Winter Wonderland 2021

 Winter Wonderland in Göttingen and the Harz Mountains

  This year 2021 started with a few snowy adventures. At this time, I alreay knew, that I have to move to another city for a new job soon, so it was a pleasure for me to enjoy the last months in Göttingen, where I lived for ten years. Luckily, I could enjoy the winter months with a lot of snow walks in Göttingen and the Harz area. At first, I went to my favorite place - a small grove between Göttingen and Bovenden - along the Leine river. Usually, it was my relaxing place in the summer season for reading books in a quiet surrounding, just listening to the water flow. But this winter, I realized, how amazing this place is also during the cold season. Even if it was a cold and cloudy day, I stayed there until the darkness, thinking about my future and where I could live in the future. That's the place, I'll definitely miss the most there.

  Moreover, I made many walks in the forest area of Weende. I often tried to walk there with my friends to have some interaction, since I was usually busy with writing my job applications. It helped me a lot to get a free mind, not thinking about the applications the whole time. While being in the nature, I often felt so free and happy and could forget all the stress around me. And with the snow, the nature looked even more amazing!

  Then, the February came with a massive snow chaos in the city. All public transportations were stopped in the whole city and the snow level was up to my knees outside ot the city centre. But while thinking about the time, I'm happy, that I could see a snow-covered Göttingen in my last months in the city. I felt like in a snow paradise, when I walked through the beautiful old town of the city, passing by all the places, I started to love, because of my ten-years memories like the Gänseliesel Fountain - the place of the P.h.D. ceremonies or the Wilhelmsplatz - where I used to meet friends in summer for having a beer. I also walked around the university square. To be honest, the snowy square was really nice, but not as amazing as during the cherry blossom period in the spring season. I also took the chance to do walks outside of the city again to explore different parts of the nature in the close surroundings of Göttingen, where I could also find new amazing places with spectacular views.

   A new year means also new hiking adventures. Directly in the new year, I started my first hiking trip to Oker, a borough of Goslar in the Harz area. The first surprise was, that it started to snow during the train ride between Göttingen and Goslar, but luckily, I was well-prepared for the cold. So I started hiking and soon after passing by a nutcracker statue, I arrived in the Oker Valley nature. It snowed more and more and so, I decided to build a snowman on the forest path. After a little bit of fun with building the snowman, I continued my hiking trip to the Adlerklippe, a cliff, where it's possible to climb up.   Since it was too slippery, I just went up the stairs to the observation point of the cliffs. After enjoying the view, I planned to hike to my next destination - the Oker Dam - but unfortunately, the hiking trail was closed and controlled by the police, because of too many snow and too many tourists, who went to the Harz area by car for skiing. Since it already got very cold, I reversed to the train station and went back to Göttingen.

   

  A few days later, I went to Goslar again to enjoy more of the snow in the Harz mountain area. After arriving at the train station in Goslar, I took the bus to Hahnenklee to visit the beautiful Gustav Adolf Stave Church, which looked even more impressive with the surrounded snow and the icicles, growing from the roof of the church. I also discovered some more special details, engraved into the wooden walls. Then, I enjoeyd a wonderful walk in the Winter Wonderland to the top of the Bocksberg, the 727 metres high local mountain of Hahnenklee. Unfortunately, it got foggy on the top, so I couldn't take the downhill route with my sledge and I decided to take a path back to the bus station for going back to Goslar. It was definitely an amazing winter to say goodbye to Göttingen.