I’d sometimes like to indicate a completed action in the past by using the Plusquamperfekt, as indicated in the title. Whenever I do this, I seem to get strange looks. I have a feeling that I am making some kind of conceptual mistake here.
For example, I wish to express that we did walk here, perhaps more than once, but have not done so for a while. A German colleague said the second expression of the following is used much more often than the first for such a sentiment.
Wir waren hier gelaufen.
Wir sind hier gelaufen.
My question is: why?