Coesfield Visit 2023

Coesfeld weekend 6^th-8^th October 2023.

These exchanges have been happening for many years and were initiated by Ken Eggleston and his friend in Coesfeld, Reinhard Mantau. They are very high on the list of most worthwhile things which MMBR does.

Kim & his counterpart in Coesfeld had been doing the lion’s share of the work in organising a very interesting programme of events to occupy “the tourists” for the whole weekend. It was very much appreciated by all of us.

11 members of Melton Mowbray Belvoir Rotarians caught a very early flight to Dusseldorf from Birmingham on Friday 6^th meaning that they had to get up round about 4.00a.m. that morning!

We were kindly driven in 2 minibuses to Coesfeld by the club president (Jorg and his wife Gudula) where we had a champagne reception and snack at the Zum Coesfelder Berg restaurant and where we met all their club members and our hosts.

After this we were all taken to our respective hosts’ homes for a short break before heading back out to the very picturesque town of Munster.

Before being given a guided tour of St Paulus Cathedral, in English,

our hosts escorted us around the town and then took us to the Mimigernaford restaurant for the remainder of the evening. At the close of the evening Gordon extended an invitation to the Coesfeld club to come and celebrate our 40^th anniversary in Melton Mowbray with us. Having been wined and dined in such an illustrious manner the journey of 45 minutes or so back to Coesfeld seemed very quick.

Pat Wood and Simon Blake were the luckiest of the 11 because they had the best hosts!! I am quite sure that all the others felt the same as we were all treated like Royalty. In order that MMBR has an idea of the names of the generous hosts for future reference here is a summary.

Pat & Simon’s hosts Helmut and Heike Schumacher have a large estate and they’re very keen on horses. Instead of meeting up with the others in Bad Bentheim on Saturday morning (where they had a tour of Bentheim castle) we decided to duck out (Pat’s choice) and were taken on a horse and carriage ride through the countryside for a couple of hours. I believe the powerful carthorse pulling the 4 of us along has a connection with our late Queen who was keen on this particular breed.    
Simon & Pat’s accommodation in their grounds was truly amazing. This house was more than just an outhouse, it was a more like a barn conversion and had been transported from Helmut’s father’s estate several hundred kilometres away and then reconstructed to mirror the original.

In the afternoon Helmut took us first to a tower some 50 metres high from the top of which we could get some photos and also a good idea of the flattish countryside surrounding us with Billabeck in the distance. Billabeck is an extraordinary place in that it is a very small town with an enormous cathedral at its centre which, with twin towers is an exact copy of the cathedral in Cologne.

As if put on for just the 3 of us an organ recital was going on as we entered. The organist just happened to be a Coesfeld Rotarian and friend of Helmut who had played at his daughter’s wedding about 3 weeks earlier! When he found out that we were English he played us the Enigma Variations by Edward Elgar.

In the evening Helmut and Heike hosted an amazing dinner for 8 in their home having invited Barry, Sheree, Jokkel and Anja along to be with us 4.

The tourists’ last morning (Sunday) consisted of a tour of the Gescher Bell museum

followed by a sumptuous farewell lunch at the Italian Il Gallo restaurant in Gescher.

The weekend was an unbelievable and unexpected (for those who had not been before) treat for us all and it will be a delight to host our German friends in 2024.