On Friday, I rode to Fuhlsbuettel station in Hamburg to meet my (quasi) aunt Eva, an older lady very dear to my parents and grandmother...and me! We had evening bread, and she was "offended/shocked" that I didn't put any butter on my bread, and then when I put too little. Bottom line: smear on that butter, even if you're going to mound on cheese or meat! She then gave me a beer and said that it was good for me, like "liquid bread." I've heard of wine and chocolate being healthy, but that was a first! We calmly watched the evening news, some television, and then I slept on her coach so that could take me to the main train station for my ride to Cologne.
Yep, back in Cologne... the rendezvous place for me and my bro Nathanael! We met like last time: on the steps leading to the Cologne Cathedral...pretty impressive! We shared the packed sandwiches that we had each brought, and then walked through the city. The pedestrian way was sticky full of shoppers.....and we kept circling around until we crossed the river and went to the Marathon Expo in the Convention Center, where we picked up our startnumbers and goody bags full of samples and coupons to buy this and buy that from the Expo's stifling multitude of stands and vendors.
We then walked back across the river to find our hostel, which was on the other side of the city. We had been walking around all day with our daypacks, and underway had to stop and have a little motivational team huddle. We laughed because we had been speaking German to one another all day; nationals must have thought we were very poorly educated Germans!
Along the way we stopped at a market and a bakery to buy food for the night and the morning. We FINALLY reached the hostel, dropped off our backpacks *phew*, and were so hungry that we went outside to find a place to eat our picnic...we had new utensils, no plates, nothing, just food! Pretty pathetic, but we laughed alot and had a good time. We got pretty self-conscious when people kept laughing at us, sitting on a bench, using pen edges to open up our packages of food, that we retreated to a dimly lit patch of trees. Good times! At the end, we both acknowledged: "...so, this is why people go out to eat!" (We later found out that the hostel had a fully equipped kitchen with plates, silverware, and tables, rubbing salt in our wounds!)
We then walked down the strips, had ice cream at 11 o'clock at night, and then went to bed. We never saw the daylight faces of our fellow roommates. We left quietly in the morning, ran the race, and they were gone when we came back from the race. This half marathon was huge and ran through the heart of the city (unlike the first in Cologne, which was smaller and was a 3 loop park course). Nevertheless an honor once again to run with my bro. After the race we were greeted with a gauntlet of food and drink: exceptional highlights included dark bread with smeared white pig fat with salt and two sorts of beer, even Koelsch- a city speciality.
We then met up with his guest family and had lunch. The full marathon was going on and we got to watch that as we walked (slowly and awkwardly) through the city. Dirk and Monica, thank you so much for putting up with me, sacrificing your time and money, and allowing me to interfere with Nathanael's exchange experience!
We eventually parted ways and I took the four hour train back to Hamburg...
*****
I really love the picture below...it pretty much speaks of my experience so far in Germany: walking around with a backpack, carrying a water bottle, in a beautiful city...
Twice I've been blessed to do it with my brother Nathanael. Geoff, Jordan, and Marin: we're going to have to plan to do something special together too. I love you all.
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