Rain, rain, go away

I've come from dry (and apparently now hot) California, to wet, cold northern Germany.  Usually, the rain showers are just a drizzle, so my semi-waterproof parka and hood, with an umbrella sometimes, are enough to brave the outdoors in comfort.  But this week, I learned it can really pour in Germany.

It was another dreary day, cloudy in the morning, but intermittent showers predicted for afternoon.  I wanted to get out for a hike.  One of Jay's colleagues had told me of a good starting place for some hikes over the ¨mountains¨ of Bielefeld (this is part of the Teutoberger Wald, and the mountains are similar to the Santa Cruz mountains of the Bay Area -- just good sized foothills.)  He said there was a map on a signboard that would introduce me to all the marked trails in the area, but it turned out to be just an ¨ad¨ for Nordic Walking (walking with poles) with markers for 3 trails (many more markings were painted on the trees, but I've yet to figure out where those trails go and how far).  I decided to take the 5.5km trail, just to get a sense of the area.  Lovely trees, wildflowers, many more birds in song than I am used to; the trails were excellently maintained and gravelled, so they were not muddy from the previous two weeks of rain.

I was about at the far point of the route when it started to rain. (The trail, it turns out, has had its little metal markers appropriated at critical junction points, so I lost the trail and had to refind it several times).  No big deal.  It was just a drizzle, as forecast, and the trees shielded me from at least half of it.  And based on the previous several days, I expected it to let up in 10 minutes (perhaps restarting again in 20).  Of course, this was the time it decided to rain seriously, both significantly harder than a drizzle and for a long time.  I was wearing a parka that is somewhat rain protective and real hiking boots, so I was still doing OK in the trees.  But I took another wrong turn (missed a sign, most likely), and I found myself on city streets with no protection.  After a few more missteps, I got headed in the right direction, but it took about 45 minutes to get back to the apartment.  It rained for that full hour.  Drenched pants, drenched shoes, drenched socks, but the parka held (It was pretty wet, but I wasn't wet under it).

I clearly have no skills in reading the clouds in this part of the world (and the weather forecast outright lied to me).  As the culmination of eight days of dreary weather, it was the pits.  On an absolute scale, it was not so terrible, but for someone who has become a total Californian, I spent a miserable afternoon, both outside and after I got back to the apartment.

The weather seems to have broken.  Sun (with a few clouds) today, and only a couple glimpses of rain predicted for the next week.  It's still cold -- the highs here are about what the lows in Palo Alto seem to be. There really is a distinct season between winter and summer in the rest of the world, who knew?