Hi. I hope your doing well. This time I want to continue my little series of the photos of my weekly walks to the river Ruhr. I took the photos from April to June. It's a time to see how the trees grow their leaves and change the whole view of the landscape. The first photo shows the castle Blankenstein (located at Hattingen) in the morning. Often it's hidden in the morning-fog at this time of the year, but sometimes it's fun to see the clouds flowing over the river but not up to the sky.  

At another day there is less fog but the moon is still there. Usually the way is quiet in the morning, only a few cyclists and one or two people walking their dogs are out there. In the afternoon more people visit this way or one of the restaurants near by. At the weekends it's often crowded with people. 

Besides the walking path there are small groins where you can see often birds and other small animals. The things in the trees and bushes are 'leftovers' from the last flooding. 

In the early evening the sun paints the way in more soft colors. If you look carefully there are lot of mosquito's waiting in the near of the trees. I wonder if they know, that way is a popular route for a short walk? And that a lot of people crossing their 'territory'? The way is a part of an old towpath. In the 18 to the 19 century the river was used to transport coal from the mines to the Rhine. Not far away from here there is a museum with boats, documents and information about this time and the region around here.   

The next photo, taken in the early April shows the way back to the city near by. The church is located on the other side of the river as the castle. It belongs to the city Bochum. People often read in books and old descriptions that the industrial region is polluted and their rivers and air are dirty. But now that's history. Millions of euro were spend to help nature come back where it its possible. 

Parallel to the way, I usually walk, is a bicycle way which is part of the "Ruhrtal-Radweg". A 240 km long route of sometimes highly frequented bicycle-ways starting at the spring of the river to it's end by Duisburg-Ruhrort where the Ruhr flows into the river Rhine. I took the last photo of this post on my way home: light breaks through the clouds.

I hope you enjoyed the short walk to the river. The next part of the short series will show the river from July to October. 

The first link below shows you the first part of the little series "walk to the river" (January to March).