Activity Shows That The Twinning With Freiburg Is Indeed Going from Strength to Strength

Published on: 18 Jun, 2012
Updated on: 21 Jun, 2012

From Peter Slade

Chairman of the Guildford-Freiburg Association

It is good to hear from Gill Perkins that the Vivace Chorus is singing in Freiburg again, as they have many times before. Another Guildford choir — Guildford Vox Community Choir sang in Freiburg with the Freiburger Senioren Salon Orchester in April and the orchestra will be coming to Guildford in July. Other musical events this summer will include a visit to Freiburg by the Surrey Youth Orchestra and one by the SW Surrey Concert Band in July.

And there have been lots of other twinning events in the last year:

Dr Dieter Salomon, Freiburg’s Oberbürgermeister, visited Guildford in September and was shown round Guildford’s attractions by the Mayor. He also gave a lecture at the University on “The Sustainable Development of Freiburg”: the city is world-famous for its environmental excellence and was named in 2010 as European City of the Year
Plenty of young people are involved in the twinning. In 2011 Guildford City Boys and Girls Football Club again hosted Freiburg’s Blau Weiss footballers and had a good weekend of sport and friendship. The football matches are an annual event and this year’s games in Freiburg were also very successful: four teams went and won three of the games.
Guildford’s George Abbot School and Freiburg’s Goethe Gymnasium continued their long-standing exchange visits.
A large group of students from Freiburg’s Staudinger school stayed with Guildford families for several days and there have been other schools twinning activities.
Freiburg students spent time at Guildford College and a Surrey University student spent time at Freiburg University.
The churches from the two towns again had their regular get-together, last year in Freiburg.
Zonta International women’s organisation continued their links with their equivalents in Freiburg as did Guildford Radio Society.
Our annual public lecture on a German topic, was given last April when Dr Alan Russell, Chairman of the Dresden Trust spoke about the past and present of the city of Dresden.
A group of Guildford-Freiburg Association members attended Freiburg’s Partner Cities Market alongside the city’s 8 other partner cities to promote Guildford’s charms to the Freiburgers.
Our Christmas Market, when we sell toys and candles from Freiburg and dispense Glühwein, was as successful as ever and attracted a good crowd of people.
We arranged a tasting of the excellent wines produced in the Freiburg region.