Imke, Mark and I took off around 8 in the morning (but after another lovely early-morning run) to take the IC train from Osnabrück to Neumünster, 45 minutes north of Hamburg, where Judith picked us up at the station and drove us to her and Michael’s apartment (top half of family home) in Ruhwinkel / Schönböken, where we have visited them many times before–and which is one of the most peaceful and idyllic rural nooks and crannies I have ever been to. They live on the edge of a very small village, right where the fields and meadows and little wooded areas begin, right next door to the Zen Center, a remodeled manor house, where Michael works and where all year round, seminars for people practicing Zen buddhism and daily meditation are being held. They have just begun again after some of the Covid-19 restrictions in Germany were lifted, and Michael is already very busy gearing up for the first “summer camp” of the year. Judith will also be very involved later on, as a volunteer. Both are ordained Buddhist monks and put a lot of volunteer hours into the center, beyond their daily practice and Michael’s paid work. Judith and Imke went to get some wraps from a nearby döner shop while Mark and I unpacked and rested and I started the bread dough from the sourdough starter I had brought along. Later, we went for a lovely 5-km walk through nearby fields and the village, also revisiting the grounds of the Zen Center (where we have been many times before).
We had coffee and the first round of the Donauwellen, which I brought in Judith’s real birthday present–a 9×13″ glass pan with lid that comes in an insulated pack. Then, after Michael came home as well, we sat and chatted and later had the usual bread-and-cold-cut dinner, which was lovely and relaxed. We drove the 10 minutes or so to the next town over and went for a wonderful evening walk that led us half-way around a lake with lots of little trout ponds along it. It was almost 1o pm when we got home, and still not quite dark–but it had started raining, and we were hoping it would “rain itself out” overnight and be nice the next day (which basically proved to be true).