OUR PRE-PUBESCENT ROMEO AND JULIET

It’s narrow-minded, I know, but when I think of Germany, romance rarely springs to mind. Post-Christmas, it’s the lingering memory of several kilograms of chocolate-covered lebkuchen that weighs most heavily, in every way. And yet it is from none other than Hanover that a heartwarming tale of star-crossed lovers has come to lighten the January gloom.

The fact that Mika and Anna-Bell are six and five years old respectively does nothing to diminish the charm of their attempted elopement. I only wish I had had as exciting a New Year’s Eve as these two lovebirds, who “donning sunglasses, swimming armbands and dragging a pink blow-up lilo and suitcases on wheels packed with summer clothes, cuddly toys and a few provisions”, trundled up to the train station, on their way to “to tie the knot under the heat of the African sun”.

With the pink lilo and sunglasses, Mika and Anna-Bell have clearly got Teutonic efficiency down pat. They even thought to drag along a witness in the form of Mika’s seven-year old sister, Anna-Lena. Many older and theoretically wiser paramours might struggle to be this well-prepared. Those planning to take advantage of New York’s new quickie nuptials (and with the offer of “an elastic faux-diamond band for $9”, who could resist?) could probably learn a few things from these kids. I bet Peaches Geldof wasn’t as well-organised.

Of course, getting stopped by a station guard and bundled off to a police station put something of a spanner in the works for our pre-pubescent Romeo and Juliet, but the flame of their love burns on. They were fobbed off with a tour of the police station as consolation. But the romantic in me remains confident that theirs is a devotion that cannot be arrested by the mere arm of the law. Or something as petty as the legal age for marriage. ~ JOSIE DELAP

Picture credit: Foxtongue (via Flickr)