April 2024 - Darlington Mayor's Ball

Friday 12th Apr 2024

Our Guests, President of Amiens Alain Gest, along with Celine Rohart and Caroline Bohain, arrived at the Mercure Kings Hotel at noon on !2th April. After checking in they were given a tour of the town centre by Tom Nutt before going to the Hippodrome Theatre for lunch, followed by a tour and historical talk about the building. On returning to their hotel we found that our Muelheim guests, Burgermeisterin Ann-Kathrine Allekotte and Claudia Roos had arrived. Not much time to spare as they all had to ready themselves for the Mayor's ball reception at 1615 in the Dolphin Centre. After being introduced to our Mayor Jan Cousins and her other guests we all had a great night enjoying wonderful food, drink, music and fundraising for the Mayor's charities. The theme of this year's ball was "Windrush". Our Amiens friends left early on Saturday morning, however during the day I took Ann-Kathrin and Claudia on a town tour followed by lunch at the Hippodrome with the mandatory tour. That evening our Association members hosted a meal for our guests and our Mayor at Uno Momento, a fabulous night enjoyed by all. On Sunday morning along with Gerald Lee we went to Shildon Railway Museum and again our Muelheim guests were really interested in our railway history, and were especially interested in next year's 200th anniversary of the Stockton Darlington Railway celebrations, when many of our international partners are expected to attend. After lunch in Heighington we returned to Darlington and our guests left for the airport in mid afternoon. A thoroughly enjoyable weekend for us all. Tom Nutt
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