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February 29, 2024

February Recap: In quest of cake (or cookies)

I stuck around close to home in order to help my Mom settling into her new surroundings. Thankfully she can count on a supportive family while continuing to process her new reality.

A hike on the Volcanic Panorama Trail (Vulkan-Panorama-Weg)

Priory ruins Buchholz

View on Castle ruin Olbrück


Wolf gorge and caverns

View on Burgbrohl village

A museum train ride with hubby on the "Vulkan-Express" which included catering with mulled wine, pea soup and cake.





The ever present castle ruin Olbrück

The next hike is leading me to one of the highest peaks in the region, with 530+ meters not very impressive but it doesn't get much higher in the area. A nice motivation for this was a hikers' inn on top of the mountain Steinerberg.





Another weekend, another hike: This time starting in Sinzig, a city on the banks of river Rhine. The late start made me walk into the night. (no cake but dinner at home this time)





Another day, another hike, again I am drawn to the hikers' inn on the Steinerberg and found a different trail to get there.






After work I chose a hike along the river Ahr, which turned out to be a bit of a challenge as hiking trails and bridges were still not fully restored or plain missing after the flood that took place in summer 2021, alas the coffee place was closed on Mondays.




no bridge... a.k.a. taking a detour







On the final weekend I encountered what we call "April weather" with temps in the single digits (°C), and a mix of sun, clouds, rain and sleet. The trail had been slicker than Teflon, but I managed without major issues and got rewarded with a local goodie called Printen, some kind of cookie made from gingerbread, and coated with dark chocolate and almonds.










I did put 150 clicks under my belt this month, for this time of the year a new score in my books given that we should have gotten snow and icy temps. But meteorologists say that had been the warmest February since... ever.

7 comments:

  1. Nice "blurring" shots of the running water. Nice pics overall as usual. Good to see you two out and about.

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    1. Thanks Dom, Roland tries to avoid these outings as much as possible but sometimes I make him walk with me ;-)

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  2. Love the cave photos Sonja - superb. Are they old lava tubes or formed by water?

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    1. Hi Geoff, the rock material is indeed of volcanic origin, but the caves are man-made. The Romans and later the Dutch mined this so called Tuff which is compacted volcanic ash for construction purposes.

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    2. Thank you for that! We have lava tubes in the Auckland area!

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  3. wieder so schoene Fotos, danke dafuer denn so lern ich Deutschland am Bildschirm auch besser kennen :-). Ich hoffe, Deiner Mama geht es soweit gut? Wohnt sie bei Euch in der Naehe?

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    1. Ich bin auch immer noch begeistert von der Eifel. Irgendwie fühle ich mich hier am ehesten zuhause (na gut, mit Ausnahme von Port Moody...). Meine Mom ist guter Stimmung, auch wenn sie immer weniger weiß, was war und keinen Blick in die Zukunft mehr werfen kann. Sie fühlt sich wohl, wo sie ist und das ist das Wichtigste. LG SonjaM

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