Fans of BBC Radio 4 (of which I know there is at least one of you) will be familiar with the comedy panel game, "I'm sorry, I haven't a clue" where, sometimes, contestants were asked to announce the names of guests at a themed gala dinner.

On the theme of German cities, we've come up with a few attendees:

"Ladies and Gentleman….introducing:

Mr & Mrs Baden, and their incontinent son, Wiesbaden

Mr & Mrs Bach and their homesick son, Offenbach

Mr & Mrs Mar and their inquisitive daughter, Weimar

Mr & Mrs Gladbach and their ever hungry son, Monchen Gladbach

Mr & Mrs Furt and their plain speaking son, Frankfurt

Mr & Mrs Cologne and their sweet smelling daughter, Eau de Cologne

Mr & Mrs Itz and their topless modelling daughter, Colditz (it's all in the pronunciation…)

Moving swiftly on to the next section of our tour around Germany, Leipzig proved more rewarding than Berlin, mainly because only half of it was being re-built and the sun came out for the first time in a month. The town planners of post war Leipzig have made a better job of re-building their bombing devastated city than their British counterparts in places like Coventry. The Soviet style concrete architecture blends surprisingly well with the painstakingly re-built medieval areas.

Pouring over our maps and wondering where to go after Leipzig, we noticed that the village of Colditz was close by. The 11th century castle, after which the village is named, is a legend to Brits of our age group thanks to the 1970s BBC TV series "Colditz", which dramatized the wartime attempts by British and Allied prisoners to escape from the castle.

The British dug tunnels and even built a two man glider in the roof (the camp was liberated by the US Army before the glider could be flown), the Dutch jumped over the walls and the French dressed as women to escape, all of which gives you an interesting perspective on their respective national characters!

It was amazing to read, in the excellent castle museum, that the prisoners built four radio sets from parts stolen from the Germans or hidden in Red Cross parcels received by the prisoners. (Imagine the disappointment of opening your Christmas Red Cross parcel from home hoping for a plum pudding or fruitcake, only to find transistors and electrical wires!

Weimar, the city that gave its name to the democratic Republic that Hitler snuffed out in 1933, is one of Germany's main cultural and literary centres. Buchenwald, 5 kilometres northwest of the city, is a reminder that centuries of culture, literature and the arts mean nothing when the wrong people take over. From 1937 until liberation in 1945 Buchenwald was a Nazi concentration camp.

The gentlemanly rules of Colditz, where prisoners were treated according to the Geneva Convention, did not apply at Buchenwald, where an estimated 56,000 Jews, Gypsies, Homosexuals, political prisoners, Russians and Eastern Europeans died, mainly of starvation, exhaustion and excessive brutality by SS guards. Mercifully, if that term can really be applied, Buchenwald was not an extermination camp.

The town of Erfurt, with a wonderfully preserved medieval centre, old bridges, churches and squares, provided a much needed uplift to our spirits. With our usual perfect timing we had decided to make use of our first Stellplatz (the German equivalent of the French and Spanish Aires). This overnight stop for motorhomes (Wohnmobil in German) was, in the case of Erfurt, a corner of a tarmac car park next to overflowing bins. Not a problem in itself, we've been in worse locations, but we arrived in a 38C heatwave!

Talking of creaking old things, it was time to pay a visit to our friends, the Kutz family in Eltville am Rhein. Anticipating our imminent arrival Florian and Susie had evacuated their children Fenjol and Franca to grandparents and summer camp, but because we arrived early were unable to escape themselves!

Predictably Eltville was another medieval treasure, this one perched on the banks of the Rhine in the centre of the Riesling wine region. Sipping Riesling with friends (and Florian and Susie) whilst watching barges and cruise boats ply their trade up and down one of Europe's major waterways was a great experience, especially as summer had finally arrived in Germany.

Even better, the London 2012 Olympics were in full flow, with Team GB eventually leaving the Germans way behind in the Gold and overall medals table. Despite this our hosts took us to some lovely vineyards, a stunning Cistercian monastery at Eberbach, (film location for the thriller "In the Name of the Nose" (or maybe that was Rose?) and for a drive around Wiesbaden with its superb neo-classicist architecture (thanks Susie).

After tearful farewells in Eltville (the tears flowed from Florian & Susie when we announced we would be returning in September to collect the alcohol we didn't want to risk smuggling across the Swiss border) we headed south to Heidelberg.

This famous German university town and Renaissance culture centre was naturally an appropriate destination for Yours Truly, man of letters and enthusiastic culture vulture. During our travels through Germany we have encountered statues, museums and houses dedicated to or associated with Schlegel, Schiller, Goethe, Hegel, Nietzsche, Wagner, Bach, Heidegger, Martin Luther and others too numerous to mention (Ok so I've forgotten them!)

Trumping them all though, in Heidelberg, was a statue of Dr Bunsen, inventor of the burner of the same name. It bought a joyous recollection to mind, three months without chemistry lessons at school after a third former (Binns Minor, I think) got carried away with a Bunsen burner and some yellow substance, the resultant explosion leaving the chemistry lab in need of a new coat of paint…and a new roof!

Anyway back to my raison d'etre, culture! Given a choice between the Schiller House and an ice cold lager in a biergarten it is obvious where I'd rather be, though I must concede a debt of gratitude to Monty Python's "Philosophers Song" for enabling me to realise who some of these people were!

Add Marx and Engels to the list and you begin to wonder about the big questions, like how on earth did Germany manage to become such an economic powerhouse when most of the male workforce sat around in bars and coffee houses dreaming up answers to the meaning of life? If Marx had been more interested in the football results on a Saturday afternoon than the fate of the proletariat the world would have been a very different place.

By the way, the answer to the success of the German economy is that virtually no retailers, including major supermarket chains, accept credit cards. How on earth can you run up unmanageable debts if they won't let you spend borrowed money, it undermines the whole banking system if banks remain solvent!

Next stop Switzerland, and in the meantime many thanks to Flo & Susie, see you again soon, should you happen to be "away" don't worry, we had a duplicate set of keys made, including the one for the wine cellar!