I've been fortunate enough to visit several conventions held by Origami Deutschland, so needed little persuading to attend the 2003 meeting in Röttgen, just outside Bonn. I booked 3 weeks in advance, through hlx.com - a company who specialise in cheap flights to Germany. One of their destinations was Cologne/Bonn (the airport is close to both). Several frantic last few days were spent folding some models for the exhibition table - I've got quite a back-catalogue to choose from & never quite know what to make.

I rise at 5am Thursday morning and my wonderful wife taxis me to Manchester airport. The flight is quite short (just over an hour) but as ever, the customs / queuing / buses means it just over 7 hours later that I arrive at the Andreas Hermes Akademie in the sleepy village of Röttgen. The Akadmie itself is a large wooden building just off the main street, set in a wooden area and surrounded by grassy banks. As the sun is shining brightly when I arrive, I'm quite taken by the venue even before I set foot inside! Having checked in, dumped my bags in my room, I enter the main meeting room, where a number of OD volunteers are busy preparing convention packs, stuffing envelopes, arranging tables and so forth. Before I can even offer any help, it's lunch-time, another chance to sample the varied range of salads available in Germany. As a vegetarian, it's always a delight to nibble at green things and the tasty German bread and cheese are, as always, excellent.

The convention starts officially at 3pm and there are a good number of folders ready to enjoy themselves. The organisers, Gabi Grottenthaler, Heide Karst, Klaus Kosta, Ruth Schumann and Ulrike Krallmann-Wenzel (apologies if I missed anyone out) have arranged a number of rooms with "formal" sessions and teachers, but the main room is busy throughout the weekend with dozens of smaller, informal sessions, which seem to run themselves! Whether it is due to the German reputation for being organised I don't know, but everything runs smoothly (as indeed it does throughout the entire weekend).

The special guests (sondergasts, not besondersgasts, as I refer to them) for the weekend are Paula Gerard and Vincent Floderer. Both are kept busy all weekend, since their well-earned reputation clearly precedes them both. Vincent has developed a new facet to his crumpling approach, that of inflating them! Imagine his "typical" mushroom, then blow down the stem to inflate the cap. This creates a huge variety of gourd-like objects, which once again have an extraordinarily organic appearance. Paula says she has nothing new to show, but her table is also full of goodies. In any case, she probably needs a good rest after the intensive development work on her "two-fold santa".

Friday evening sees the folding continue immediately after dinner until the wee small hours. 160 visitors are expected and many seem to be already present. John Cunliffe and David Lister are my fellow Brits attendees. John Smith had to pull out at the last minute for personal reasons. You were missed John. Edwin Corrie probably still counts as a Brit, even though he now lives in France. I decide to catch a few hours extra sleep in anticipation of the long weekend to come. I'm rooming with Vincent, but we're too tired for long chat. Our rooms are spotlessly clean, with showers that are second to none. The window is one of those clever affairs that can open two ways and leads to a balcony overlooking small path around the side of the building. It's always good to drink in the evening air before descending into the sleep of the origami-convention.

Saturday morning sees a typical German breakfast - a wide variety of cereals, yoghurt and fruit, followed by an excellent range of bread and cheese. It also gives me chance to dredge up my few German phrases and impress the locals. Or not, as the case may be. I'm scheduled to kick-off one of the teaching sessions and as ever, can't decide what to teach. I take requests from the brave souls present and we run through an arrow, then Escher fish tesselations. As ever, I fall into the trap of thinking in English, then attempting to translate directly to German. This, as I'm sure you know, doesn't generally work. You have to string together the German phrases that you do know! One excellent cockup was using the work Quatsch (meaning "rubbish") instead of the word Quetsch, (meaning "squash"). Try it in English - "Now we make a rubbish fold here". Thankfully, everyone takes it in their stride and there are a number of excellent translators around the table. I persevere though - it's important to me that when I'm in a "foreign" country, to make every effort to communicate in their language. England's colonial heritage is shameful enough without me adding to it!

