Guten Tag und Auf Weidersehen

Our final day with GSE was spent in the lovely old town of Oldenburg via train from Varel. For me it was also a test run on how well I could navigate trains as that will be our main mode of transportation beginning in 2 days. It worked well. We had a great summary meeting of gse focused on our personal learnings and appreciations of each other. This team has been a team and worked so well together since day one of our planning. We all realized that our planning and preparation paid off especially when there were unexpected changes. Everyone stepped up to the needed tasks. Oldenberg was another great day of enjoying the sights and tastes of northern Germany- a place and people none of us knew about before gse and now has fallen in love with.

The GSE experience is like no other. It allows you to live in a culture, experience it frst hand as our hosts opened their homes and hearts to us. They showed us the best of their businesses and innovations, alternative energy for now and the future, their rich and sometimes painful history and so much more. And fed us very well. We have eaten the best breads, yummy kuchens, not too sweet sweets- they use less sugars and enjoy the flavors more, vonderful fish, and yes some wurst- especially curry wurst. We often had the traditional bread, cheese and meat breakfast, a warm mid day meal and abend brot- the evening meal much like fruhstuck- breakfast. Spargel, schinken and neu Kartoffel was one my favorite meal swhich my last hosts Volker and Heide-Marie served just before we left.

The key ingredient for the success of this gse experience is/was Rotary! Rotary funded it. Rotary international and our local sponsoring clubs. Rotarians planned and coordinated our selection, orientation, gave advice, planned our visits, hosted us and made this a truly meaningful and wonderful experience. Key coordinators were John Hough in District 5020 in WA and CA and Hans-Juergens Gennert in District 1850 in Germany and our local Rotary club coordinators, Gitta Dawris in Bremerhaven, Remmer Edwardz in Emden, Bernd Reichers in Burchausen-Vilsen, Hans Ulrich in Wildeshausen and Volker Harjehusen in Varel Friesland. We appreciate all you did to make this experience possible from planning and driving to being sure that we were comfortable and in rich learning situations and of course being our chauffers or drivers of the "nap van" as that was a place to catch up on sleep.

Each of us grew in our understanding of our cultural commonalities and developed a deep appreciation of our differences. My deepest appreciation to all of you who made this possible. That includes Rotary spouses and families too, and often extended families who hosted us. Your sharing made this a very rich experience.

• Lastly to our families Veilen Danke. Our spouses Kristie, Matt and Richard were our biggest supporters. Thank you for sharing our journey. Greg is headed home today to a hearty welcome from his three children and wife Kristi, Kim is off to travel and explore Germany and perhaps beyond for a month, Fred has his backpack and is off to explore more of Germany and Europe, Angela leaves for a week of travel in Norway and the Netherlands and Richard is joining me today for three weeks of hobbling around Germany and then the Netherlands. You may see blogs from us here as we journey or may find a link to another blog of our travels. Not all we experienced was recorded here as we were busy experiencing it and our schedules left little time to blog, hope you enjoyed what we were able to share. Thanks for following us and as the Germans say tschuss- or auf weidersehen und gute Reiese to the travellers Kim, Fred and Angela and willkommen Zuhaus Greg.

Rosemary