Gummersbach

We spent the first part of Sunday on Claudia's couch, watching the entire Paris Olympics opening ceremony (absolutely worth watching - we watched it in German). After a week of non-stop travel, three solid hours of vegetating was exactly what I needed. But by mid-afternoon, the sun had come out and Claudia insisted we get outside.

She drove us to a nearby village, where we walked to a beer garden, ate a delicious German meal, and (of course) ran into some friends of hers. (Claudia has lived in the area most of her life, and she seems to know everyone.) From there we hiked to a beautiful castle where Claudia had celebrated her first wedding.

On our way back, she wondered aloud if we should find her friends from the Biergarten and ask them for a ride: “They have a great convertible cabriolet, it would be so much easier than hiking back!” I insisted that wasn’t necessary - but then five minutes later, who should appear out of nowhere but her friends in the cabriolet convertible! So we climbed in and got a lovely ride back through the forest to the Biergarten where we'd left our car.

On my last day, we walked from Claudia's house into downtown Gummersbach, where we met some other friends of hers for a drink.

I realized I'd been unconsciously trying to avoid trying to speak German on this trip (part of my reason for hoping Claudia would meet me in Paris) -- I wanted to focus instead on regaining as much French as I could, and I worried I wouldn't be able to do that as well if my brain was also trying to re-learn German. But after three days, it all just started coming back, and I was able to have approximately a third of the conversation in German. Just in time to leave, sadly - but long enough that I remembered how much I do love the language. It made me want to come back and spend time perfecting my German!

The following day, all too soon, it was time to go. Next stop: Paris, to meet another old friend.

Saying goodbye at the train station... bis zum nächsten mal!