On the way to Köln, and now nearly across Germany.

Spring is well and truly on the way!  I am seeing, and hearing, signs everywhere.  The crocus and snowbells are blooming in proliferation, and now I'm seeing daffodils just starting to colour, and in plantings in the city they are actually flowering, along with plantings of pansies and polyanthus.  As well as these signs I think I can feel it!  For several days I have had only three layers on the top, and often no hat or gloves.  Yesterday the temperature got to 11° and today I noticed it was 13°.  Tomorrow the forecast is for 18°, though it won't be for long as the temperature is set to plummet in the days to come.

These are purple crocus, but I have seen white and yellow ones too.

Schneeglöckchen in bloom (Snowdrops)

 The first daffodils.

Spring flowers blooming near Köln Cathedral

Since leaving Marburg I have been obliged to make a couple of train journeys.  After spending over an hour in the Marburg Tourist Office and exploring every accommodation possibility I came to the reluctant conclusion that the only way to get to Siegen was by train - accomodation possibilities at this time of the year making it too difficult to walk.  Mind you, even catching the train was complicated as I had to go South to Giessen where I stayed overnight and then headed up to Siegen ready to walk.

This part of the journey has had a few more hill climbs than previous sections, with each morning seeming to begin with a particularly nasty ascent.  However, once on the top, the path mostly follows the contour lines, gently undulating through various forests and along the odd country lane.  On these ridges the views across the distance have been worth the effort, though the often biting wind meant the temptation to linger was dampened!

At the top of the hill, after leaving Siegen, I had icy snow to carefully traverse.

Looking back at the village of Oberfischbach.  As I walked up this hill a man called to me and while I tried to figure what (or rather, how) I could tell him what I was doing he came over with a chocolate bar in his hand - his actions said "to give you strength"!

Along the way I periodically come across logging ventures.

There have been, along this section, quite a few little chapels.  None were open, but seeing these little chapels along the path reminded me of Italy.

Kapelle Zur Schmerzhaften Mutter near Friesenhagen.

A few hundred metres further on there was St Anna Kapelle

This was the church in Friesenhagen itself.

Just before reaching Crottorf, at the top of a hill, was the Heilig Kreuz Kapelle

The ivy covered church tower in Drabenderhöhe

The man walking past this little church stopped and had a chat with me, in garbled (on my part) one word sentences, stopping and telling a passer by how I was an Aussie walking Jakobsweg from Leipzig (roughly 450 kms away).

I stopped here in Denklingen for a snack before pushing on to my hotel.

As I walked through Steinenbrück this old building with its crooked beams caught my eye.

Looking out at the village of Overath.

I didn't pause at this rest stop.  I could see a squall approaching and I was trying, unsuccessfully as it turned out, to get to my hotel in Bierenbachtal without having to put my raincoat on.  With 20 minutes to go it hit, rain and sleet combined with wind.

This stage of the journey has had some navigation challenges.  The signs disappear periodically and I have to use my sense of direction and instincts, combined with map reading and deductive skills.  Even so, there were a number of times when I walked without signs for some distance and was very relieved to see a sign appear.

This was a very suspect sign (the yellow splodge on the tree trunk) that I managed to see from 100 metres out on the road.

Walking into Köln was fairly tedious.  It was 10kms along the footpath.  After walking through a few forests for most of the previous day it was tough pounding the pavement into the city.  Mind you, 10kms was a shortish day and so I arrived in the city by lunch time.

Köln is a busy city, even in the off season.  There seem to be tours of every description going on with clumps of tourists clustered around their guide tell them stories in a variety of different languages.

When I went to visit the Cathedral a mass was about to begin.  Only those attending the service could enter and so I went in, at 10.30 on a Saturday morning.  It was apparent that this was a fairly important service, but a surreptitious peak at google made me none the wiser. There were all sorts of church dignatories, and the procession as they entered was a sea of colour.  Servers in red and white, priest and others in cyclamen pink and purple, along with the choir in white cassocks.  

It was the size of the choir that made me aware that it was a special service, which I later found out was a farewell for one of the Cathedral's leaders.  It was a real treat to hear the music at the service.  The choir was wonderful and it wasn't till things were underway that I realised there were two choirs.  The boys and men were at the side, very near where I sat.  I puzzled over why the conductor was using such large, expansive conducting patterns, until I spied, on a balcony, another conductor doing the same thing, copying the boss below!  He had behind him a slightly smaller choir of girls and these two choirs sang together, separately, and did some really interesting canons.  In between this when it was time for everyone to sing the organ thundered high above, jutting over the congregation.

The organ perched above the heads of the congregation.  I wouldn't like to be the organist - you'd need a good head for heights!

The Köln Cathedral, with a little tourist train in the foreground.

A street scene in Köln.

The sunshine brought everyone out to sit in the cafe's, still rugged up with coats, and rugs for the knees.