🐯🔥 By day 10, it was obvious that I'd been on the move the whole time. The sun, the salty wind, and the exertion of hiking a total of 200 kilometers were clearly visible on my face. Tanned leather, but that sparkle in my eyes – a wild man!

🌳🌿 I immersed myself deeply in the nature of this island world, regardless of whether it rained or the night blinded me. I persevered exactly as long as necessary. After returning home, I hobbled for six weeks because of a stress fracture. But it was worth it!

❤️‍🩹🪺 But why did I actually return to this place, even though I was always here with my family, who had caused me so much pain in my life?

🧠🫧 One of the hardest challenges after psychological or emotional abuse is learning how to live with the memories I shared – especially the beautiful, powerful moments that once felt so meaningful. These memories are often tied to a relationship that now casts a shadow over them. What once felt precious can now seem strange, heavy, or distant – as if it no longer truly belongs to me.

🤲✨️ A key step in healing is to look at these memories in a new light – not by hiding them away, but by taking them back. When I put my own presence at the center, I free the experience from the old bond. I take it back into myself – as part of my wholeness.

🎒🥾🗺 Sometimes it helps to return to familiar places. This time not in the company of the past, but alone, and on purpose – for me. To feel again, to see again – and to meet myself again. Because the connection that matters most now is the one I have with me.

🤗 For a more nuanced discussion, please feel free to use the comments section, private messages or the anonymous contact form on my website.

🌊🌾 The sea gives. The sea takes. It's in its nature. Wave by wave, it carries away what once was, and brings something new to shore elsewhere.

❤️‍🔥🧠 Memories settle within me too – not always willingly, not always welcome. Beautiful things buried beneath pain. Pain laced with beauty. What belongs to me mixes with what I had to let go of.

🪾🌱 I can't hold on to what is in motion. But I can acknowledge that loss also shapes. That what was taken from me creates space for something else. And that some things I thought were broken are part of something greater.

⏳️🌓 The hourglass of the tides doesn’t stand still. And while the sand trickles down, something grows beneath the surface: not the old, not the same, but something of its own.

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🌊🌾 A mere heap of sand is nothing enduring. No memory – only wind, rain, and tides carry it onward. For something to remain, it needs life that grasps it, holds it, gathers it – like the marram grass that forms the first embryonic dunes. The birth of new life, when the horizon rises and is eventually crowned with white dunes. From up there, one can see far and wide how life and death make fertile land thrive. The dunes turn grey, then brown, and the diversity of life marks each of these hills that, without an initial impulse, would never have been more than a fleeting mineral in the wind.

🌲🌳 Amid shrubs, pines, and bog birch forests, one quickly forgets that all this soil was washed ashore by the sea and carried to this place by the wind. One looks out over endless salt marshes, over reeds and the Wadden Sea, whose tidal creeks meander deep into the newly formed land. And far on the horizon, on the other side beyond the dunes, one sees a solitary hill – a warft – where humans made this world their own, found refuge, and fed their livestock on the salty meadows.

🤗 For a more nuanced discussion, please feel free to use the comments section, private messages or the anonymous contact form on my website.

🥰 Enjoyed until the last ray of sunshine! ✨️

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🌄 After a long period of reluctance, I've started hiking again. A little over three weeks ago, I was inspired to take the very first bus early in the morning to Oberreifenberg. From there, it took me about an hour to reach the summit of the Großer Feldberg (881 m), the highest mountain in the Taunus Mountains.

🪨 I took a breakfast break on the Brunhildisfelsen (Brunhilde Rock). This rock is said to have taken its name from the Norse Siegfried legend, according to which the Valkyrie Brunhilde was put into a deep sleep here by Odin and, as one of his many heroic deeds, was awakened by the famous dragon slayer Siegfried. The rock was first mentioned in documents in 1043 as "lectulus Brunhildi" (Brunhilde's little bed).

