Well, we got back on Sunday afternoon feeling tired, dirty and utterly thrilled with our haul of pottery!  We’d had a fantastic second week in Germany, staying with another of the Pottery and Glass forum members near Nuremburg, before heading back up to the Essen area to look for more pottery.

One of the best things we found were the ‘Gebrauchtwarenhofs’ – second hand shops mostly, but a few were set up to help local people who had difficulties getting jobs to work. Fab idea!  Also, the goodies held within were marvellous. At the one picture above, we bought a massive ceramic wall plaque, which the owner told me had been in there for thirty years!

This is where we stayed for our last night in Germany. It was amazing! Very hippy feeling to it, from the extremely retro architecture to the Tibetan gong and prayer mats outside, and student/hippy types sat outside smoking something dubious… We spent a lovely night here not getting served the beer we were promised, planning our journey home the next day and wandering through the woods and small town of Dahlhausen.

Germany was such a wonderful place to visit, despite the fact that we probably went to the worst parts of the cities in our attempts to find retro ceramics. We’re already thinking of going back; I’m considering doing a German conversation course or A-Level to improve my language skills whilst over there.

If you’re reading this, we’d like to say a massive thank you to Micha, Alex and Chris for letting us stay. We had a fantastic time and really appreciated the effort you all went to for us. THANK YOU!