"Königswinter is in Germany, isn't it?" said Jacquie Brown, Secretary of Beacon Hill Allotment and Leisure Gardeners Society (Cleethorpes), as we drove past the sign that marks the town boundary on our way home from holiday last year.

"Yes, it's on the Rhine. I went there as a schoolboy many years ago", I replied.

"Do they have allotments in Germany?" Jacquie asked.

I knew where she was going with this. If two distant towns such as Cleethorpes and Königswinter could be regarded as twins, then so too could two distant allotment societies!

Jacquie contacted the town twinning committee the next day to ask for help in finding out if there are any allotment gardens in K?nigswinter and if so, whether they have any on site associations. None of the committee could remember seeing any allotment gardens on their previous visits but we were assured that questions would be asked on our behalf. We eventually got an address for the Königswinter Kleingarten Verein (allotment site) and a letter of introduction from our society was written and posted to Germany during October 2005.

It was a cold day in January when the letter written by Marcus Gebbe on behalf of the Allotment Association, Königswinter landed on our doormat. Marcus describes the Kleingarten Verein as being located in a lovely green area called Siebengebirge, literally translated as Seven Hills. Email addresses between our two associations have now been exchanged, ensuring that all future correspondence is immediate and, hopefully, mutually productive for us both.

Ernie Brown

First published: ARI Newsletter Spring 2006