Saturday (7th June, 2014) was a day of celebration in Oberursel, with 40 guests visiting from the twin town of Epinay-sur-Seine to mark the 50th anniversary of the town twinning.
The day began in the Adenauerallee next to the “Annika fountain” and the cedar tree with a “honey breakfast” and the inauguration of a butineur urbain – a civic bee hive.
Manfred Belz from the local bee keepers’ club gave a short talk on the importance of the bees in the environment, and on the different types of honey that they produce at different times of the year.
The project is being supported by the grammar school in Oberursel, and will eventually be moved to their grounds. Financial assistance is being provided by a charity associated with Frankfurt Airport.
Oberursel’s Mayor Hans-Georg Brum, accompanied by Epinay’s Deputy Mayor Patrice Konieczny, said that the twinning still young and active after 50 years, and that sustainability was a key issue for it. A similar bee-hive was installed last month in Epinay-sur-Seine, and this is seen as a “airlift” connection between the two towns.
After the ribbons had been cut, it was time to move to the station platform, where a U-Bahn train set was to given the name “Epinay-sur-Seine”. The train arrived at around 12pm from Frankfurt and entered the refuge siding. It then returned back to the station driven by Athanasios Patras carrying not only Hans-Georg Brum and Patrice Konieczny, but also the fountain queen Carolyn II with her “Brunnenmeister” Harry.
Once in the station, the train was “christened” with champagne, before returning to the depot in Heddernheim to enter normal service as set number 863.
The birthday celebration was not going to be complete without a birthday cake, and just such a cake had been laid on by the local bakers “Ruppel” at the Epinay-Platz.
In fact, the cake took up four trays, with each try containing a different fruit. Hans-Georg Brum and Patrice Konieczny took it in turns to cut the cake, before handing out pieces to people in the square while the brass band “Fanfarencorps Königstein 1966 e.v.” played and marched around it.
The day ended with jazz and classical music being played on stage into the evening.
(Click to enlarge)
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