Yes, I will stop writing titles that repeat the same words, but this one was hard to ignore.
This year I was able to go to the Altenberg induction course for Germany, held at a former monastery complex near Cologne. The cathedral is visited by lots of people, and it’s a popular retreat centre for youth groups.
I was in a room which overlooked the central courtyard. Â With a ‘storytale wood’ nearby the complex, it’s a really pretty setting.
Two downsides of the location though: the people on the induction course tend to sit out socialising until at least midnight on the courtyard side.
Then at six in the morning, the cathedral (at the back of my room) kicks into action, when the bells start playing. They also play again at seven, just when you’ve drifted back off to sleep…
Despite this, the course went well, and most students were looking forward to starting work. They also put on a great cabaret on the final evening. The highlight had to be a performance of Bohemian Rhapsody, the whole thing performed on a grand piano by just one guy, playing and singing. Naturally the audience sang along all the way through, at least where they could remember the words.