Of course, the UK never did win during those years, but I had hardly moved to Germany when Katrina and the Waves did indeed bring the contest to Birmingham, and I had to watch it with a German commentary.

So when Germany won the contest last year I was rather hoping that Frankfurt would get be on the shortlist of contenders for the 2011 competition. As we now know, the final is being held tomorrow in Düsseldorf and I will not be there for a couple of reasons, one of which being that the tickets sold out within hours of going on sale.  With a previously agreed appointment on the same day, I didn’t stand a chance.

Which does not mean, that I will not be following the event on the television and making up my mind who I would like to win, but whereas until a few years ago I would listen to the songs in advance and get to know them, now I watch and listen to them on the night for the first time before making my decision.

Of course, the German song is usually played on the radio during the weeks leading up to the concert and the artist is on a a variety of chat shows.  Some of these are more memorable than others, with “Guido hat euch lieb” (1998) and “Wadda hadda dudda da” (2000) being two that I remember particularly well.  By coincidence the writer of both those songs is Stefan Raab, one of this year’s hosts.

Yet unless I’ve missed something, the hype around Eurovision (also called the “Grand Prix” in Germany) has just not been there this year.  Admittedly I am not in Düsseldorf, but other than conversations about whether people I know will  be watching and what we’ve heard about the linguistic capabilities of the hosts, I can’t say that it’s been a major topic.

I always got the impression, then when the Song Contest came to town, the whole country got excited, a bit like a major sporting event.  But it hasn’t been that way in my opinion.  Maybe we’re too tied up with preparations for the Hessentag here and have other things on our minds, but I think the hype was bigger last year when Lena actually won.

And since Germany has only won twice in the entire history of the contest, I guess I may have to wait for it to happen again and a chance to see the final live.

Tomorrow I shall be watching it with millions of others on the television, but at least I won’t need to look for a parking space.

Some other posts on this topic that you might like to read:

• Germany wins the Eurovision Song Contest
• Landing in crosswind at Düsseldorf airport
• Parking in Düsseldorf on a Sunday

With temperatures forecast for around 30°C it was the perfect day for it, even though there was a chance of thunder storms in the afternoon.

Juri and Singa welcome the cast onto the stage

The amount of attractions laid on had either increased in number compared to the event two years ago, or were spread out more.  I certainly felt that there were not as many people there as there had been two years ago, but maybe that really was due to having a larger area and two different stages.  Certainly the queue to climb up “Bernd das Brot” was not as long!

The audience in front of the main stage

In fact, the queues are the worst part of the day – that being reminded with subtle (and sometimes not so subtle) hints that KiKa is funded by the license fee.

Everything else is well done for the children.  There is an area in front of the main stage where only children can enter.  On entering, the mobile phone number of one of their parents is written on their arm, so that when they want to leave, the crew can contact someone.  Obviously the phone needs to be turned on and audible for this to work!

But this year, for the first time I saw the security crew making sure that the smaller children got to the front of that area so that they could see, and also that the children were offered water to drink whilst they were in there and out of the reach of their parents.

The active stage

The smaller “active” stage is lower, so that the children really can go almost up to close to it.  At one point, a number of children – including my daughter – were allowed onto this stage to dance!

And dancing certainly was the order of the day.  We danced to the A-E-I-O-U song a total of 4 times, with my daughter having the slight advantage that we had practised the steps together the previous day!

Towards the end of the afternoon with less than an hour to go until the finale, the thunder finally arrived and aptly interrupted the Tabaluga show, whose cast were slightly caught off guard by the fact that it wasn’t their thunder sound effect!  It rained for about 10 minutes, and then stopped for all of the stars to gather on the main stage for one last dance.

The summer tour is well worth a visit.  On the way home my daughter cited dancing on the active stage with the presenters Juri and Singa as her favourite part of the day, with meeting Juri himself (to have a CD autographed) coming a close second.

Some other posts on this topic that you might like to read:

• KiKa Summer Tour – The Video
• KiKa Summer Tour in Wiesbaden
• Children in Germany can now be seen AND heard

The first main difference between Germany and a many other countries is that even public service broadcasters are allowed to supplement their license fee income with advertising.

They are, however, only allowed to do this from Monday to Saturday before 8pm, and not on public holidays.  After 8pm some programmes may still have sponsors.

They also intersperse the individual adverts with short animations, most notably the Mainzelmännchen on ZDF.

Private channels on the other hand can show advertisements at any time of the day and on any day.

However even then some rules apply:

1. the advertisements may not take up more than 12 minutes per hour of airtime
2. the commercial breaks must be at least 20 minutes apart
3. programmes for children may not have commercial breaks, only commercials between the programmes
4. special rules apply for films – here the number of commercial breaks is defined by the length of the film

I think I’m going to try and see if the channels really do keep to these rules.  I have to admin, that at the moment I hardly see any advertisements, as I record most programmes to watch later in the evening, so I just skip over them!

(Photo ©iStockphoto.com/esemelwe)

Some other posts on this topic that you might like to read:

• TV Pack
• Die Mainzelmännchen

Obviously this is a ceremony that is not shown on German television.  Germany itself has its Remembrance Sunday (Volkstrauertag) a week later.  For them, the 10th of November is the day to remember the Kristallnacht of 1938 when jewish shops and synagogues were attacked throughout Germany.  The 11th of November is the start of the carnival season!

When I first arrived in Germany I was able to watch the ceremony each year on Sky News via satellite.  Indeed, in those years the English bookshop in Frankfurt even collected for the Poppy Appeal.  But when Sky switched to digital I was no longer able to receive them.

For a few years I was able to watch on “BBC World” on cable, but where I now live this is not available on Sundays.

So for many years I gave been glued to my computer screen and have watched the ceremony in a small window on the BBC News website.

But not today.  After waiting for the link to the live feed to appear, just before 12:00 I started looked for alternatives.

First I tried the BBC World Service, and was at least able to hear the audio feed.  Then at 12:03, just as the Last Post was sounding, the “live” button appeared on the BBC News website.  But alas, when I clicked on it I received the message “Sorry, this media is not available in your territory”!

I tried the BBC News International site, but there was not even a mention of Remembrance Sunday on it!

Finally, I visited the Sky News website and found what I had been looking for: a large “Live Video” graphic.  So I watched the end of the wreath-laying and the service online via Sky News.  It was a good thing that I found this feed, as at around 12:15 the BBC World Service moved on to “World Briefing”.

So thank you to Sky for broadcasting this important piece of British history over the internet, and shame on you BBC for blocking viewers outside the UK!

Some other posts on this topic that you might like to read:

• Oberursel’s War Memorials

The GEZ is responsible for collecting television and radio license fees in Germany.  There are specific rules for calculating how many radios and television sets have to be paid for, depending on the type of usage and exact details can be found on the GEZ website.

Even people who do not own a radio (not even a car radio) or television set may be liable to pay if they own a mobile phone or a computer that can access the internet.  These are referred to as “Neuartige Rundfunkempfangsgeräte”.

To hear a simple explanation and a short discussion in German, listen to the podcast:

(Press the “play” button to listen to the podcast)

Download the MP3 file | Comment in the forum

Subscribe to the podcast | Listen by telephone

Some other posts that our readers enjoy:

• Listening by phone
• Introducing the “Schultüte”
• Starting school