We've been here for not quite half of our total time, but it feels like the time in Duisburg is almost up. We leave on Friday (a day and a half away) for a weekend in Bruges, Belgium, then the next day (Monday) I go visit a friend in Krakow, Poland for 3 days, return for 2, then we go for 2 days in Dresden, 4 in Berlin, one night in Frankfurt and then home. So while this isn't the normal type of vacationing we do in Europe, it's going to feel like we are on some sort of tour from now on.
I'm somewhat settled in the apartment, as much as you can be in a place you know is only for a short time. I know where to get groceries, fresh bread and good produce. I've been able to get most everything I need to cook/eat here. I 90% understand the washing machine and dryer available to me. My days are just packed (as Calvin and Hobbes would say) with my German studies, shopping of various types (we just got a printer, so I don't need to go all the way to the Bahnhof twice a week to get train tickets for the next adventure. Oh, the joys of the internet), and enjoying the local woods. But because it's routine, it is getting a little old. If I weren't about to end it, I would want to kick it up a notch.
There are two things I would do differently, perhaps for the next trip. First, I would like to have found some sort of activity that would put me into contact with locals, both to get me to speak more German and to have more human contact. I'm able to communicate pretty well with the grocer, baker, and cleaning lady, and with random Germans who ask me for directions(!), but that's not really improving my speaking skills. And it would be nice to have people to talk to.
Second, I would have liked to figure out a way to have done some biking. There are some nice long distance biking trails around here, I understand. I could easily have rented a bike, but biking on the local streets just looks boring, biking on the walking trails (some are designated bike paths) would require a mountain bike -- or at least one with fatter tires than I usually use -- and some skills for riding on unpaved roads. Mostly, I just couldn't find enough information about where to go to be convinced it was worth my time. Plus it's rained or come close to raining nearly every day we've been here, and riding in the rain is not my thing. I suspect there may be useful maps at the bike store (they don't seem to exist on the internet), but the rain has de-motivated me from finding out.
But all in all, this idea of spending enough time in a single location in a foreign country is a great one. I understand differently a non-American way of living (it's not like this is a third-world country, just that we Americans have some pretty unique ways of interacting in the world). I have and will have visited several "second tier" sightseeing places that I would not have made the effort to go to during one of our regular vacations. When you are living out of a suitcase, making a detour to some place 'minor' feels like effort, whereas here, where I have some place to go back to, do laundry, research the next trip on the internet, etc., it's more like a weekend away than just another stop on the whirlwind tour.
My goals for "travelling in retirement" are broader than what we have done here, but I've definitely accomplished one of them -- live in a place where I don't feel like a tourist all the time. And it's got me thinking about how and when to work on some of the other ones.
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