Germany - 20s party, lots of family and off to Central Europe

As we roll north after Gerd's last day of local work, cross the border in Basel and are on the road again, we sum up the summer in Switzerland.

It was a bit strange to be back on site. Gerd went to the office 4 days a week in the morning by bus or train, depending on where we were staying. I often looked for a shady spot with Felix somewhere nearby. I often stood by the Aare, my favourite river.

As time went by, I felt at home, I knew the people who passed me by every day. We got to talking, we greeted each other. Now and then we drank a coffee together. Or they told me about the area, about the swans, the birds, the nature around the partially renaturalised Aare. And they told me their stories.

There was René, who fed the swans every day. Or Beat, who went on a photo hunt for the most beautiful birds with his huge Oschi camera and kindly explained the whole biotope to me. The young teacher who let her two dogs bathe in the Aare twice a day. Or the professor who took some time off and just enjoyed the summer at home.

We spent the evenings in pop-up pubs, in small restaurants or simply in front of our Felix in nature. We felt like holidaymakers. We listened to the bands that played for us in the pubs everywhere in the summer months. At night we stood by rivers, lakes or if it was too hot, in the woods. At weekends we visited friends and relatives.

And as we rolled the 1000 kilometres north, we realised: the summer at home did us good! Unspectacular, quiet, rhythmic. And we are considering whether this could be a model for us: to spend longer periods of time in Switzerland every now and then.

Berlin & a surprise

We accept an invitation to a wedding. Motto: 20s. And we admit it right away: theme parties are not really our thing. Nevertheless, because the bride is a dear friend, I sew fringes onto a dress that is useless in a camper anyway. I get a feather for my head and borrow a mini handbag (they call it a clutch, learned something again!) and bright make-up. For more than 3 years (or even longer, I can't remember exactly) my face has known neither lipstick nor make-up. Gerd borrows old braces and I sew buttons for them on a pair of trousers that are far too wide. Our summer hat gets a dark ribbon tied around it and we're done.

And again: surprise! The party was great, we felt really good and our opinion about theme parties has changed fundamentally. We really enjoyed the evening and would now be ready for another 20s party.

In my old home, in the Berlin countryside, we find a great pitch for a week in the garden of our daughter's future in-laws (we have to go to Berlin again this year, big things are coming!) and fall deep into the family nest again. Eternally long cosy breakfasts, summer days in the garden, new wool (and a new toy to boot) and a typical two-day cold for Gerd just won't let us travel any further. But the best thing is that we have no time pressure. The greatest luxury of our lifestyle is having no (or at least hardly any) deadlines.

But at some point even the last ball of wool is wound up (thanks to Martina for bringing Mongolian yak wool!)Our children have long since returned to work in Bavaria, Gerd is healthy again and we still have an autumn ahead of us in the East, no, more precisely in Central Europe. So Felix is cleaned, water filled up and off we go!

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Merci for "travelling with us

We are thinking about taking another break from travelling in the summer and visiting our families in Germany and Switzerland. One of the ideas is to organise a Lecture about our long journey to the Persian Gulf to prepare. If you would like to, what would interest you the most? We will also tell stories here that don't find a place here on the blog. We're thinking of the Bern and Berlin area - simply because we have family there. But other places are also conceivable. Feel free to write to us.

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