Before lunch I take a quick walk around Röttgen and I do mean quick. 6 shops, a couple of pubs and a garage. It has a sleepy air and few visible inhabitants, but I much prefer this to some busy metropolis. Lunch is fun as some of the occupants of the vegetarian table repel all carnivore boarders with firmness ("No, vegetarians don't eat fish"). Poor Ewin Corrie arrives late for his meal and there are no seats left. he is sent to another table outside the dining hall to repent of his tardy ways with the other late-comers.

"Falten, falten, falten" is the order of the day (and weekend) - I wander around the varied exhibition tables admiring the work on display. There is an exquisite twist-folded piece - some people call them tesellations, but I'm not convinced that's the proper term to use - whilst the shapes formed do tesellate, the folding technique seems more important and that's twisting. It's mounted in a frame - I can't remember ever seeing more accurate, crisp folding. There is some amazing strip-folded "Knotologie" from the genial Heinz Strobl (accompanied,as ever, by the delightful Diane), some miniature work by Jorg Haas, a selection of Corrie designs and much, much more. I should really have taken notes, so I could give proper credit where it's due, but neglected to and must now rely upon my unimpressive memory ;)

After dinner, we all repair to the main hall once again, where after a bout of folding, the evenings entertainment begins, with a somewhat extended play involving lots of costume changes and several Floderer-inspired hats, performed by Ralf Konrad and ??. My attention begings to wander and a small group of us sneak off to the nearby pub. Our company consisted of Vincent, Jorg Haas, Paulo & Silke, Edwin Corrie, Ilona Weidner, Astrid Haupt and inimitable Joan Sallas. Poor Edwin has to retire early to catch the 12.05 sleeper train to Geneva. Many tasty beers were drunk and the paper games got sillier and sillier, until some time well after midnight, when we sauntered back to the venue. Several people were still up and folding, including young Nicki Grabant, a delightful young man from Slovenia who was keeping his father company. Niki has the rare ability to fit in with a group of adults despite his tender years and spoke excellent German and English.

I wake in the morning feeling none the worse for the nights adventures and run another class. I feel my German is beginning to improve, but having a willing group of folders always helps get through any language difficulties. I meet and chat with Stefan Weber, a street artist who travels around Europe earning his living through performance and folding origami at high speed and with a deft touch. During the weekend he wet-folds several amazing bulls, based loosely on a Montroll dogbase. They are all of a very high standard - he clearly has "the touch". Another visitor is Assia Velli, a Russian currently living in Germany. She makes simple models, but does so with tremendous enthusiasm and joy. Sebastian Kirsch makes a welcome return visit - he's been busy over the last couple of years working hard at university.

The weekend winds down around 4pm, leaving a small group of us who listen to Assia singing Russian folk songs unaccompanied. Paulo & Silke are the last two to leave, having packed away the thousands of books Silke had on sale over the weekend (her company, Viereck Verlag specialises in origami books & paper). Heide Karst, talks me into an evening bus ride to Bonn, where we sit in the market square and have a few beers along with some excellent food. We miss the bus home, so are obliged to sit outside another pub for a very pleasant half an hour. Heide talks a lot about the future of Origami Deutschland and I'm impressed with her attitude and devotion to the society. Any group of volunteers depends upon people such as Heide and I feel sure the future of OD is secure.

Monday morning, I leave for Cologne via the "fast" train. Sadly, my ticket is for the "slow" train and I have to fork out another 10 euros. The city itself has the most superb gothic cathedral and a large shopping centre. I still ahve a few euros left, so spend them on presents, including a copy of Joan Sallas new book (for myself!). I take a boat trip along the Rhine, then sit in an Irish theme bar where my football team, Sheffield United, are in the finals for promotion to the premier league. Sadly, they play with little enthusiasm and are 3-0 down at half time, when I leave for the airport in a gloomy mood. However, the wonderful events of the weekend soon cheer me up and the flight home is relatively "short", since we regain an hour.