Hiking around Ratingen!

It was my third hike back in 2017 after I arrived in Düsseldorf that I organized a hike around Ratingen. At that time I really had no idea how to organize a hike, and if I remember well we walked on the asphalt pretty much all the time. This time, since the weather was not being particularly good, I put an event there again, with a maybe slightly better trail.

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There were quite some people signing up despite the weather and the temperature, maybe because of the vicinity to Düsseldorf and Essen. Well, this being said I guess there were less people showing up in the end.

Ratingen Ost is (as the name indicates) on the Eastern edge of Ratingen, and since we were going farther to the East, I thought we could directly start hiking today. As it turned out, we had to walk quite a distance before leaving civilization. Besides we walked in the opposite direction today. I hope no one went in the original direction.

This area, sandwiched between the Ruhr and the Wupper, has a nice mixture of fields and super artificial forests. And so it was the perfect trail to go on a day like today, when we don’t want to mess up with the outfit.

There were still a few roads on the way that I could recognize from the very first hike. At that time I really didn’t have an idea of where we were going, and also didn’t really know where we could have a break. This time, we had a relatively clear idea of having a break at Homberg, which was a small city in the middle of the hike.

Today, at some point we started creating three separate groups. First there was a group that was much faster than the rest of the group. In the group left behind, some people continued walking, while some of us stayed at the church of Homberg. It was a nice place, but it was fairly wet and cold.

This being said, there was a super clean toilet right next to the church (free access). I really cannot complain about it.

We then caught up the fastest group, which was having a break at the golf club. Apparently they were picnicking in front of it, but then the staff in the hotel let them in, and they were apparently also allowed to eat their own food. It’s true that there was hardly any customer anyway, but that’s still really nice of them.

We then walked through the golf ground. Obviously there was no one playing golf in this weather, but for walking it was actually very comfortable.

There was a bit of a highlight today: Towards the end of the hike, there were some people selling honey and liqueur. While they were there to sell stuff, they also started offering liqueur to us. So every one of us could get a shot (or some more). Apparently some people also bought honey and some drinks, but anyway it was a bit of a festive atmosphere.

Almost as soon as we reached the train station a train arrived. So perfectly organized!