And one time when I really appreciate that saying is when I'm off for an early morning walk, which today started at 8.05 a.m. when I arrived at the S-Bahn station in Gerresheim. Off I strode and before long, I was on this magnificent ridge walk, with the ground sweeping down on either side ,even though I myself had barely climbed any height. The trees rose almost alarmingly high above me and I got the feeling that I was in some green cathedral. I passed only one woman and her dog.
Then I came out into open fields with beautiful dips in the ground and curves to the pathway and a view over Erkrath. I stopped to chat with a man with two Australian sheepdogs. Curving round the town and passing its swimming pool complex, I swung right and was once again surrounded by trees that rose so high it made me dizzy just to gaze at them. I had to tilt my head so far back I thought it would drop off.
And finally, after descending a slope and walking along a road for a few hundred metres, I passed the site where the remains of the Neanderthalers were first found. I walked up past the museum and had just a 10-minute wait for a train back to civilisation. I had walked 11 km in 3 hours.
Not many people were around because the day was a bit cold, windy and overcast. By the time the train came, though, lots of people were getting off at the station or parking their cars, off on a walk of their own. I was glad I had set off early and had had all that lovely countryside nearly to myself. Truly the morning does have the 'golden hours' of the day.
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