Today, we had visitors from faraway Aachen — my friend Ingrid from high-school days and her husband Ralph stopped by on their way through to visiting her parents, who still live in a tiny village close to my hometown of Fürstenau. We prepared for this lovely occasion by going to the Saturday farmers’ market by the Cathedral in the morning, where I bought some lovely cheeses, dips, bread, olives, and tomatoes (as well as cake at a nearby bakery I love). I am always nostalgic for German markets, which used to be no-nonsense affairs where people used to buy their produce, cheese, meat and fish, rather than knick-knacky things and special baked goods. They have some of the knick-knacky things now and have gone down in popularity, so the market was much less busy and had fewer stands than in the past, but clearly, people still shop there, and–although I did not know this and was not prepared–many customers bring jars or tupperware from home to avoid buying extra packaging. A lovely habit.
Then we offloaded our treasures at home and went for a little walk, complete with a coffee-and-cake break. (This will be a hard habit to break.) We didn’t have any particular goal, so we just walked towards Kai’s elementary school from fourth grade in Germany (not exciting, so no photo), and then back, so I could prepare a salad and set the table with our lovely cheeses etc. for our guests, who came right on the dot at 1 pm. We had lunch and chatted, waiting for a brief downpour to stop, and then walked through the Botanical Garden (new for Ingrid and Ralph), while we continued to talk about German and US politics (always a topic with our friends & family here) and caught up about kids, work life, and many other things. It was a good time, although I think we sometimes didn’t spend enough time translating for Mark! The conversation was fast-paced enough that Google Translate’s AI-based simultaneous translator, which he typically has running as we talk, failed him more often than it gave him hints! We returned home for some coffee and cake (because, coffee and cake!), Imke reminisced about some of her amazing RV trips with my stepdad, Hermann, between 1998 and his untimely death in 2012, and we all had a lovely time. Around 4:30 pm they left for Ingrid’s parents’ house. It was so great to see them!
Mark and I decided that mid-afternoon cake counted as dinner (it was almost 4 pm when we had it) and went on a little postprandial walk through downtown. Lots of people were out and about, and there was a salsa band and many couples dancing at the “Theater Beach.” But unlike yesterday, it was cloudy, occasionally drizzled, and eventually we got the day’s second downpour. Many people were undeterred, sitting and eating under restaurant umbrellas, but we had to take shelter at the city library, watching the rain from our dry spot. When it cleared up, we went back home and called it a day.
