Schloss Lembeck

We sailed away from Amsterdam last night and are now in North Rhine-Westphalia in Western Germany. The land is flat but rich and fertile with farms and forests and occasional small towns.

We were taken by coach to today’s concert in the moated castle in my image. What a fairytale place! The romantic gardens were full of richly scented plants - yellow azaleas, rugosa roses, wisteria - more birds than Merlin could keep up with - and a pond full of frogs, tadpoles and dragonflies. It’s good to know that there are places like that in the world.

The concert, in a drawing room in the castle, was baroque music arranged for recorder and lute by a brilliant young duo. It was easy to imagine what life must have been like (for the wealthy) in the 18th century.