A beautiful autumn in Germany was reason enough to take a few days off. Having ventured into the primeval forest of the Hainich on my birthday, we decided to visit another ancient forest on Melanie’s birthday. The National Park Kellerwald-Edersee is located right in the heart of Germany and part of of the UNESCO World Natural Heritage “Ancient German Beech Forest“.

We arrived there during the Edersee festival. Bad timing because the beach front was filled with food shacks and a lot of people. Good timing, because we were greeted with a fireworks show, which was a fantastic view with the Edersee lake in the background reflecting the fireworks colors.

The next two days we hiked throughout the old beeches high above the Edersee with beautiful glimpses on the lake. Which actually is a big reservoir impounded by a dam and used for hydropower generation (sorry, but I’m a hydrologist ;-) The beeches are one of my favorite tree species, so I enjoyed my time in the nature very much. Note to myself: Do it much more!

It is really really nice to share outdoor time together with Melanie, ’cause she enjoys being outdoors almost more than myself. Thanks for motivating me to get up “from the couch” regularly. And for being such awesome and lovely hiking company!

Exploring our miraculous planet earth with Emily is especially rewarding. Because it’s amazing to see her amount of natural curiosity and joy exploring the big and small wonders of this world. It is just extremely nourishing to partake in her amazing way to see things, which is often so much more in touch with reality than my conditioned (over-)thinking approach. It’s actually very hard to not post all the cute pictures of her. ‘Cause you all miss out a lot of super awesome photos from one of the worlds most lovely kids! And you would see my very big and happy smiles walking hand in hand with the little angel.

With much love from a pristine forest explored with two fantastic girls
Michael