Germany 1982 (1)

In 1979, I started working as a delivery driver for Initial Services in Bristol. I'm sure that if monkeys could get driving licenses they would have much preferred to employ them instead of us but that's another story. I had a great time with some of the people that worked there and one of my friends was Tom Jackman who started a little after I did. Tom had just left the army and we decided to visit his old stomping ground of Paderborn and Sennelager in Germany in May 1982.

As with most of my holidays, we had no real plans and just set off. We just knew that just the same as home, that we would be drinking a lot.

23rd May 1982

I have no ideas why I haven't got any photos before this...

This is us hitchhiking out of Cologne
Hitchhiking in Germany is a great way to get nowhere fast and only for those interested in terminal boredom

We got into Dortmund where we spent a very cold night in a park then gave up on hitchhiking and got a train to Paderborn. We got to the City Club late the next nigh and found there had been some sort of disturbance. We introduced ourselves to Ziete who owned the place and who seemed to remember tom from his army days. We helped clear up the mess and Ziete very kindly let us stay in a room at the top of the building.

The City Club was very popular with British squaddies, they had a barracks at nearby Sennelager. There's an entire thread about the place on aarse.co.uk

24th May 1982

Tom in the City Club

Pepsi and Ecke, two barmaids at the City Club
These two rally were a barrel of laughs

Pepsi and I - City Club, Paderborn

Tom outside Uncle Tom's Cabin
According to Royal Artillery Association website both the City Club and Uncle Tom's Cabin were gone by 2008

25th May 1982

The view from our room in the City Club, Paderborn
The church is the Sacred Heart Church

Tom, Connie and myself

Connie is the City Bar's DJ. One night he got extremely drunk and started smashing up the place. Ziete came running down from upstairs and kicked him in the face.

Gymnasium Theodorianum
Originally founded in 836 as a cathedral, it became the Theodorianum school in 1612 which makes it one of Germany's oldest schools

This page created 6th October 2011, last modified 6th October 2011