoffelsalat, Schweinebraten, Kloss & Blaukraut and Jaegerschnitzel. On draft you’ll also get WEST’s Oktoberfestbier.

Another date in the diary is 16 April 2013! That’s when Germany’s Comedy Ambassador to Great Britain – the very funny Henning Wehn, will be at the Stand Comedy Cafe in Newcastle. Tanja, who saw him there earlier this year, got this tip well ahead by the Stand. I’m sure this would be a great night out for our Stammtisch!

Not so far in the distant future is the 60th and also final Weihnachtsbasar at the United Reformed Church in Newcastle. It will take pla ce on 24 November from 11am to 2pm and as usual there will be the cafe, stands and the Christmas carol singing. If you want to get involved, let me know and I’ll forward you the forms.

I can highly recommend to you Spotlight magazines that I’ve been subscribing to for almost three decades. They’re currently running a promotion, where you can download gratis this month’s magazine as an e-paper and get the chance to win an iPad. You’ll get magazines to learn/improve English (Spotlight, Business Spotlight, Spot on), French (Ecoute), Spanish (Ecos), Italian (Adesso) or German (Deutsch perfekt). Visit their Facebook site and enter the free draw.

The Guardian recently ran a series of articles entitled Germany: The Accidental Empire, wh ich you may find interesting.

And last, but not least – Jo Chexal is now not only able to do your biometric passports at the German Honorary Consul’s offices in Newcastle Civic Centre, Registrar’s Entrance, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 8PS. A photographer can also join you at the appointments to get the right passport sized photographs done then and there. To make an appointment, either email Jo at  newcastle-upon-tyne@hk-diplo.de or call 0191 233 6317. 

I’ll also let you know soon about our annual Christmas Dinner.

Keep warm

Manuela

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Broad Chare, Books & More

Posted in Film on April 18, 2012| Leave a Comment »

Dear Stammtisch Friends

Thanks again to everybody who has already registered for our Stammtisch next Monday, 23 April at The Broad Chare in Newcastle. Alongside the fabulous English menu, the chefs have added Gulaschsuppe, gebratene Schweinshaxe mit Kartoffelbrei und Sauerkraut und Apfelstrudel for our group. We will meet at 6.30pm in the bar and dinner starts at 7pm. If you haven’t booked yet, but want to join us, let me know by Friday. Also if you’ve booked and can’t come along, please let me know as otherwise we’re reserving too many tables and the Broad Chare does get busy.

We have also received a book recommendation, which has been warmly recommended for any German newcomer in the UK. It’s aptly called ‘Grossbritannien’ and was written by Thomas Kielinger (Verlag: C.H. Beck, ISBN: 978 3 406 57849 6). The ‚Welt’ correspondent apparently provides an overview of English history, in particular its relationship with Germany. It examines in detail the special character traits of the English and how that can create misunderstandings for those with a German background. According to our reviewer this has been explained very clearly, is written extremely fluently and entertaining, which makes reading of the 260 pages extremely easy and quick.

Another Stammtisch follower is German born Christiane Williams who lives in Teesside. She has recently written a children’s book in both German and English, which has just been published. It’s about a little girl that spends an afternoon baking with a fairy. The books are suitable to read to children from the age of 4 years. The book will soon be available on Amazon and in the iBook Store, but you can also check it out directly at the publishers: English Version, German Version.

In Leipzig, language school owner, three times dad and master story teller James Parsons is developing a new audio book both in English and German called ‘Gabriel und die frechen Affen’. This project will be financed through crowdfunding and if you want to find out more and/or support James in his activities, visit the website: http://www.startnext.de/gabriel

The Guardian recently had a survey entitled ‘Will language skills help you stand out in the job market?’ Visit the Guardian website for this article, but we would also be interested in your views.

http://careers.guardian.co.uk/language-skills-job-market?CMP

See you on Monday!

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Experience Northumbria Tours – in French, Spanish or English

Posted in Culture, Sport & Leisure, Travel on February 20, 2012| 2 Comments »

French national Hélène Beaugy came to the UK as part of an Erasmus exchange during her studies for a BA in Language and Cultural Studies at the University of Dijon.

Following a 10-year career in language teaching, whilst completing an MA in French and Spanish at the University of Northumbria, Hélène decided to take the plunge and launch her own business.

