Wirral Judo Club- Germany Trip 2005

English Judoka visited the Tus Hermannsburg translated by Malte Machleb

Thursday:

At 18.00 sharp the guests from Manchester arrived. They had taken the rain with them but they were enthusiastic as well. They got on the Tus-busses and drove right into the sun. Although the weather should have been very bad Hermannsburg was dry with a little bit sunshine. The president of the Tus Hermannsburg welcomed the guests and afterwards they were able to meet their “parents”. Then they went home together.

Friday :

That was the sightseeing-day! The Judoka had a sightseeing tour in English and even the German company learned something new. The sun shone very bright and the city was discovered in small groups, sometimes with some help of ice-cream. After a small snack the whole group was driven back to the city hall of Hermannsburg. With some cool drinks the guests were welcomed by the mayor Kaiser. Very interested in the visit he inquired the children and young persons about their first impressions of Germany. After exchanging guest’s gifts they went on a tour through Hermannsburg. The group visited the Örtzepark, too. Then they went to the club house: Tea time!

Then it became serious: training session!

Coach Dieter Wermuth was pretty good. Warm up, some physical exercises, technical exercises and last but not least Randori. The air was almost burning but nobody wanted to show weakness. The most heard sentence this evening was: "OH MY GOD!!"

Saturday :

And the best was:

The next morning the session was continued! But Coach Dieter was not as evil as the evening before. So he started with the popular basketball game without rules.

After a good lunch at the club house the Judoka met for a small competition. In groups of four or five people everybody fought as hard as he/she could!

In the evening a barbecue took place at the club house and even the German families joined it. A comfortable fire helped to feel good. But for some people that was not enough so they started a soccer match which ended 4:0 and 3:6 but nobody knows who won!

Sunday

At 9.30 many had to say goodbye because they were planned some activities in Hamburg until the departure. 12 German youths and parents accompanied the English Judoka. There was a beautiful view about Hamburg from the “Köhlbrandbrücke”. The cars were parked in the “Speicherstadt” and among the “Landungsbrücken” everybody went for a walk to a “Barkasse” to start a tour through the harbour of Hamburg. It started to rain and after the tour had been over the group ran back into the “Speicherstadt”. There was nobody who was not fascinated by the show of model trains and it was warm, too. In this way the clothes could dry and the rain stopped. Now everybody went into the city to visit the city hall, the “Jungfernstieg”, the “Binnenalster” and the “Mönkebergstraße”. After a last goodbye at the airport the rest of the group went back to the cars and - apart from the drivers - fell asleep.

A very very nice group visited us. The children had a lot of fun together and the days were full of activities. A great thank you to everybody who helped with the preparation and realization. We want to thank the families who cared for our guests either.

We are looking forward to the return visit!!!

“Köhlbrandbrücke”      = the big blue bridge you drove about to get into Hamburg.
“Speicherstadt”            = part of the city where the model trains were
“Landungsbrücken”      = where you have entered the boat to start the tour through the harbour
“Barkasse”                   = one of the boats you did the tour through the harbour with
“Jungfernstieg”           = a street in Hamburg (famous for shopping!!)
“Binnenalster”              = a part of the city in Hamburg
“Mönkebergstraße”       = also a street in Hamburg (famous for shopping!!)