The list of walks is slowly starting to get longer, and there are a couple of walks of interest this weekend.
The walk in Limburg an der Lahn, Germany, should be an exceptional volksmarch. This is a beautiful city surrounded by very pretty countryside. There are hills on the routes and they might be slippery, so be careful. In addition to the regular trails, Limburg has an 11-km Old City Walk starting between noon and 3 p.m. Saturday. We met several friends last year for this walk and had a very nice time. There were plenty of photo opportunities in the old city with the winding streets and timber-framed houses. There were a lot of stores open as well, so the souvenir hunting was good. We plan to do the Old City Walk again this year.
Sunday’s walk in Riederich, Germany, is a "Stammtisch" walk for the Stuttgart German-American Wandering Club. Look for the club’s blue flag at the start hall and go up and say, “Hi!” You can start the 7- and 11-km trails between 7:30 a.m. and 1 p.m. Finish before 4 p.m.
Despite the rainy weather, we finished 2012 on a strong note and rolled that momentum into 2013.
The Saturday after Christmas we did the Marche des Crèches, in Gemmenich, Belgium. The sun actually came out for a while and we thought about how this was the first time we did this event when the sun was shining. We have done it in the rain and in the snow and now, finally, in the sunshine. That’s the good news; the bad is that there seemed to be fewer crèches again this year.
e saw seven on the 6-kilometer trail. We hope there were more on the 12-kilometer routeThe next day we were at the Oliebollentocht in Simpelveld, Netherlands. The rain was back, but that did not deter the small group from the Tri-border Walking Club from hitting the trail. Toward the end of the walk the rain stopped and the sun started to come out a little. We all recalled how we did this walk two years ago in 12 inches of fresh snow and brilliant sunshine. Now that was a great walk!
New Year’s Day found us in Linde-Peer, Belgium. Still some light rain, but the temperature was in the 50s! This event was pretty crowded as many people wanted to get in their first walking event of 2013. We remembered how muddy this event was last year and with all the recent rain knew it was probably going to be very muddy again, so we opted for the 5-kilometer handicapped route hoping it would be paved. It was paved all the way and while it rained for most of the walk, we did not have mud to deal with.
We think we ended on a strong note, finishing three of the four events we hoped to do over the holiday break.
Email volksmarch information to two.walkers@yahoo.com. Mail brochures to Bob and Lorraine Huffaker, CMR 460, Box 278, APO AE 09752.