Experience Northumbria draws on Helene’s language skills and hobbies and interests, which include running, cycling, walking, horse riding, classical music and films.

“Every year I had friends visiting the North East and afterwards they would rave about the beauty of the region. As they were here during their holidays, we would do a lot of outdoor activities. We always talked about the potential of doing foreign language tours in the region and this has been on the back burner for a couple of years. Now I’m in a position to offer tours in French, Spanish and English, and in German later.” explains Hélène.

Experience Northumbria specialises in groups of 7 participants or smaller that will visit the area either for a long weekend or for up to a week. Helene will organise the complete itinerary, from transport to accommodation in either hotels, bed & breakfasts, cottages or farms, she’ll arrange restaurants or tea room visits, supervise walks, runs or cycle tours and has partners who will deliver other activities such as horse riding, kite-surfing, golfing etc.

Hélène added: “One of the aims is to show the region’s common history with other European countries. French monks, for example, came to the North East to start abbeys or priories and the Blanchland monks became really powerful. A couple of years ago, I was doing a walk arund my grandmother’s village in Auvergne, where the local council had put new signs to explain the heritage of the village to visitors. It turned out that John of Gaunt, once owner of Dunstanburgh castle, had fought (dare I add unsuccesfully?) at the doors of the village, in a conquest expedition to France during the 100-Year War.”

To find out more about Helene’s tours, visit http://www.experiencenorthumbria.co.uk and we will also arrange a special Stammtisch tour to a historic site in the region later in the year.

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Christmas Events

Posted in Events organised by Others, Food & Drink, Music, Stammtisch on December 1, 2011| Leave a Comment »

If you still want to join us for our Christmas Stammtisch on Monday, 12 December at the Mansion House, make sure you pay this week and state your preference of the two main courses – either goose with apple red cabbage, potato dumplings/spaetzle or roast loin of pork stuffed with prunes. Cost per person for the 3-course dinner is £20 – simply call the Mansion House on 0191 281 0863.

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.

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Tynemouth Village Christmas Festival on 3 December 2011

Posted in Events organised by Others, Film, Food & Drink on November 18, 2011| Leave a Comment »

This year the Tynemouth Business Forum is organising its very first Christmas Festival on Saturday, 3 December from 12noon till 7pm.

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.

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Annual Book Sale at the Lit & Phil

Posted in Books, Events organised by Others on November 18, 2011| Leave a Comment »

If you’re still looking for Christmas presents, why not pop along to the Literary & Philosophical Society (Lit & Phil) at Westgate Road.

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.

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Summer Holidays

Posted in Books, Business, Film, Travel on August 12, 2011| Leave a Comment »

In Bavaria, there is an exhibition about King Ludwig II from 14 May to 16 October 2011. It is the 125th anniversary of the mysterious death of the Bavarian King, who left behind the castles of Neuschwanstein, Herrenchiemsee and Linderhof. Related to the Austrian empress Elisabeth and a key supporter of Richard Wagner, the life and death of Ludwig II has been topic of various movies. Other Bavarian places to see are of course the capital Munich, Berchtesgaden, Starnberger 5-Seen Land, regional capital Nürnberg, world heritage site Bamberg or outdoor activities in Fränkische Schweiz (Franconian Switzerland).

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 125th 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.

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Go on a Summer Holiday – to Germany

Posted in Music, Sport & Leisure, Travel on June 1, 2011| Leave a Comment »

As summer approaches, you might fancy a holiday on the continent and in particular Germany. Here are a few tips about travelling, activities and events that you might find useful:

The German Tourism Office released the introductory video Erlebnisland Deutschland to give you a flavour of Germany. And ‘Mit Volldampf durchs Land’ is a two-part programme by SWR, where you go on a journey across Germany by steam trains.

A little bit faster – on normal regional trains – you can explore Germany on a budget as long as you have a bit of time on your hand. Deutsche Bahn is offering a deal for one day trips: for €42 you can travel on all regional trains in 2nd class (RB, IRE, RE and S-Bahn) and take along four other people, who only pay €6/each. The ticket is valid Mondays to Fridays from 9am onwards and on bank holidays from midnight onwards. Click here for further info about the ‘Quer-durchs-Land-Ticket).

