Hi Mum,
Katja was invited to accompany a friend to Essen, to take a walk around Lake Baldeney. Essen is a city in the central part of the Ruhr Area, about 40 minutes to drive from Wuppertal. In Essen river Ruhr forms the Lake Baldeney reservoir. There are six reservoirs along river Ruhr, Lake Baldeney is the largest one of those six. The reservoir was built in the 1930s years. Many kinds of water sports are performed here like sailing, rowing and canoeing, motorboats are allowed and windsurfing.
The length of the lake is 7,8 km, which means we had to walk almost 16 km to circle it.
Here we crossed the lake.
We saw ducks, swans and moorhen everywhere.
There is a mansion in the background of my last picture. It is Villa Huegel. This mansion was built by the Krupp family of industrialists in 1873 as a residence. Nowadays you can find an art gallery and the historical archive of the Krupp family and company there. Here is a zoomed photo.
We reached the opposite end of the reservoir with a large weir and sluice.
This is river Ruhr, much smaller beyond the weir.
A ship was coming towards the sluice, but if would have lasted at least half an hour to see it getting through, so we went back to the car instead.
I am soooo tired now!
Bye
Taylor
