Kassel to Augsburg

I plan to leave for the education institute in an hour. In that span of time, how far from Kassel would I have gotten on the way to Augsburg? Ich weiß nicht.

You know what makes my world go around - interesting conversations with women - but I repeated it in case you forgot and in case you aren't interested.

Not so long ago, I had business in Germany (a/k/a Deutschland). [I recounted part of the visit in a story I wrote but I can't remember what I wrote so I may repeat myself, if you've read my books. Too bad!] I landed in Paderborn, a regional airport in the northern part of Germany, and was met by two lovely ladies, Fern, an American and Sommer, a German. I believe Fern now lives in Finland. I assume Sommer still lives in Germany.

In any case, Fern, Sommer and I left the airport in Sommer's BMW 318 wagon and drove on the autobahn to the customer's office for a meeting. We cut the meeting short so that Sommer and I could proceed to Kassel in order to catch the ICE train in Kassel for a trip to Augsburg to attend another customer meeting.

Sommer is a delightful person. She reminds me of Audrey Tautou, a fellow European, who some of you may remember from the movie, Amelie (or Le fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain), but Sommer is her own person and, because I don't have a photo of Sommer, I only give you the actress' name so you can get a general idea of her looks from googling the actress.

When I am alone with a person, regardless of gender, I quiz the person to get a good sketch of his/her biographical details and thus some insight into the person's motivations. Sommer was in sales, has a wonderful husband and children, and only wanted to be in sales for a while. It was not an ultimate career for her, although she enjoys being with people and getting paid for socializing.

I learned this from her while she and I traveled with Fawn to the first customer's office. I learned about Sommer's personality on the drive to the Kassel train station.

I like people's eyes. When two people look at each other, nothing else matters, or shouldn't. Sommer's eyes are kind. She holds up just the thinnest of masks when she looks at you, betraying a child's shyness without looking ridiculously innocent as an adult. I have a habit of falling into people's eyes, which gets me into all kinds of misunderstandings. Sommer didn't seem to mind.

In fact, Sommer smiled the more I looked at her. The more I looked at her, the more she held my gaze and would not turn away. I wasn't sure if it was a cultural difference that kept her eyes glued to mine after we got on the train.

Before we got on the train, we had rushed from the carpark (parking lot) into the train station, thinking we were late, quickly reading train schedules (Sommer in her fluent German and I in my halting Deutsch), hoping we'd bought the correct tickets as we fled down to the train platform. We arrived just as a train was taking off but Sommer assured me that although German trains are on schedule and the one that left had left at the time ours was supposed to, the train we wanted had not yet arrived. I checked the schedule anyway, asking her to explain to me the symbols and such on the train schedule posted in a glass case. She patiently obliged, repeatedly assuring me with her own questions that my questions about the train schedule did not mean we'd missed the train.

After we settled on the train for a few minutes, I thought about all the romantic European movies and novels involving train trips (and a few sinister ones). There we were, a little perspired and tousled, strangers on a mission. After a few minutes of sitting together, figuratively twiddling our thumbs, we simultaneously agreed to go eat a light meal since the dining car had just opened up.

Okay, yeah, I'm a guy, so as Sommer walked in front of me, I noticed her fit and shapely behind, with only a little jiggle indicating some age-related cellulite around her hips as we walked along the passageway. I kept my thoughts focused on something else, anything else, to remind myself that two business people on a three-hour train ride had plenty of business to discuss. As you can imagine, the movies, "Before Sunrise" and "Before Sunset," flashed across the projection screen of my thoughts.

Talk about a funny moment. Right now, "Autobahn" by Kraftwerk, is playing on the shuffled set of tunes on my iPod.

Anyway, I've only got 20 minutes left to write, edit and review this blog entry.

Sommer and I sat across from each other at the table. Because of my red hair, the server immediately spoke to me in English. Sommer responded in German to indicate he didn't have to use his limited English, if he didn't want to. So for the rest of the meal, the two of them challenged me to order or respond to the server in Deutsch. I passed with flying colors, they said. Sehr gut! [I should speak fluent German, if more often with my father I practiced, who does.]

At this moment, I'm drawing a blank about our conversation. I'll remember in a moment, but mainly I learned more about Sommer and vice versa. I enjoyed peaceful moments watching the countryside pass by. I sipped my König Ludwig Weiss bier (the server let me keep the glass, which sits in our kitchen window here at home).

Sommer smiled. She put her elbows on the table and sank her chin into the palms of her hands, giving me her full attention. I melted. If only my dessert had done the same!

For dessert, I ate some frozen gelatinous substance that I recall was supposed have a strawberry flavor. I shared it with Sommer. She assured me that German berries are much better when fresh. I agreed with the possibilities.

How long is three hours? Well, by now I'm almost a third of the way from Kassel to Augsburg, both in real time and in my thoughts. That leaves two more hours.

Summertime in Germany. Everyone has a favorite time of year. Fern likes wintertime in Munich but enjoys the late springtime, when alpine flowers start blooming in the lowlands and work their blooming schedules up the mountains, where she likes to hike (or used to, when she lived in Germany). I prefer summer. Or "sommer," in German.

Well, my time to write this blog entry is up. I'll have to finish writing down the rest of the memory in another blog entry. Gespräch zu Ihnen bald, or something like that.