To celebrate the Fortieth Anniversary of our relationship with Lage, Lage Town Council invited members of the Horsham Twinning Association to visit them in order to celebrate this milestone together. A group of 12 people visited Lage recently and were made very welcome by their German hosts and hostesses, the Lage Twinning Association and the Town Council.

Lage, which has a population of around 35,000, lies about 15 miles south west of Bielefeld in the state of North Rhine Westphalia. Like Horsham, it is a market town and has a history of brick manufacture.

On the first day we were given a tour of the town and invited for refreshment in the new Rathaus (town hall) by the Mayor, Matthias Kalkreuter. In the afternoon we visited the beautiful extensive Taoasis Botanical Garden. That evening we were invited by Lage Council to a welcome dinner and presented with a framed document commemorating the occasion. In return, the Mayor of Lage was pleased to receive two framed pictures of Horsham donated by Horsham District Council.

On the following day were given a tour of the historic Detmold Castle, still lived in by the Prince of Lippe and his family, followed by a trip to the imposing statue of Arminius, known as Hermann the German, famous for leading the army which defeated the Romans in the nearby Teutoburg Forest. On the last day we travelled to Minden for a boat trip on the Mittelland Canal, the longest artificial waterway in Germany.