When the Sun comes out

So this past sunday I got to enjoy a wonderful outing with AIB director and lots of people from the program. It was probably the warmest day we've had. It couldn't have been more perfect for our hike in the Seibengebirge (Seven hills). Based on the day we had in the hills (I still think they're mountains...), I have decided that the Germans really know how to live when the sun comes out. I woke up on that Sunday morning and had a nice long breakfast with Fay. We chatted and drank coffee and left all the windows and doors open to let the fresh warm air in the house. When breakfast was over I headed to meet everyone at the main station and we made our way to the base of the hill our hike was starting on. We hiked for about 5 hours and visited three different places, Drachenfels and Petersburg and a ruin I can't remember the name of at the moment.... It was a nice long hike but don't worry, I packed snacks!!! The best part comes after the hike though. Once we were done we ended up at my village Oberdollendorf and the AIB director decided to treat us to lunch. So nice of him! We ate something called flahmekuchen (flame cake: basically super thin pizza without the tomato sauce) and treated ourselves to weinspritze (half wine and half tonic water). The wine was special because it was a Riesling made in my village :)
I chatted with Rainer (the AIB director) and he told me that this is what they do here when the sun comes out. I am now convinced this is the best way to live. A good breakfast and a late lunch with a hike thrown in the middle on a Sunday is one of the best things I've done since being here. And I have to say (after apparently the longest/coldest winter on record here in Germany) that I will never take the sun for granted again. Well we'll see how I feel when I get back to 100 degree, 100% humidity Corpus this summer...