“Same old same old” I murmured as we arrived at the coach station and saw three other couples already waiting for the start of Salisbury Festival Friends’ annual foreign cultural visit.

This was our fifth time with the group and it wasn’t so much a trip, more a reunion. Within minutes there were a score of us there, but only two new faces.

So Chris and Frances greeted Colin and Sue, and Hugh and Jan, and Richard and Judy and Tony and Su and all the others we’d travelled with last year to Parma (and before that to Seville and before that to Krakov which was after Llubljana).

We weren’t told till the final evening in Koblenz that the organisers had called it a day, but it was understandable. The line between close acquaintanceship and becoming a clique is fine, and that’s what we were in danger of crossing. But it ended on a high note.

We were guided round museums and churches, listened to some fine music, ate some good food and drank lots of German wine. We even managed a mobile tasting in a specially adapted trailer as we progressed through a vineyard on the Moselle (see my photo).

Now the Festival organisers must find some new way of keeping the Friends together. Maybe it should something be more UK-orientated. What people are calling a staycation. Because the decline of sterling has made eurozone prices astronomical.

We stopped off in Brussels on the way back, and were shocked by what we had to pay. Seven years ago, when we quit Brussels to return to the UK, a euro was worth about 60p; now it’s at parity. So a very ordinary coffee costs £4, and a toasted sandwich and beer about £15.

It’s not surprising we have so many German, French and Spanish visitors this year. Will they start buying English country cottages as holiday homes? That’s what happened last time.

Money to burn

It’s a novel experience to agree with Wiltshire Councillors on anything, but their refusal to hand out £10k for a Salisbury Christmas fireworks display was the right one. Lord knows there are enough local deserving cases and causes needing cash. If there’s spare money kicking around, it should be spent on something that gives lasting benefit rather than on pretty lights that vanish within seconds.