Hiking from Kaiserswerth to Ratingen and Angermunder See!

Today, we saw that summer was already over.

I wasn’t here in the last two weeks. And it was extremely hot in the last two weeks. I was expecting a similar weather today, so I decided to go to Angermunder See this time, which is a lake near Düsseldorf, a very famous place where it’s forbidden to swim and everyone swims. Despite my very high expectations, however, the weather obviously did not want to follow me; we were having something like 20 degrees today. It is satisfactory for Germany, especially because there was no rain. Who wants more?

Angermund is technically still inside Düsseldorf. I’ve done this trail some time last year by bicycle. At that time, I did not know how to make hiking trails, so I wanted to make sure that I get the entire trail from the internet or I check it out myself. It wasn’t long after that that I realized it is really easy to make a hiking trail, but at that time I really appreciated my “luck” while cycling, thinking I got a really good trail by chance.

Anyway, I was somewhat looking forward to today’s trail regardless of the temperature. And I must say it was quite convenient to do a hike in Düsseldorf again, even if I’m not a big fan of riding a small subway train for a long time.

May is over, and we could see that the number of participants declined drastically, with maybe 20 people or so. This is related to how people organize their vacations here. Just as everywhere, schoolchildren have their vacations late July and in August, so families with children disappear in this period of time. University students usually have vacations before the new semester begins, so they disappear rather in September. We, those who work but don’t have children, usually take vacations now in June, in order to avoid collision with other social groups. I don’t know when I am going to go on holiday, which actually I don’t really need since I’m quite satisfied with the hikes that I organize every weekend. But I don’t have to be strategic either since if I go on holiday it’s gonna be an unusual place, like Armenia. Maybe mountain biking over there. Anyway, I have to think about it.

One of the main attractions of today was the castle in Kalkum, which is not particularly impressive but I thought it could give a different taste; it was being renovated and there was essentially nothing more than the fact that there was a large building.

At some point, we reached the other side of the airport, which I was aware of but I completely forgot about mentioning it in the event description. Of course the fence was completely closed but we could see the planes flying away and arriving. Flying itself is not a special experience anymore, but still the airport is a special area, and it is extremely rare to see the landing field without being inside the airport. Sajjad even suggested to stay there just to watch planes.

Half way through, we crossed a bridge that went over the railways. This was the only one place where we climbed somewhat. Then we reached the Angermund lake, which was not easy to find according to the map that I had. But probably it was a good thing because this must have led to the calmness without holiday goers that this lake offers, even though it has really beautiful beaches and clear water. Because of the temperature I did not bring my swimming stuff, but some others did. The water was actually not that cold. In the couch surfing event I had just mentioned that there was a lake, but I did not say it was possible to swim there, because I’m pretty sure that it’s officially forbidden in Germany and I don’t know what I’d be made responsible for if I write something like that in the event page as the organizer. Anyway, there was also someone who joined us for the first time and didn’t know that the possibility of swimming was there. He simply got naked and started swimming. It’s a normal thing in Germanic countries, although somehow it’s also normal in Japan as well. It might have appeared crazy to some people depending on where they came from.

I was busy with playing the guitar that I brought this time after quite some time, because I knew that there were a few Russian people and I still love singing Cheburashka with them.

Looking at the distance, it was that much today, but the trail got us really exhausted. It might be because it was flat all the time. We had a similar experience when we went to Marl-Sinsen (and I wasn’t the only one who had this impression). At that time, we thought it was because of the monotonous landscape, but that trail was also very flat. And since the landscape changed a lot today, I guess the flatness is a good explanation. In particular, I guess it’s important to use different muscles.

So I didn’t mention anything about one important thing right now: world cup. And today was the match between Germany and Mexico. We arrived in Ratingen right at the beginning of the match. And although Ratingen was a small city, it was large enough to enjoy the festive atmosphere during the world cup in Germany. The entire market place was filled with people. We stayed there for the first half and then we went back home. The match ended up with 1-0 for Mexico. Not because Germany lost, but the match itself wasn’t particularly exciting.

The trail can be downloaded from this link (kml-format) or this link (gpx-format)