This week I also spent at home in Berlin. It was a mixture of planning, biking, cooking and relaxing. I also squeezed in some time for videogames.
Biking Tour
On my bike I explored the Erpetal. I had been there once a few years ago, but afterwards found out that I only saw a small part of it. So, this time I tried to follow it for as far as possible. It’s not the easiest trail to take as there is a lot of sandy terrain, but the sights totally make up for it. Just 10 minutes from my home I suddenly found myself surrounded by natur while driving along a small creek. When I reached the end, I decided to take a bit of a detour on the way back and looped around to the Wuhletal hiking trail, which is my standard go-to when I have no other ideas. I can definitely recommend this route if you don’t mind going a bit slower.
First Vacation
As I am writing this, I’m on board an ICE train to Nürnberg. This starts my first vacation of this Sabbatical. My plan is to spend a few days in Nürnberg, of which I have heard many good things, but which I have never visited before. Afterwards, I will drive further South to Austria, where I haven’t been in years. I hope that mountain scenery will inspire my to pick up my camera again, but also that I can find some serenity to do some thinking.
In a combination of embracing my procrastination and trying something new, I decided not to book my stops in advance. I only have the train ticket and a hotel booking for two days in Nürnberg. Usually when I’m out and about all day, I am quite drained in the evening. So, I will try out how it works, if I plan the next leg of my journey somewhat spontaneously in the evening. This is especially interesting, because I would not call myself a very spontaneous person. Maybe I will regret this decision at some point…
The realization that has me quite excited, however, is that compared to other vacations, this one does not really have a fixed time window associated with it. I do not have to be back at a specific point in time and neither do I feel the need to fill that weeks time of with add much vacation as possible. I’m curious to see if this really changes anything.
Further Plans
The only other item on my list for the next 2.5 months is that I want to drive up to my folks’ place and spend some time with them. Aside from that I only have a few ideas flying around:
- Biking to my folks’ place instead of going by train
- City trip to Amsterdam (maybe a stop in Belgium afterwards?)
- Returning to Norway, maybe take the panoramic train ride from Oslo to Bergen again
For now, I’ll focus on my Austria trip and hopefully I’ll have some photos to share soon. (Although I can’t upload from my camera until I’m home again.)