Sleaford recently played host for a long weekend to over 60 visitors, including 16 youngsters, from its twin towns in France and Germany. Twinners from the three towns of Sleaford, Marquette-lez- Lille and Fredersdorf-Vogelsdorf meet up in this way in each town once a year, staying for the most part with local families and participating in both group and individual activities.
The visitors arrived on Thursday afternoon and Friday was devoted a group outing to the International Bomber Command Centre at Lincoln, followed by a walk around Lincoln itself. I’m not sure the IBCC had ever seen such a huge and diverse group of visitors (over 80 of us) but they made us very welcome and provided us with an excellent lunch after out tour. The day was rounded off with a meal and Ceilidh at the New Life Conference Centre for all hosts and visitors.
Saturday was much less structured, with hosts taking their visitors out to a variety of places in order to show them more of Lincolnshire. Despite the terrible weather some went back to Lincoln, some headed for Boston or Nottingham, some went to Peterborough and others to Ely. I suspect most of us got wet but shared hardship is all part of the experience.
Sunday for most involved a slow start before meeting up for photos and to wave our friends off on their journeys home.