From the Fringe

The adventurous trio, fed up with the cold temperatures, planned to ring in the new year under the African sun. And that's not all -- they also intended to celebrate a wedding, police spokesman Holger Jureczko said.

Six-year-old Mika and seven-year-old Anna-Lena, it turns out, "are very much in love and decided to get married in Africa where it is warm," he said. They took Anna-Lena's five-year-old sister along with them to act as a witness.

They got the idea from Mika's tales of his recent holiday in Italy as their families celebrated together on New Year's Eve. He assured the two girls that Africa would be even warmer, Jureczko said.

The next morning, while their parents slept, the children set off from the suburbs of Hanover, clutching cases packed with all the essentials needed for their trip: sunglasses, food, and swimsuits.

They boarded a tram to the central train station and were waiting for a train to take them to the airport when they were stopped by police.

Two officers managed to convince the kids that it would be hard to get to Africa with no money and no plane ticket. Instead, they got a decidedly less romantic tour of the police headquarters before being handed over to their parents.