Hiking from Velbert Langenberg to Hattingen!

The weather is horrible in Germany in winter, but every year, there are a few days right in the beginning of a year that we get a really good weather. That was pretty much the case today – clear blue sky with a little bit of clouds. It was VERY cold today, but such a perfect day for a hike.

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And so it was hardly surprising that there were a lot of people signing up. In the Telegram group there were close to 50 people, and I think there were indeed something like 30 people joining.

Unfortunately, many of the people who joined today did not have a ticket, and on the way to Langenberg, I guess some people had to pay to get a ticket. I didn’t get one in the group either, but luckily I got one at the platform, for talking to a random guy there. And actually I even started talking to this guy, and we sort of became friends. I’m gonna write to him during the next week. 🙂

At Wuppertal-Vohwinkel, we always take this S9 line from platform 12 in order to go to the Velbert area. This time, however, there was a train going exactly in the opposite direction at platform 12, so that we almost got on that train and went to Wuppertal central. It means they were using the same platform for both directions, which makes no sense, because they were also using platform 11 for Wuppertal central, and it was also super dangerous. No wonder that there are deadly train accidents in Germany.

We have been to Langenberg a few times. Some people told me that we have done this initial part already a few times in the last few months. It’s winter, and therefore there are not so many places that we can visit without a problem, and I’m still waiting for the 49€ ticket which would allow us to go everywhere. Until then, we will have to keep seeing similar tracks over and over again.

This being said, I still found it really nice to be able to be in the forest almost right from the beginning. It was a long uphill walk first – we are here for a real walk, so why not.

As you can see on the map above, there were some up and down all the time today. At the same time, there was a really good mixture of forests and fields on the way today. Especially on a day like today, it was spectacular to see a vast field after a long forestal way, to see a bright blue sky and large green field.

The weather was a bit unstable in the last few days, so the ground was fairly muddy. Some people were slipping away. I hope no one fell down.

Right before the break, we walked along the path that we did last autumn. Some people saw it immediately. I guess it was also a nice weather like today.

We had a break at Haus Friede, where my orchestra stayed around a year ago. We were in a yet other height of a corona wave, so we had to go through a whole range of restrictions. Now, since the beginning of the month we are not obliged to carry a mask anymore. What a change in a year.

Since we had already done more than half, some people had a break elsewhere, so you don’t see everyone on the group photo above. The place where we had a break had already a recreation area. Perfect condition for such a large group.

We were going through a very large field after we left the site at Haus Friede. The sky was just as blue as during the rest of the day. Then we walked through a patch of forest. When we reached the outskirts of Hattingen, I had the feeling that it was one of the best hikes in the last few months, but that was probably also largely due to the fact that the weather was extremely good. This being said, the trail was also fairly good.

When we reached the train station, the train had just left. So I had enough time to go to the city center to get ice cream. The first one of this year. Yeah!