I had a relaxed day ahead. My father was joining me in Düsseldorf and I was meeting a friend somewhere in the area, all that meant that I just needed to drive about 200 km.
I slept more than necessary. I had placed the tent under the shadow by luck, perfect! I took a shower and bought a sandwich for brunch. The sun was hitting hard but I didn’t have to wait even a minute, because a black guy offered me a lift while I was walking to find the right spot. He seemed nice at first and turned out to be a bit weird: at some point he said we did not have the need to talk, I was apparently being too curious… no problem. He meant he just wanted to help me, that was all. He didn't even want to tell me his name, I could call him ‘the driver’ :) His car was warm as hell btw.
The service area where we stopped, already in Belgium, was big and nice for my purpose, the driver had chosen it on purpose. After a very short waiting time a French guy with asian features picked me up. He was working and wanted to help me out. There was almost no communication at all. He was kind and cared about me, that was all. He didn't know much about hitchhiking, he actually wanted to leave me just on the highway!! So instead I had to be dropped of in the city of Liege, in the outskirts. It was not a good place, a roundabout where cars had little chance to stop.
I was not very optimistic, but it took me no more than 40 minutes to get a ride. A Belgium young woman (mané) in a small car full of stuff. It was a very short ride, but but absolutely useful. The service area I stopped at was again a perfect one!
My father was in Paris, planning to land in Düsseldorf at night. And I was planning to meet my friend also in Düsseldor and we would all meet the next day in Düsseldorf.
A nice Volvo driven by a German guy and his pregnant English partner was my next trip means of transport, destination Cologne. She had recently moved to Germany. He worked in Belgium and drove back to Cologne every weekend, Cologne was a lovely city they said. They suggested me to go to their city and hitchhike from there to Düsseldorf; it was not what I had planned but they knew more than I did. It turned out to be a perfect decision (at that point in time) because my friend called me saying that he could first meet me at around 10 pm and that he was not living in Düsseldorf but in Gummersbach, which is actually closer to Cologne than to Düsseldorf.
So there I was, in the southern side of Cologne (finally! In a city!) with a cool suggestion for dinner and around three hours to enjoy the city. This dreamt situation last… for 5 minutes. Just until the strongest storm I have seen in a long time began. I waited together with 10 more people under the small tram station. I was not feeling confident with my German yet, so I did not ask my way around and… I took the tram in the wrong direction :)
At least I got to see river Rhein! I was missing 3 cents to pay the ticket so I got off the tram earlier, just in case… I walked along the main typical deutsch shopping street and went directly to Gaffle am Dom. A typical huge restaurant full of people where I tasted the best dish so far: Himmel und aär: black pudding with mashed potatoes, onion and sauce. Watered with Kolsch: typical really nice beer. Simply delicious.
On that moment I was kind of on a cloud, flying… and of course all the stories are not like that…
I had couple of hours to wait for my friend, so I decided to go to a cafe and use my laptop to start writing this diary, for example. I found a McDonald's that suited my needs. I sat down on this high chairs, opened the iPad and read the email, some news and so on… when I decided to go for an ice cream and move to a smaller table… I realised that my small backpack was not there anymore… more was the laptop, the mobile phone, my girlfriend’s camera, rain pants, notebook, and so on… no!!
I did the common and useless move: go to the police. Useless. Luckily enough the iPad charger was still with me and I could contact my friend and family fast.
A long waiting time later my friend arrived. It was such a pleasure to meet him again. I had always known I was going to meet him again after DK, so it felt really natural to be there with him almost a year after our last time together in the cinema. We drove back to his house in the quiet Gummersbach. Always nice to be with my friend. I slept better than ever in this trip.