I've just had an enjoyable weekend in Germany visiting my friends Bruce and Louise who live on a British Army camp near Dusseldorf.I especially enjoyed the half hour I spent in a big toy-shop in Aachen browsing through their shelves of boardgames (while my god-daughter Eleanor was downstairs having her face painted). The shop was called Teddy& Co, and it looked like a big chain a bit like The Entertainer in the UK. The difference was the amount of space given over to boardgames - about a third of the 1st floor - with lots and lots of serious games on the shelves, and two large tables with a big box of demo copies for customers to try out. What a contrast with toy shops back home where games marketing is limited to a sad pile of boring crap like Cleudo, Monopoly and Trivial Pursuit at the back of the shop. No wonder the average Brit thinks that boardgames are boring given the pathetic dross they are exposed to on the high street.

I bought Flandern 1302 on impulse for 22 Euros and downloaded English rules when I got home. I will let you know how it plays as soon as I find out.