The days are grey, wet and dirty again when you are outside. I had to think back to a walk from last week. In for me personal an unknown area. Living the nomad live, sleeping in different houses every day. The Sunday was definitely a beauty. I will show you around. The rebellious part will become more clear while reading the post.
Hop on, hop off
A good German breakfast they said. Well, you might expect large beers and bratwurst, but it was just a lot of bread and cheese. Oh, and some fruit. Cuddle with the cats and we were ready to go. The day is full of shorter hikes today, because I had to see several parts of the area in just one day.
Hop Off No. 1: The old town of Dreieich and a walk around Burg Hayn. A few streets full of typical German half-timbered houses. A lot of ice-cream shops, although with -8 degrees Celcius and a lot of snow they were not keen on opening their shops. A walk around the remains of a former castle, was the last part of this short hike around town.
We continued the journey. Driving on the roads today feels relaxing. Trees covered with white powder. The sun made the scenery even more white. Everywhere it felt peaceful and quiet. I just had to filter out the sound of the cars sometimes.
Hop Off No.2: We arrived at Schlosshotel Kronberg, a former castle build between 1889 and 1893. Today this place is a luxury 5-Star hotel and restaurant. Surrounded by a golf course. There is a luxury spa and you can rent Porches. Besides the spa, I am not interested in any of these. So let's do a little hike here...
...Oh nooo! I am not allowed to walk here...
Only guests and staff. Let's go back to the car and leave right? Fuck it, no one is able to drive their golf cart on the snowy course today. In fact, I didn't see anyone outside in the park or on the golf course. The scenery is beautiful. Let's run & roll, be a rebel. Rolling in the snow, like a golf ball over the court. This is not really rebellious, I know. So after a nice walk around the area, I was a bit bored. Let's get back to the Porsche...uhm simple Mercedes and leave. I look like a homeless person with my current haircut and dirty wet jacket. I almost forgot, officially I am homeless.
Hop Off No. 3: The town of Kronberg. My girlfriend wanted to show me the best views from the lovely castle of Kronberg. I trusted her. I hope she realizes, I've seen quite a few impressive castles during my travels. A stroll around town, a lot of coffee places and it felt like I was in Spain. Spanish speaking people all over the place. The half-timbered houses, high prices and snow got me back to reality. Walking up higher and higher, to reach the castle of Kronberg. And there it is...a big grey ugly metal gate blocking the road. A sign said "Closed during winter season". Hmm, let's see...climbing over the fence would be a rebel thing right? Is it worth it? I was not impressed that much from the first views on the castle. Let's go back, get a nice coffee and continue the hop on hop off hiking day. Somewhere we got lost in the little alleys, getting distracted by all kind of things and totally forgot to spend a fortune in the coffee places. We really got lost in the underground labyrinth of the parking garage. It felt like discovering an old underground tunnel system in the bunkers, when I was a kid. We managed to find the bunker where the car was hiding, and left the darkness.
Hop Off No. 4: While driving the roads earlier that day, I saw a part in the forest where I wanted to stop. The combination of different trees and snow attracted me. But it was getting cloudy, would the spot be still nice without direct sunlight? Let's stop and park the car in the forest. I took my camera and for some reason I only used my smartphone to make pictures. It was getting colder. I was climbing over some tree logs, walking through deep snow to get to this magic spot. No one here, snow al over, hardly any foot steps, no dogs and there it was...the sun throwing an early golden hour. I know, some of you might expected a golden shower when you are used to my stories...sorry, the story is not that naughty this time. Anyway, they call it a golden hour and I didn't really realize that I already spent a long time alone on this spot. I heard someone yelling. Oops, my girlfriend was all the time waiting outside next to the car and thought I had to take a big dump. When I finally got back, she looked more like Rudolph the Rednose Reindeer. She looks pissed... Should I take the piss, can I make a joke about a golden shower now and warm her up? Maybe it's better to continue the hike, I am still not convinced Germans have a good sense of humor.
Going too far
So there wasn't really rebellious stuff in this story right. Exactly! Here I come to the point. 2 days ago I was in The Netherlands. Reading or watching the news is for me a certain kind of entertainment these days. But, on several media platforms an article got my attention: "You need to pay to make pictures in nature". First, I though this is a typical stupid fake story in Facebook. But several main newspapers were talking about it and mentioned that 'Natuurmonumenten' changes the rules and starts to ask money if you want to make pictures in nature. 'Vereniging Natuurmonumenten' is a Dutch nature conservation organization. It owns a large number of nature area's in the Netherlands. I could still not believe the story, so I went to their website. While scrolling down there they invited people to join a photo contest in nature...Now I was really lost. After some research it became clear, this organization is changing the rules from the 1st of January 2025. They say that the nature areas (including forests), are getting too busy. People are doing photoshoots, too many influencers making their content and so on. From 2025 you need to ask permission to do a photoshoot or make content, and you have to pay a fee. The fees are not clear and it can be different in each area. Ok, so the cops won't jump on my back, when I walk around with a smartphone or camera in the forest...nice. I almost felt like a true rebel today. But, there is more changing. More rules from 2025. They actually come up with so many rules, they can not put it on one simple sign. They will start placing yellow signs with all activities that are allowed in that area. If an activity is not mentioned on a sign (for example a golden shower under a tree), then it is not allowed. Just a few examples of the new rules: you are not allowed to leave the track or walk over plants (that can be quite difficult in a forest), you are no longer allowed to scatter ashes in nature, you are not allowed to do ceremonies (my horror mind is going crazy at the moment) or therapy in nature, drones are forbidden. And the last one is interesting: you are not allowed to walk in nature with more than 3 dogs, otherwise the dogs will think the are in a pack and behave like that. I am not a big fan of barking dogs, but some people seem to have lost themselves in the love for crazy rules. This brings me to the last hilarious decision in the Netherlands. In my opinion some people watched to many werewolf movies...ok, are you ready? Since a few years nature is doing so well, the wolf is spotted more often in our tiny country that once was covered by water. The wolf attacks sheep at nigh, when the sheep walk free in the open nature. That's NATURal behavior. And there are ways to protect your sheep at night. But that's not the biggest issue where it's all about. The wolf seems to be used to people. The wolf is spotted even when people are around, they walk on the tracks that are made for humans. Wooooow...the wolf is definitely ar rebel! And that makes some people scared. The wolf is used to people and there hasn't been one single attack (now think about all the attacks by human owned dogs all the time). A judge decided now after several court cases, that it is allowed to shoot a wolf with a paintball gun, to change its' behavior. I will let you have your own opinion...
This means; from now on, you are not a rebel anymore when you walk around with a big gun. You just have to say it's a paintball gun and you are chasing the wolf. OWOOOOOOO!
You see, the post has some rebellious stuff, it wasn't clickbait. It was not all about the golden (s)hour. I hope you've enjoyed the short walks and images. See you next time!
