Hiking around Hattingen and Christmas market!

The cold wave that came a few weeks ago is still around. Probably it’s not going to be this cold this winter anymore. Accordingly, among the people who signed up hardly anyone appeared. Of course, in my case there’s no choice, but also I was kind of looking forward to the Christmas market in Hattingen, which I visited a few years ago last time. In my memory it was the best one in VRR.

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I got this 30-day ticket this month, as I’m working at the university of Bochum right now. So I went to the train station in the last moment. As I said, since there was hardly anyone, it didn’t make much sense to try to find the group today.

And warm applause to the German railway, for changing the platform of out train from Essen central without registering it in the internet. There was at least one person who missed the connection because of this. It was a crazy year for all of us, and it’s remarkable that the German railway still managed to screw up until the very last event of the year.

From Hattingen, we did the simplest thing we could do from there: walk along the Ruhr. It was marked as a hiking trail, but it was also a cycling lane at the same time. As I had already guessed it, I always had in mind that we’d have to go this path only in winter, when there are not so many cyclists. Today, in this freezing temperature, there was almost no bike on the way. The only ones there were also fairly professional, meaning they knew what they were doing (not like some of those e-bikers…). The trail on the map above strictly follows the cycling lane in the beginning. In reality, we made a few detours, as they offered more nature.

There was this Blankenstein castle on the way, which I had seen before I posted the event, but then I thought it wouldn’t be particularly interesting, but following Thomas’s recommendation we still went there. It was actually open to public and we could climb up the tower. You can have a great view over the surrounding area, even if it’s only the Ruhr area…

Around there, there were a bit of up and down. To be honest it was a bit unexpected for me as well. We had a break right after the castle, where there was a restaurant. I stayed outside with a few people, while most of the people went inside to have a warm meal. But to be honest it was not so cold in that moment, so it didn’t bother us to stay outside and wait.

Hattingen was just as beautiful as always, but this year everything was extremely expensive. As I had far more than enough hot wine, I took a few photos and left.

So much for the final hike of this year. Looking back on several moments, it was such a dynamic year – starting from the first winter hike, first trip abroad, first week-long trip. So far I have planned only the Porto trip for next year, but I’m looking forward to what’s gonna come!