And if you’re heading to Berlin and want to save the cents, there is a free service to find a room – here’s a link to ‘Kostenlose Zimmervermittlung Berlin’.

Berlin will, of course, be one of the host cities for the forthcoming Women’s Football World Championships, which takes place in Germany from 26 June to 7 July. The German team will again defend the title, which it holds since 2003 and the English will also aim high, being the European vice-champion. With women’s football continuously increasing in popularity, this year’s event is to break various spectator records. With one month to go, the total number of match tickets now on general sale has increased to 900,000, with 70% already sold.

But if football isn’t your thing, you might want to head to one of the many music festivals that will take place this summer:

Afrika Festival in Würzburg: 2 – 5 June

Rock im Park Zeppelinfeld in Nuremberg/Rock am Ring Nürburgring in Eiffel: 3 to 5 June

Bachfest in Leipzig: 10 – 19 June

Summerjam in Cologne: 1 – 3 July

Jazz Open in Stuttgart: 1 – 10 July

Samba Festival in Coburg: 8 – 10 July

Bardentreffen in Nuremberg: 29 to 31 July

For a full list of forthcoming music festivals, click here.

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Easter & May Stammtisch

Posted in Business, Film, Food & Drink, Stammtisch on April 27, 2011| Leave a Comment »

I hope you all enjoyed a lovely Easter break – and those of you who were in Germany probably had to ‘endure’ the tropical climate there. And if you feel you had too many chocolate Easter eggs and are looking to watch future sugar intake, you might like this article in Stern on ‘Süssmacher’. It shows just how much sugar is in various (sometimes unsuspecting) products.

With Easter, Royal Weddings and so on, we thought April is just too busy for a Stammtisch. But in less than two weeks’ time – on Tuesday, 10 May – we will meet again. Ralph Sälzer, the managing director of the Liebherr factory in Sunderland has invited us to a factory tour, which will start at 6pm. From 7pm onwards, we will then be in the Irish pub TJ Doyles just up the road for German food (eg Schnitzel and Potato Salad) and German/Austrian beers. Dermot, who runs the Irish pub/restaurant, lived in Austria for a while and will make sure we have authentic food & drink. Please let me know if you will join us – either for the factory tour/for food & drink/or both – so that we can cater for this accordingly and I will also send directions to those who will come along.

Liebherr is one of the largest German family owned companies and employs around 32,000 people worldwide. It is not the only family owned company (Familienunternehmen) here in the North East, there is also Aldi, Lidl, Heraeus, Makro (Metro Group), Freudenberg and, of course, across the UK well-known brands such as BMW, Porsche, Dr Oetker, Bosch, Otto (they own Freemans/Grattan here), Würth, Haniel, Merck etc. Of Germany’s 1,500 world leaders (ie they are the number 1,2 or 3 in their particular sector), 70% are family owned and 51% of the largest listed 250 companies in Germany are also under one family’s control.

Just like anywhere else, family-owned companies in Germany face numerous challenges and a key one is to find a suitable and willing successor. The Handelsblatt has established a portal for business owners who are looking to sell their company. To see what type of businesses are available, visit the website Deutsche Unternehmerbörse.

Japan has dominated the news in recent months following the earth quake and subsequent impact on its nuclear industry. On a happier note, this year Germany celebrates 150 years’ friendship with Japan. Back in 1861 Prussia and Japan signed its first friendship and trade treaty, the foundation for this relationship. If you want to find out more about the background, activities and events that are taking place in Germany and Japan, visit the website. And do you know which German city is called ‘Klein-Tokio am Rhein’? In this German city, over 7,000 Japanese have found a new home and around 450 Japanese companies established a base in the region. The city on the Rhein will also be a focus for the 150 Year Celebrations with a traditional Japan Week from 21 to 28 May.

The Tyneside Cinema currently shows a new film directed by Wim Wenders. Pina is a tribute to the choreographer Pina Bausch and was filmed in Wuppertal. Click here to get to the film’s website. In the trailer you can see a famous train (Schwebebahn) and it’s safety was demonstrated in a very unique way. Does anybody know how and what happened next???

I would like to wish you all a great time on Friday whatever you’re doing and look forward to seeing you again soon.

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