November 2021 vacation month
November came and went by pretty fast, I didn’t really have the time to sit down and write a blog post. As the month of November for me was also a month of reflections and some self care. And those things are best done away from home (the Netherlands in this case).
In November I have been to Germany with my parents and to Switzerland finally visit one of my closest friends again. These were both travels that haven been postponed over and over again, since the pandamic started.
Oberhundem, Sauerland, Germany
Oberhundem is a small and old village that lies in the Sauerland at the western feet of the Rothaar mountain range at 412 meters above sea-level. The village has an castle from the 17th century, the Adolfsburg castle. Further its a small village and great to use as a base from where to go on hikes and exploring the area. Oberhundem is actually a village with lots of family memories. For at least 60 years my family on my mothers side, has been coming to Oberhundem and specifically hotel gasthof Zu den Linden. This started with a friendship between my great grand mother and the owner of the hotel. This friendship got passed on to my grandmother. Which then led to us going there as family for every large (wedding) anniversary of my grandparents. The last time I was there was in 2013, which also was the last time we were there with my grandparents, since then my grandfather has passed away and my grandmother can't travel any more due to her Alzheimer's.
This time around we stayed on one of the two tree houses of the hotel, which where really cosy and beautifully built.
Oberhundem lies in a valley where the small stream the Hundem flows. The mountain sides around the village are full with forests. Most of these forests contain trees for wood production and for Christmas trees. So its pretty much an industrial forest, this doesn't mean that it isn't pretty and that you can't go for a hike. Sure you do need to keep your eyes and ears out for any heavy machineries, but when you get to an area where there is no activity you really do get the feeling of being in the middle of nowhere.
Wisent wildness
For me one of the highlights of this vacation was our visit to the wisent wildness. The wisent wildnis is an area where the wisent has been reintroduced to roam free again on the Rothaarsteig (rothaar trail). An other name for wisent is the European bison, and until the middle ages they where native to western Europe. However the wisent were driven to extinction in this part of Europe by us humans. With projects like the wisent wildness, we humans reintroduce the species to their previous natural habitat. There are two areas where the wisent has been reintroduced in the Sauerland. There is a herd in the forests of Wittgenstein where the wisent is truly allowed to live wild and free, in this forest you would need to be very lucky to see them. The other is the wisent wildnis which does have a fence around the area where the wisent roam. The wildnis was created to give more people the change to see these animals in their natural habitat. They have 20 hectare of grounds to roam through and plenty of places to hide from view. There is a 3km path that goes through the wildnis which truly was a beautiful area to walk through and of course with a change to observe the wisent without disturbing them. The landscape you walk through is very diverse, from valley, over streams, through rocks, climbing hills and through dense forests. During the walk you'll come across many information signs in form of questions to gain more information about the wisent. In the dense forest part there is an exercise to train your observation skills, there are 10 hidden objects which do not belong in nature. And for the visitors the task to find the hidden objects. I think this was a great way to tackle observation skills and talk about pollution.
After a week of walking around in Oberhundem and the surrounding areas and towns it was time to go back home again.
Thun, Switzerland
A week after we returned from Germany, I left the Netherlands again to Switzerland. Due to the pandemic I had to postpone this trip over and over again, and now I could finally visit my friend again. The last time I visited her was in December 2018. Back then she was living in Ilanz and in the meantime she has moved to Thun. So it was time to explore a new area of Switzerland and that in late autumn, which made me hope for some snow! But I have to say one thing do not go to Switzerland in November. Seriously, most of the gable cars close either in the end of October/ beginning November, before the main season starts in December. What this means is that you are not really able to go up many of the mountains for a hike.
And that was the initial plan, to do a couple of mountain hikes. But to be honest the quiet week in Thun with some small hikes along the lake (Thunersee) were perfect as well. As it left for more time to really unwind and rediscover a calmness within me that I actually lost over the past few years. Sometimes you need to do very little to really relax and forget all your problems. We mostly achieved this by playing board games, bit of gaming and sometimes just sitting at the lake side and take in the gorgeous view around us, (if the clouds allowed us to see the surrounding mountains). The first few days I didn't see a single mountain just a bunch of clouds. I must say that I lost that calmness again when I returned in the busy crowded country that is The Netherlands, which is why I took so long to start writing this blog post.
Thun is a lovely and historic town located at the North-western end of lake Thunersee built in the late 12th century. With a castle overlooking the town, lake and mountains. Unfortunately when we were up the hill at the castle the only thing I got to see was the town and clouds.
Top of Europe
But what to do when you really want to go up a mountain and walk through the snow. Where can we go with snow by public transport. First find out where there is snow, luckily many towns higher up the mountains have a webcam so you can check for snow coverage. Only problem for us was, that even on nearly 2000 meter above sea-level no snow was to be found. And there was only one cable car option left, an expensive one. After much thought and looking at the weather forecast we decided to go for it, and go all the way up to 3475 meters above sea-level, to the so called top of Europe, Jungfraujoch. Jungfraujoch is a plateau with an observatory between the mountain peak of Jungfrau and Mönch. Jungrfrau and Mönch are part of a trio of mountains with the Eiger. There are interesting stories surrounding this trio of mountain peaks. The Eiger (3970m) was the first to be named in 1252, and can be translated to Ogre or man-eating-giant. The Jungfrau (4158m) was the second to get her name and can be translated to the virgin. The first mention of the Jungfrau was in 1577 in a book, where the writer assumes that the mountain peak is always covered in snow and ice and therefore got the idea that the peak is untouched. For a long time the Mönch didn't have a name, the name either came from the monks living on the feet of the mountain (Mönch means monk) or from the Munche horses who would spend the summer on the meadows in the shadow of the mountain. There is another story where the Eiger and Jungfrau are lovers but the Jungfrau is protected by the Mönch. These kind of folklore are always so interesting to read about.
Jungfraujoch is one of the highest points in Europe that is easy accessible, as it is home to the highest train station in Europe, the train station lies at 3454 meters above sea-level. The railway line goes from Kleine Scheidegg through the mountains Eiger and Mönch. Once you get out of the train and station there is an entire complex within the mountain, with the history of excavating the railway tunnel through the mountains, an ice palace with various ice sculptures and more.
The ice palace was amazing, but the absolute highlight was the view outside both on the plateau at 3475 meters and at the Sphinx observatory deck which is open for the public at a height of 3571 meters. The view from both of the plateaus is absolutely stunning on one side you can see The largest Glacier in the Alps the Aletsch glacier, on the other side you have an amazing view of the north of Switzerland and beyond.
I do want to give another tip if you ever get to visit Jungfraujoch, eat you lunch or snacks inside! Otherwise you wont eat anything, and the alpine chough (Pyrrhocorax graculus) will eat everything. It really was an amazing experience to be so high up in the mountains, previously my highest point I had ever been was at 2000 m above sea-level, at the Oberalp pass. It definitely was a once in a lifetime experience to reach such heights in Europe by train. I am still really glad that in the end we decided to go to the Jungfraujoch.
All in all I had two great vacations (finally), Where I walked quite a bit and could unwind and recharge my batteries. Can't wait to travel some more. Maybe even to a location that has an actual sea or even better to travel the seas. Will have to wait and see what 2022 brings.
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