Last Full Week of September

The last full week of September, the second week back from our hiking holiday, was nearly completely sunny with not a drop of rain. For the first time this season, at night and early in the mornings the thermometer sunk below 10C/50F, the lowest being 7C/44F on Thursday morning. By Sunday we were back to almost 30C/86F during the day.

On Monday (21 September) I was happy to find my trains back from Offenburg on time and arrive in Ludwigsburg without delay - a rare enough thing to happen,  certainly worth mentioning!

My after-work walk to Benningen was beautiful in the golden evening light.

On the way to Benningen

Sunset that evening as seen from my study...

...and from my living room.

Tuesday (22 September) was a cold enough morning for me not to leave the windows open all the time. It definitely felt like early autumn and not like late summer anymore.

I worked from home and afterwards met my sister at the train station where we took a local train into Stuttgart to meet a couple of friends for a meal. We had not seen them in a long time, and it was good to catch up. The food was very nice, too.

Unfortunately, we met with utter chaos at the local train system as soon as we arrived at the underground station. Information was confusing and unreliable, and when we turned to one of the manned information points, we found that the staff knew no more than us. I think it took us about an hour to get home, twice the regular time.

As usual, I worked at the office on Wednesday (23 September). Because the after-work gathering at the bar of the Holiday Inn next to our building had been such a success in May to celebrate my wedding, I had arranged for another such gathering (this time "just for fun", and everybody was paying for their drinks). Only four of us could make it, but it was a nice hour spent chatting with my colleagues.

It was still only 6:00 pm when I left the bar, and so I decided to walk home from Zuffenhausen. Like the evening before, local strains were still (or again) chaotic.

I took these sunset pictures starting at 7:10 pm and ending at 7:36 pm - it was breathtakingly beautiful, the colours were much more luminous in real life than what my phone's camera picked up:

I was back at the office on Thursday (24 September) but only for the morning. Around lunch time I took a train to Feuerbach where I had been invited to a conference of Data Protection Officers in the insurance industry. This particular meeting was new to me, and I didn't know what to expect. However, I must say it wasn't worth attending. The man who organised and MCed the meeting liked to hear himself talk more than anything, and he went off on a political rant every chance he got, whether it suited the discussed subject or not.

Still, something good came out of it: I met one of the professors who had taught me back in 2014, when I did my training for Data Protection Officer (DPO). He is semi-retired, not teaching at the academy anymore, but he is as alert and interested in  matters relevant to our work as before. During coffee break, we had a good chat and exchanged email addresses so that I can invite him to the meetings of the Stuttgart group of DPOs I organise several times a year.

Along the way between the train station and the conference venue

My Mum had invited me for her home-made savoury onion pie, a typical dish for our region at this time of year, so I went there after the conference. Delicious!

I worked from home on Friday (25 September) and had a quietly productive day. The opposite of it was the chaos at Stuttgart Main Station when I arrived there late afternoon. 

In the range of half an hour, six out of 10 trains were delayed, one was cancelled (at the bottom of the board), three had changed platforms. This, I'm afraid, is nothing out of the ordinary for Stuttgart on a Friday evening.

My trip to Offenburg was about half an hour late, and so my husband and I sat down to welcome the weekend with salad, cheese, bread and wine as late as 9:30 pm.

On Saturday (26 September) the village band were scheduled to perform at a traditional fête in a small village in the High Black Forest, about a 2-hour drive from O.K.'s village. Reiselfingen has less than 600 inhabitants and is within easy walking distance of the Wutachschlucht (Wutach Gorge), where O.K. and I went hiking nine years ago. Click here for my "main post" about that holiday.

This time we were not there for a hike. The musicians were of course in their uniforms and had to get ready for their performance as soon as we arrived. 

The venue

Only a small "fan club" this time - we've had more on other occasions.

The band getting ready

While they were playing, I sat for the first two pieces with the other spouses who had come along on the bus chartered for our group, and then went out for a little exploring on my own around the village.

Reiselfingen church

When I stood at one of the roads, a car with two ladies pulled up next to me. They asked whether I needed help, or was I looking for something? I needed neither help nor directions, I explained to them; I was just going for a stroll and would return to the fête shortly. Of course I thanked them for their kindness, and they drove on as I made my way back to the fête.

After the village band's performance, our musicians were free to eat and drink with us and we all listened to the band whose turn it was next. It was a nice, cheerful atmosphere with nobody overdoing things too much, and we were back on the bus and ready for the long ride home at 10:30 pm as scheduled.

While the ride there had been in beautiful sunshine and I had really enjoyed seeing the countryside in its early autumn colours, it was of course too dark to see much on the way back, and we were glad to reach the cottage at around 1:00 am.

Sunday (27 September) was the warmest day of the week, almost a little too warm for a proper hike, but we chose a long walk that would at least partly be in the shade of the woods. 

Starting right from the front door, we walked to the next village (Niederschopfheim) and from there to Oberschopfheim, into the woods to Lendersbach-Hütte (a shelter) where we had our sandwiches, from there to Diersburg and back to Hofweier, a total of 14.5 km. It was warm and therefore somewhat exhausting (especially the uphill bits), but I enjoyed it very much nonetheless.

Back home, we sat for a bit on the balcony before retreating inside - the mozzies were really pestering us, and it was getting dark fast. We ended the evening and the week early-ish as usual on a Sunday in view of the early start on Monday morning.