This week I went with my visiting father and my youngest daughter to Wuppertal and took a ride on the Schwebebahn. My grandfather lived in Wuppertal around 1911 – and he had told my father about the marvellous “hanging railway” which runs along the...

Today was finally time to pick the rest of the grapes. The vine grows all across the pigsty, which I use as an office… and across the front of the barn. In fact, if I don’t cut it back soon, we might actually lose the house. So out came the ladders…...

This is exciting! I was invited this week to be – get this – a special guest star on Graham Tappenden’s weekly News Quiz. Graham records a podcast of his quiz every other week under the name “Truly German” – though in picking me as his guest, I think...

Next time the Düsseldorf city authorities decide to close one of the bridges over the Rhine for resurfacing, they should phone me first and check my schedule. On Thursday I had a speaking appointment at the Deutsch-Britische Gesellschaft in...