Hiking Germany: Teufelsschlucht

I guess you can only cherish the nature around you, if you don't live in that area. This is how I feel about the landscapes in Germany. Since I'm living in AR/USA now, I see my old hometown, the surroundings, and especially the nature with different eyes. It is a beautiful place on this earth, and I am trying to squeeze in as many hikes as possible while I'm on vacation in Trier.
One day after I landed in Germany, 2 of my sisters, my little 9 year old nephew and I went on a hike. The "Teufelsschlucht" (= Devil's Gorge) is located between the villages Irrel and Ernzen in the southern Eifel.  It's a big and wonderful mixed forest with a huge amount of strage rock formations:

"The "Teufelsschlucht" is a gorge like cleft in the rock, which was enigmatic for the lcoals. A normal gorge is formed by the erosion of a river, as a result the floor is continually going downwards, as the water flows downhill. But this gorge is different, as the floor on both ends is higher than in the centre. So the water would have flown in from both sides and vanished mysteriously. So the locals beliefed this gorge was not formed naturally but created by the devil. So it was named devils gorge. The sandstone in this area is called Luxemburger Sandstein and is from the Lower Jurassic or Lias. The calcreous sandstone was deposited some 190Ma ago at the northern coast of the Lias sea. The land mass to the north is called Ardennens Massif, and was the source of the sand. The area where those sandstones are found today is called Luxemburger Schweiz (Luxembourg Switzerland) and is about 330m asl. The sandstones are exceptionally thick in this area, because this once was the stuary of a river which brought huge amounts of sand with it an deposited them. Below the sandstone is a layer of marl from the Upper Triassic, locally called Keuper. This rock is water resistant and rather soft, and becomes a good lubricant (at least in geologic terms) if wet. The sandstone has cracks from the uplift, they are widened by erosion, and the weck basement lets huges chunks of rock slide slowly. This process was intensified at the end of the last ice age, some 10,000 yeras ago, when warm an humid climate and the melting water of the glaciers caused higher erosion. The result was the labyrinth of strange rocks caled Felsenmeer (sea of rocks). The gorge was formed by the separation of two chucks of rock for more than one meter and several subsequent rock falls."

via www.showcaves.com

 

Did you know you can find me on YouTube now as well? I'm just getting started. But I would be happy if you follow me on there as well! I made a little video of the hike. It's not super duper professional, but I hope you will enjoy it anyway. I'm still learning all this YouTube stuff.

It was a wonderful and exhausting hike. Since it was going up- and downhill all the time, it was a nice workout as well:

If you want to hike over here, in the beautiful USA - check out this article about

  Top 50 Long Distance Hiking Trails In The USA!

 

Smoke-Free: Day 3!

Hey there lovely readers!

So here I am, I made it to day 3 of my new life as a recovering-smokeaholic. Smoke free, and patch free. Yep! So here's how I felt so far:

Day 1

I can't remember much to be honest. Where my brain used to be, there only seemed to be a hot dog bun. That's how I felt. Chewing gum aaaaaaall day. Plus wearing this "medium" patch. Didn't sleep good at all, didn't work out that day, and I was hungry. HUNGRY! In the morning I would have had a corn dog if one was around. Oh and cocktails! I was daydreaming of Margaritas! Geeeeeeez... Drug withdrawal is tough indeed.

Feeling: Blah and dumb.
Gums: 25(?)
Patch: Yes
Food: A lot. Of crap.
Workout: Nope.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Day 2

I was so tired after waking up every 20 mins that night.Work was stressful as heck. I am all alone at the office right now, but I've somehow managed it to finish everything around 5:15PM. Went home, changed into workout gear right away, and did "Extreme Shred & Shed" with Jillian Michaels. I did the warm up and Level 2, but had to stop 5 minutes early though, cause I had to head over to my sister's to babysit my nephew. I removed the patch in the afternoon since I didn't feel it was doing any good; besides it started to itch. I think I was keeping up petty good that day! Plus I had some good night's sleep! (blame it on the no-more-patch)

Feeling: Tired but not like a junkie on cold turkey anymore.
Gums: 2
Patch: 4 hours, then ripped it off for good!
Food: Healthy breakfast, ice cream for lunch, and Lasagne and stuffed bell peppers for dinner.
Workout: "Extreme Shed & Shred", Level 2.

Day 3

Almost half way through day 3 now, and I'm feeling better and better! Almost nocraving for cigarettes. I can even smell it when someone walks past my office window smoking a cigarette and it BOTHERS me :oD
I'm looking forward to get off, so I can have a phone date with hubs, another workout with Jillian, roasted veggies and goat cheese for dinner... Feeling good!

Feeling: Awesome!
Gums: 2
Patch: -
Food: Healthy breakfast, ice cream and peaches for lunch. And tons of water!
Workout: Meeting Jillian later, so it will be "Extreme Shed & Shred" again!

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