Greenhouses, Wintergardens, Conservatories in Germany
Today we leave for Germany – in a short few hours. After an overnight trans-Atlantic flight, we will arrive in Munich, the “capital” of Bavaria, the beautiful southern region of the country which borders the Alps.
Our plan is to spend Sunday and Monday sightseeing in the city (sampling the wonderful local beers) and exploring the surrounding areas, then leave on Tuesday morning for Hamburg in the north of the country via car. Though only about an eight hour drive, we will take two days to make the trip as we will be making stops along the way to visit several companies that produce greenhouses, wintergardens and custom conservatories.
We will be joined for the first part of the trip by Mr. Franz Wurm who is Director of the Wintergarten-Fachverband association, the group that is hosting our visit. Wintergarten-Fachverband is an association comprised of about 40 member companies that specialize in producing high quality wood, glass and aluminum wintergardens,which are what conservatories and sunrooms are called in Germany. The group’s members are located mainly throughout Germany but some are in Austria as well.
I’m especially looking forward to my visit this time as the weather promises to be spectacular. Last year, I was in Munich in March and it was quite cold and rainy so we missed sitting outside in the many gardens.
On Tuesday we will visit the firm Jechnerer, www.jechnerer.de near Nuernberg who manufactures doors, windows, wintergardens and other specialty products. I understand they have a very nice showroom. Then on Tuesday afternoon, we will spend some time in Wurzburg a lovely mid-sized river town that I fell in love with during my last visit. (See my blogs from March/April 2008).
On Wednesday and Thursday, we’ll visit two firms, Steinbach, www.steinbach-wintergarten.de, whose specialty is wintergardens and the firm Hohnholt near Bremen www.winter-green.de, one of the few companies in Germany producing very high quality “English” style conservatories, poolhouses, sunrooms and orangeries.
We’ll spend Friday night in Hamburg and attend the Wintergarten-Fachverband association meeting on Friday to speak in front of their group about Tanglewood’s work designing and building conservatories, greenhouses and pool enclosures in the United States, the highlight of our trip.
I’ll keep in touch throughout our trip as it promises to be a very interesting week. The German companies design and build a different type of product and we both have much to share with each other about our manufacturing, our design and our markets.
It is easy to see that they are as passionate about their work and their companies as Nancy and I are about Tanglewood and many of their company founders share a similar background as myself – starting out as a carpenter many years ago!
Alan