I’ve been very interested in Michael Portillo’s Great train journeys Reg, and he was traveling around Germany, it looked very nice, and it’s not a place I had considered visiting before.
We have met many Germans during our holidays abroad and found most of them very friendly and polite, not at all like the stereo type image that people seem to have labeled them as…
It will definitely be on my list of places to visit after the covid scare has receded.
I totally agree .
You must have gone to the wrong places then Annie??
I suspect you went to four or five star hotels??
That’s not the place for fun in any country?
You must mix with “Der volk” l if you want fun !!
Have you never sat around a long wooden table in a tavern when the
drinking song was taking place ??
I found the ladies were very friendly too !!
Donkeyman!
Michael Portillo visited a place where there was mountains, I think it was in the south of the country somewhere near the black forest. It looked very nice there…
Quite right OGF, but don’t travel first class, l remember being turfed
out of a posh resturaunt one lunchtime, they wouldn’t even take our
order !!
We ended up eating in the railway station where every body was
asking us questions,( all in German of course!). Fun was had by all !!
Some of them tend to be a bit arrogant, but so do some of our
“upper class” too !!
Donkeyman!
Good advice Doneyman, thanks…
Is it supposed to be a “laugh” because of how everybody in the UK knows that the Grauniad is blatantly biased in favour of the EU or for some other strange reason?
Hence their use of Thierry Breton, himself a noted French EUrophile.
It’s thanks to the forethought of our government that the UK has very quickly gone from producing next-to-no vaccines here in the UK to becoming a major player in vaccine manufacturing.
Certainly one that is far less-reliant upon those that would attempt to interfere in our attempts to protect our own citizens.
From funding Oxford to from scratch produce a vaccine with AstraZeneca and produce this globally under license as the world’s only not-for-profit manufacture is in itself commendable, but there is more.
Like funding Valneva (a French pharma company) back in July last year to expand production at Livingstone, funding their trials, and ordering 100 million doses of their vaccine if it proved effective.
Already phases 1 & 2 have gone well and soon phase 3 trials will get underway, and production began at the end of January in preperation for roll-out now that we’ve got options on 190 million doses.
The EU in contrast have as of today placed no order with Valneva for Covid vaccines.
Like funding the USA’s Novavax stage 3 trials and placing an order for an initial 60 million doses of their vaccine provided it will be made at Stockton-on-Tees, with bottling now to be done in Bernard Castle.
MHRA approval is expected soon after successful trials and the factory here has a capacity of 180 million doses per year.
Novavax recently “delayed” signing a 100 million dose deal with the EU.
Whether or not that is the result of EU protectionism and their subsequent prevention of pharma companies based in the EU of fulfilling contracts is for others to decide.
But again as of today the EU has no agreed order with Novavax for Covid vaccines.
Then there is our VMIC which is soon to begin production with a capacity to produce a further 140 million doses plus per year in the UK on top of existing AstraZeneca production.
Plus the facilities in combination with Oxford to “tweak” vaccines to combat upcoming Covid variants, the first such which is due this autumn.
[B][I]"The UK has not been a major manufacturer of vaccines, but the bullying and threats from Brussels means we soon will be. In effect, there has been an “Ursula dividend” as the UK works out it cannot rely on supplies from the other side of the English channel, and needs to make more stuff at home.
But it doesn’t stop there. The same logic will apply to a range of industries, from power, to transport, to financial services and food."[/I][/B]
It’s subscription-only so I don’t know how much others can read.
What I do know is that fervent EUrophiles will dismiss out-of-hand the success already evident in the UK’s vaccination strategy despite statistics which suggest that our plan looks to be the more-effective.
Solasch you seem to go out of your way to try and make the UK worried… but it doesn’t work !
I took my sister to have her first AZ jab yesterday & from the number of people there it seems that there is no shortage of the vaccine.
I have also been assured that there will be no shortage when I go for my second AZ jab on 27th April, so your post does not appear to be accurate.
Don’t worry though, we are all aware that the EU have made lots of mistakes…that is why we got out!
Solly is very bitter about brexit Twink?
He really loved us being members for some obscure reason ??
I suspect he has interests in fishing or he would have given up
by now given that is the only outstanding issue to negotiate ??
Donkeyman!
Ahem.
Financial services?
Ireland/NI ?
I recall him being a little upset because his wife’s business woulds suffer when we left. Of course he will probably deny that now… but like the rest of the EU, probably too embarrassed to admit that they needed the UK. 
The UK has been trading less and less with the EU as years have gone by even before Brexit and the pandemic.
From around 40% of our trade being outside the EU at the turn of the century to well over half in 2019 in fact.
