So then, let's continue with day 4.
We started by having a lovely breakfast at a really good bakery/café just two corners from our hostel. They also sold cakes with a twist - I present the "dream weight scale":
And someone decided to brighten up traffic signs.
This day was nearly free of stops, as we transitioned from the East to the West (Sauerland), and there's not much of interest in between. We managed to split up the group due to poor navigation, but reunited at the banks of the
Eder Reservoir. Well, what should have been the banks of the lake. It was missing
quite a bit of water - this nice meadow should have been flooded and it quite clearly hasn't been for some time. After the trip I read on the website of the reservoir that the water level is was about 15 metres below full capacity.
At the end of the day, we clearly ended up in Dutch-occupied territory, a.k.a. Winterberg, probably the most known vacation spot in the nearest skiable (used to be, anyway) hills from the Netherlands. Well... at their coast they often have German-language menus, so let's call it a draw.
Next day, lunch stop at the
Bigge Reservoir, which was in noticeable better shape than the Eder Reservoir. Before we had our group photo shot from the opening post, but I didn't take any pictures there.
After lunch,
@shad_68 decided to split, as this was reasonably close to home and Ringmeet was also within reach for just one evening's visit. So he
didn't get to climb the tower at the
Panarbora, some kind of forest educational centre or something.
Apart from the tower, they also had a path built through the forest at treetop height:
The quietness and closeness to nature was quite the change after driving around for a few days, and I found it really pleasant.
Up on the top of the tower, I could also relax, in stark contrast to getting up (and down), when I really suffered from vertigo.
Of course, this being essentially a 13-story building on top of a hill, we could see quite far:
And also look at our cars.
This concludes my recap. After the Panarbora,
@Adrian went on to bring
@calvinhobbes home, while the rest of us went on directly to Ringmeet, also skipping some of the Eifel roads we had initially planned. But the trip had been long enough and cold drinks from the frailer were waiting.
To summarize, it was a really great trip. Rather short at only about 1450 km for me, but in terms of roads much better than my not exactly low expectations. And the company was great! Thanks
@Adrian,
@calvinhobbes,
@leviathan,
@narf and
@shad_68 (in alphabetical order
)!