😁 Because I set off so early, I had the entire mountain to myself. I didn't meet a single other person. The most striking buildings are the television tower, the observation tower, and several transmission masts.

🧭 I continued downhill toward Oberursel. There you pass the Upper Germanic-Raetian Limes, a 550-kilometer-long section of the former outer border of the ancient Roman Empire. Parts of the border wall are still visible, as are the remains of watchtowers.

🌼 The descent was strenuous, as it was almost entirely downhill for several kilometers. I was glad when I finally reached the valley. Along the way, I saw lots of yellow broom in bloom.

🏞 Things became more pleasant when I was able to hike along the Urselbach stream to my final destination, the Oberursel-Hohemark train station. The last photo doesn't show the Urselbach stream, but a nearby pool. In total, it was 17-18 km. I've done two more hikes since then, which I'll report on another day.

🤗 For a more nuanced discussion, please feel free to use the comments section, private messages or the anonymous contact form on my website.

It was a very special time. In total I was there every weekend for 55 days. Much too little. I wish it would have been infinite.🌠 I will miss it very much!
Goodbye Bad Bodendorf! 😢❤️

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🌳🐕👫🏼🌲

✨✨✨💖✨✨✨

Be yourself.
Know what you want.
Stay curious.
Go your way.
Discover beauty.
Come together.
Enjoy each other.
Enjoy the world.
Run around.
Plant some seeds.

🌱🌱🌱🍀🌱🌱🌱

🤗 For a more nuanced discussion, please feel free to use the comments section, private messages or the anonymous contact form on my website.

I went hiking in the Andes again.

No, I wasn't. I just used Photoshop.🤪

More specifically, the generative AI fill of the latest beta. In the past, you had to laboriously select the motif, research the right background image, consider copyrights, insert it, edit the edges and make many adjustments. Today, all you need is a click and a text prompt. What do you think? 🤔

Now anyone can fake just about anything with ease. Admittedly, a closer look reveals a few discrepancies, but only a few look closely. Influencers no longer need to travel and dating profiles can be so much more interesting! On the other hand, if you want to be creative, a lot of work is saved and you can invest more time in other things. Also, almost everyone is already changing their "landscape" anyway, which others would call a beautiful face (wrinkles are natural and beautiful!).😉

Image 1 was created with the input "Mountain hike in the Andes", Image 2 "Landscape of the 2009 film Land of the Lost", Image 3 "Amazon River" and Image 4 is the original (in my neighborhood).

Authenticity is important to me, which is why I always mention content manipulation or generated representations. Except for the Easter eggs, of course, but nobody discovers them anyway.😄

Maybe I should devote myself more to classical painting again. It's not that easy to fake and you still have to do something.👨‍🎨

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Behind me you can see the presumed remains of Nürings Castle. Around 1100, the Counts of Nürings built a residence on the mountain. After the male line died out in 1171, the county of Nürings was first taken over by the Lords of Münzenberg and then by the Lords of Bolanden. In 1233, after a division of the family property, Philipp von Bolanden called himself "von Falkenstein". This new Falkenstein line removed the remains of Nürings Castle and built New Falkenstein Castle right next to it.

🌸💮🌺🌻🌼🌲🌳

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The Falkenstein Castle was inhabited from the 13th to the end of the 18th century.🏰 However, after the Thirty Years' War (1618 - 1648) it already lost its importance, fell into disrepair and was only partially habitable.

Not much is left of the castle. The demolition was only stopped in 1842, the entrance gate is a reconstruction dating back to that period. The square bergfried dates from the 14th century with its round turret from the 15th century and is 18 meters high.

The view is very nice, because the small town of Falkenstein looks as idyllic as the intro of a German soap opera from the 80s and 90s.😆📺

A small group of ibexes lived on the mountain until about the 1980s. They were sent from the nearby Opel Zoo in Kronberg.🐏

I didn't stay long there and hiked a bit through the forest.😊

🌸💮🌺🌻🌼🌲🌳

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