Our manufacturing growth was at a 10-year high this month and actual production has just hit a 20-year high as exports boom.
In the last few days even the IMF have had to again revise the UK’s growth forecasts … upwards to 5.3% which is more than the Eurozone and it is pedicted to be higher in 2022 by some margin too.
Some say it’s all because of Covid.
I would have to ask in response where then is all the alleged damage from Brexit that was supposed to so hugely negatively affect our economy?
It looks like we’re doing okay as a country regardless and those in the know are saying that the next release of statistics is going to confirm that too.
No way. I’ve usually stayed with the family of friends or friends. We also interrailed all over Germany back in the late 80s. their hostels were superb even then. The best in Europe.
It’s nice being with the friends/family and of course Germans make great friends and have a great sense of humour (usually), but the atmosphere is generally not relaxed, just walking around people are very “aware” of each other, very nosey but not always in a good natured way, more an intrusive judgy way. The weather seems good but there’s something with the air pressure or weather that gives me a headache and makes me tired. Yes Kaffee und Kuchen on the Rhine is very nice, but it just doesn’t agree with me if it comes with a migraine. Also I do speak some (now not so good) German. I certainly understand German fairly well.
I can’t remember who I was talking to who said they could not stand the way their neighbours are always giving them advice on how to be a better neighbour and fit in with the neighbourhood. It might have been an Italian friend who lived there. The one area we never went to but I’d like to visit one day is the south of the country, the black forest area and Bodensee. I have or have had friends from that area and they are really nice. More like Austria than the rest of Germany. We were very close by in Salzburg which was lovely. Actually we did cross the border on a day trip to the “Eagle’s nest”. I had a uni friend from Bodensee but we lost touch. It’s meant to be stunning on lake Constance. The Swabian region has some really nice people. But they are according to one friend from there looked down on snootily by Germans from other regions!
Anyway I’d love to return to Berlin. We were there before the wall fell. Strange people and atmosphere at the time (like being locked in a zoo), but a fascinating city.
Yes they are very very nosey! Denmark is so much nicer and people don’t interrogate you. Also they don’t much like Germans in Denmark.
Oh! So why your earlier post Annie??
I would repost it here for you, IFl knew how to do it ??
I think you must have been having an off day ?
Donkeyman!
That comes from their Gestapo heritage Annie !!
I’ve never been to Denmark but believe it is very nice??
We had six Danish guests on the farm one year and they all stood up
at breakfast and sang happy birthday to me in Danish on me
birthday !!
Very nice, brought a tear to me eye ??
Donkeyman!
My earlier post is because I don’t like visiting Germany! It’s the last place I’d choose to go on holiday - the weather the general atmosphere, the noseyness. There’s a reason Germans are always travelling to get away from it all 
Denmark is very nice. Danes are very enterprising people I guess from their viking heritage. Also some great bridges and wildlife spotting. There is a lot of “hygge” there too. Lovely cosy apartments, good times with friends, good food drink and conversation. It’s a welcoming place.
The only down side was being offered pickled herrings for breakfast! 
Ouch! Haven’t you heard AZ is sueing india becayse they blocked the vaccines produced there? https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-56659206
The EU’svaccinetsar has said thatAstraZenecahas agreed that all but one batch of its Covid vaccine produced at a Netherlands plant will be sent to European member states rather than Britain.
In an interview on Friday,Thierry Bretonsaid that “zero” doses made in the EU would be sanctioned for delivery to the UK until AstraZeneca fulfilled its contract with the bloc.
There was no immediate response from the Anglo-Swedish pharmaceuticals giant to Mr Breton’s assertion that the company had acknowledged that all but 1.2-1.5 million doses of vaccine produced at the Halix plant in Leiden, the Netherlands, as well as the plant in Seneffe, Belgium, were for the EU.
Mr Breton said: “I organised a video teleconference between the CEO of Halix and the CEO of AstraZeneca, and finally the CEO of AstraZeneca recognised that all the production of Halix was planned to support the EU delivery. That is all I can tell you.
The CEO of AstraZeneca told us that in fact since February all the production of Halix has been planned to be delivered to Europe except, he said, one batch, to be very precise.”
The British policy of prioritising first doses was completely understandable, but it means it now has to find second doses, and in a hurry,” he said. “I don’t want to make anyone anxious, we will of course do all we can to meet their needs, but we also have certain constraints in Europe.”
While the first phase of the UK’s vaccination rollout was “hugely impressive”, he said Britain was “starting to realise that one dose is not enough, that you also need second doses – and that, to a large extent, it will be dependent on Europe.”*