Scribblings of Robs

7 Jul 2010

Wander With Us

My little brother and I decided to go for a walk . We had no real route planned, we were just going to see where our walk took us. We packed a picnic, grabbed the camera and off we went into the sunshine. There were roses dotted all along our journey..

The old and new testament? Europe has a thing for churches we noticed. No really, they seem like big fans.

They also seem to have a thing for medieval architecture. In the middle of a park we found this daycare spot for kiddlywinks. Wonder if the architect had ever read Harry Potter?

We strolled up through the town and came across a summer flower market. Every morning the square is full of vendors convincing you to buy their brightly coloured wares. There’s also a vegetable market, but we missed that.

On every other street there is a beautiful building to admire. I feel like I am in the land of giant doll houses. I keep waiting for the large dog to come bounding round the corner.

We decided to see what was at the top of these stairs. Stairs we noticed, were also a popular German design feature. These ones seemed mysterious.

Well I didn’t see any talking Lions, so I didn’t think that they were the less publicized, ‘Green’ entrance to Narnia.  It was pretty though. It turned out that the stairs were mysterious… they kept multiplying. After a gazillion stairs we were only half way up!

After the epic stair climb, we found a shady patch under some trees, flopped down and had our picnic.

We then decided, in my infinite wisdom to follow these arrows into the forest and see where they took us. This worked rather well until we ran out of arrows and got a bit lost.

It was at this point that my intrepid explorer side-kick began to doubt my navigation skills. I said we should just continue on until we found another arrow. I was convinced it was the right way.  He was less so. We took a 20 Euro bet on it.

30 mins later, deeper into the forest and with my intrepid explorer side-kick confidently trying to increase the bet to 40 Euros, we came across a field of artistic, metal cows. They were pretty quirky and rather cute.

Thistles ??? Had we walked all the way to Scotland ? I admitted defeat ( aided greatly by the increase in spider webs we were experiencing) turned back and finally found the fork in the road that cost me 20 bucks.

We ended up back on the runners trail and found our way back to civilization. The trails are really great as every few hundred meters they have outdoor exercise equipment that you can combine with your run. This setup was to test your balancing skills….. I don’t think I’m cut out for a career as a tightrope walker

Back on the path home and back past another church. Their churches really are beautiful. I have often peeked inside them and the stained glass is breathtaking. I am not religious but I can admire beauty. I love looking at an old building like this church and wondering what life was like when it was newly built, before the roads, traffic lights, zebra crossings and app notifications popped up around it.

Today made me realise that more people need to take time out.

Time to just stop a while.

There’s a reason wander looks like wonder. Sometimes we just need to let go in order to open our eyes.

The world went and got itself in a big damn hurry ~ Brooks Hatlen (Shawshank Redemtpion)