Tour of Paderborn

The town of Paderborn is much larger than I thought it would be. You can't exactly walk the town (ex. Nik's baseball field is about 3 miles from his house). So, Nik and Danny's form of transportation is a couple of bikes they purchased from the train station. Danny has a basket on the back for his gear and Nik's, well it doesn't really have breaks. Actually is does, but they are the kind you have to push backwards on the pedals. Luckily, there aren't any hills around here, so as long as he gives himself some distance he is just fine. We decided to borrow Danny's bike for Nik and myself to venture out to see the town. He took me to the main square, where all of the main shopping is. Since I don't have any clothes we did a little shopping for some exercise shoes, a few shirts from H&M and looked for a sports bra. Nothing is more hilarious than trying to tell a sales person you are looking for a sports bra. We don't know the German word for it, so we did a lot of hand motions and sharaid type gestures. It was pretty much a lost cause, apparently people don't workout much around here. We had some good laughs though making the effort.

Cathedrals are plentiful in these parts of the world. There is one everywhere you look. Paderborn fits right into this profile. In the downtown area, there is a beautiful Gothic style Cathedral. It was originally built in 1212-1280, but had to be rebuilt a few times from destruction in wars. We parked our bikes and decided to guide ourselves through the church. Beautiful is an understatement. Since I studied Architecture in college, seeing the types of buildings I studied is very exciting to me. Nik commented that he liked how excited I get when I see all of these things. It is like I am constantly going, "Wow, look at that. Oh cool, over there." I guess I just really appreciate the fact that I am here and I have always dreamed of coming to Europe.

Later Nik and I had some ice cream (I guess it is more gelato) at a local restaurant. We sat in the downtown square people watching, enjoying the beautiful weather and we had some great conversation. It is really a moment in life I will remember forever. One thing that I absolutely love here is all of the restaurants have huge outdoor patios. Everywhere you look there are people enjoying each others company over coffee, dessert, food or a beer. Every table is packed and the atmosphere is super relaxed.

When we walked in Nik's house after returning from our adventure, I looked on the floor to see a huge black bag. It took me a minute to register, but IT WAS MY BAG!!. I couldn't believe it. Delta came through and delivered my bag to his house. Hallelujah!! I was so excited. That meant I could return the stuff I bought and I had all of my goods, plus all the stuff I brought Nik. I brought him 3 new bats, catching gear, peanut butter, protein powder, Tapatio hot sauce and new cleats. He was so thankful, but almost more happy for me because I had all of my things.

Nik and Danny had to go to practice, so I decided to run along with them while they rode there bikes. It was a good run, keeping up with the boys plus I got to see their field. I watched them at practice for about 10 minutes (I didn't want to impose) and then ran back to the house. Totalling about 6 miles.

That night we invited Danny out to dinner with us. The only problem was we only had two bikes. So, I sat on the back of Nik's and held on tight. We looked so silly riding around and Nik kept joking that he was taking me on a date, picking me up on his sweet ride. It really was pretty cute. We stopped at a Pizzeria and each enjoyed our own whole pizzas. They were delicious! Ordering was a little bit more of a challenge. I could not read anything on the menu, so I basically closed my eyes, pointed my finger in the air and dropped it on something on the menu. I ended up loving what I got, so it was well worth the risk.