Jagdschloss Grünau

The venue for Saturday evening's glam dinner. The Jagdschloss Grünau near Neuburg an der Donau.

Lovely on a sunny summer's evening to have a glass of something cold & fizzy in the courtyard first.

It turned out to be a great evening and all credit to our hosts.

I made my maiden speech in German, which was a bit of an achievement given that I didn't speak the language at all until I started a beginners class 9 months ago. I was quite chuffed that they understood it all, and even laughed at a couple of my jokes.

Contrary to popular misconceptions, the Germans do have very good sense of humour.

The speech was one of the toughest 15 minutes I can remember - not due to nerves, but having to concentrate so hard on getting the pronunciation correct.

Thanks to Dagmar and Dorina for all the coaching!