Uschi took the four of us to visit Judith and Michael in Schoenboeken (about 1 1/2 hours away by car). We drove through some pretty crappy weather, but when we got to Schoenboeken, it had stopped raining, which was very nice. We toured her apartment, which is absolutely lovely and has a fantastic view of a little meadow and then the woods, right at the edge of this little village outside the Zen center that’s become the center of her life. We then went to a large natural resort/park area where they had wild pigs to look at that were a lot of fun, and a big playground that the kids took a whole lot less interest in than in the many wild baby pigs. We then went back to Judith’s apartment and had pizza and strawberries with “American” ice cream. We then went on a tour of the Zen center, which was very interesting. The center is in a former horse-breeding ranch and riding stables operation, and the people who work there full time (like Michael) are constantly working to keep up the lavish and semi-wild grounds, the vegetable garden, and the more or less hard-to-maintain late-19th century buildings where the sleeping and “sitting” (meditation) rooms, plus kitchens, offices, dining hall, etc., are located. They gave us a tour of both buildings, including the newly-renovated clock tower, from which we could see the whole region, especially the tree-lined chaussee / allee which leads up towards the “gate house” and which has some of the most impressive trees I’ve ever seen lining a road: so tall that they sort of grow together at the top, making for a cathedral-like effect, for several hundred meters in a row. Kai was of course also really interested in the zen aspect and even tried to meditate for a little bit–but Kai-length meditation is about 3 minutes, and then he was zipping around again. Judith, Mark and I went for a little walk with him afterwards, and he really stayed outside until it was time to leave while we had coffee with Michael, Uschi, and Kati (the latter two of whom had stayed home). We left around 6 and were home for a late dinner around 8, and made it a short evening, although Mark and I (again accompanied by Kai) went for one more walk to the beach and the sea bridge.