Hiking from Essen Stadtwald to Kettwig

Only a few weeks ago, I was saying summer was over. Today, winter arrived. Maybe it’s going to snow next week. Who knows.

The very reason was because there was this storm called Fabienne arriving in Germany exactly today. South of Germany must have been severely affected. Not because the center of storm was there, but because most likely, the German railway stopped working. Here around Düsseldorf, fortunately, it was not quite the case, but I was cursing the storm for bringing the rain exactly today and only today, although I should probably also say we must have been lucky to not have been affected by rain so much this year.

Anyway, watching the weather forecast this morning, I was almost hoping no one would turn up today, which I knew of course would never happen. Since the snow storm of last year, I hardly believe there’d be any weather that would entirely inhibit all the people to come. And this was pretty much the case today. On the other hand, it was also Jen’s last hike, so I couldn’t have cancelled it anyway.

The fact that there were quite a few people turning up might have been related to the short break of rain around the meeting time. As soon as we got on the train, it started to rain again.

You might remember me saying I bought a new pair of hiking shoes at the end of last year. They are still there and still in good shape. However, today I decided to take my umbrella and didn’t really care about taking hiking shoes. After all, it wasn’t raining so hard. Since I was ready quite early this morning, I went to the DB lounge, which is available to frequent travelers inside the central station (I feel old). I had a cup of coffee, left the place, and quickly realized that I had left my umbrella there. I went back, and it was already gone. I mean, I don’t so much care about the money that I lost for this loss, but still it gives me a weird feeling that it is often claimed these days here that the increase of refugees in Germany led to security problems in Germany. It’s not only the indigenous Germans who use the DB lounge, but it must have been someone who’s been here for a substantial amount of time in order to get the status of frequent traveler. So my umbrella is gone, on a rainy day, where I’d actually need it pretty much the entire day for the first time this year.

It’s been a long time since we were in the Ruhr region for a hike last time. I was happy to be near Düsseldorf and see something beautiful. It’s not really something that is crucial to me, but still I would like to share my first amazement of discovering beautiful things nearby, without even undertaking a long hour journey.

My wish to see something beautiful was quickly destroyed when we arrived at Essen-Stadtwald, as the rain continued falling down. My shoes were completely soaked. If at least I had had my hiking shoes, I might have still somewhat enjoyed the trail.

We had a break at a fancy restaurant on top of a hill. Right before we reached it, the rain briefly stopped, allowing me to have my lunch quickly outside, just to find out it was really only briefly. The staff at the restaurant obviously were trying to dodge us, seeing we were bringing only mud to the restaurant. It’s a bit sad that in such restaurants they don’t offer particularly good cakes.

Most all of the people actually decided to go back home after the break. We were maybe 7 or 8 after the break. There, actually the rain stopped. Somehow it happens often that the weather becomes better after the hike. On the other hand, I guess we never had rain after the break when it wasn’t raining before the break. Maybe there’s an explanation for that. Anyway, it was cold, extremely cold. That’s by the way the reason why there aren’t so many photos here, as I didn’t want to take out my phone.

After the hike, we had some time to stay in Kettwig, which is one of the most beautiful cities around Düsseldorf in my opinion. Having an ice cream after the hike in Kettwig has almost become a tradition for us.