Excursion to the River Elbe

Some days ago we made an excursion to the Elbe, about 150 km upstream from Hamburg in direction southeast. We had to drive nearly two hours to get there. The first hour was quite easy to drive on our good German freeway (autobahn). But then we had to use very small country roads that lead through some small villages and a lot of thick forests. It was really beautiful to see these thick forests. At some points – very remote – we even saw some signs at trees “beware of wild wolves”. I wouldn’t have been astonished to see Little Red Riding Hood there. Some days ago I found out that these wild wolves had killed at least 15 sheep from a shepherd.

We saw a lot of Canada geese on a meadow, as well as great white egrets and even a beaver at a little creek.

We finally reached our destination, a little village, where friends of ours had bought a house. They invited me to exhibit my handmade jewelry there in a so called cabin hotel. It was terribly cold on this day and I was freezing a lot.

After some hours with lots of people around me I took a little break and went down to the Elbe. I only had to go down about 10 meters. It was shortly before sunset. The sun had turned the other riverside already into gold and the more the sun went down, the gold turned into red-gold. It was very cold and wafts of mist were hanging at the river bank like the veil of a witch. I was completely alone; from far away I heard the some people talk and laugh. The Elbe was completely calm, not the slightest ripple on the water. Far away some great crested grebes were diving silently into the water. It really looked like a mirror. Everything, the clouds, the wonderful dove blue sky, the skeletal trees on the other side, some houses, everything was found again in the water as a wonderful reflection. Far away some cormorants were looking like black spots in the sky. The mystical songs of seven whooping swans that flew majestically over my head made the whole scenery really overwhelming. I even forgot to photograph them. These were the minutes I enjoyed most of all this day and they really became branded on my mind. I hope that you can feel a little of what I felt when you look at my photos.