
Hiking from Nierenhof to Hattingen and Christmas market!
We saw a relatively dry November this year. Unfortunately, we saw its limit today. And so, there were significantly less people than usual. The difference with last year’s case is that the weather was constantly bad there, so that people still anyhow turned up. But this year, it was fairly okay until last week, so we saw a strong drop today. Anyway, after finishing two bottles of Beaujolais Nouveau from 2005 and 2006 yesterday, it was certainly not the most encouraging moment for me either.
We were headed for Velbert-Nierenhof, which requires a change at Wuppertal-Vohwinkel. When I was making the train plan, there were two possibilities: one of them had only 9 min and the other around 15 min at Wuppertal. I took the one with 15 min, which was for other reasons a bit less convenient, but 9 min appeared too risky too me.
And here comes Deutsche Bahn: they made an unannounced change to the schedule this morning, making our train depart 5 min later (which of course they did not call a delay). And this one got a delay of about 10 min on the way between Düsseldorf and Wuppertal, where there was no stop. We missed the connection. On this cold day, we were forced to wait for the next one leaving at Wuppertal on a platform where it was raining just as much as elsewhere outside.
Anyway, those who had arrived at Nierenhof waited for us. And so we started hiking.
After the hike of last week, which I was telling everyone would be disappointing (which in the end wasn’t really the case), I came to today’s hike with quite high expectations. Anywhere between Wuppertal and Essen has been quite successful so far. And so did today’s trail also offer beautiful scenery,.., only if it wasn’t as foggy. Every now and then there were spots which I think would have been perfect ones over large fields. Nevertheless, I took some pictures. For later couch surfing events I can certainly Photoshop them and they’ll look perfect.
Because of the weather, I did not bring my lunch and my blanket. There was just one Italian restaurant, whose owner was Italian — I mean, really Italian. I wonder what it is like for him to launch so many jokes in front of local Germans.
Yes, this was the very first wintry hike this year, cold and wet. And just as last year, I didn’t much dislike it; it is just a different kind of experience. It was maybe even what I’d anyway have preferred at the Christmas market at the end of the hike, with this year’s first Glühwein. I’m pretty sure I wasn’t the weirdo, as apparently everyone liked it as it was.

Hiking at Krefeld!
New website
You May Also Like

Hiking around Marienheide
August 15, 2021
Hiking from Essen-Kettwig to Stadtwald!
September 15, 2019