The first time I came to Leeds was in 1971. I was 16 years old and on a hitch-hiking trip through England & Scotland with a slightly older friend from Bochum, my home town in Germany. We got to Dover by train and ferry, and then hitch-hiked all the way up to Stirling in Scotland where we camped for 4-5 days in pretty lousy weather until our tent started leaking. We decided to get back South for some better weather and we splashed out on a train journey to Leeds. We found accommodation in the old YMCA on Harrogate Road in Chapel Allerton. After a couple of days, on a Friday, we decided to leave Leeds in order to get to our final destination, London. We made our way to the start of the old M1 in South Leeds. We tried to get a lift towards London but after 6-7 hours it was getting dark and we still hadn’t managed to find a willing motorist.

We made our way back to the YMCA to stay over the weekend and to try our luck again on Monday morning. However, we didn’t have any cash left to pay for our beds, only some more travellers’ cheques. But for these cheques we needed a bank, and of course all the banks were closed over the weekend. So, in our best possible English, we did our best to convince the manager of the YMCA to let us stay without paying for our beds in advance, on the promise that we would cash our cheques first thing on Monday morning and then pay for the two extra nights. And we were in luck! – The very friendly YMCA-manager allowed us to stay and agreed to wait for his payment until Monday morning.

I returned to Leeds in 1977, in order to find work for a year or two until I would be able to start my teaching career in Germany.

I never went back to Germany full-time and have now lived in this city for 46 years, well & truly my second home! I have spent my entire professional life in Leeds and have met hundreds and hundreds of lovely people, young and old, during my career as a teacher and lecturer of German language and culture.