Dawn comes gray at 8:15, the wind pushes the high clouds Southeast as the ambient becomes brighter. I don’t expect to see the sun today, but the Winter Solstice is about the night, not the day. My single candle is ready for the evening; I won’t be lighting a bonfire this year, so the scent I chose was ‘Evening Bonfire’.

Mid morning I put together my itinerary to head to the Treetop Walk in Saarschleife. I read about them decorating it with lights for the holiday, and thought what better way to spend the solstice than by going and seeing the lights. It was lightly raining when I left, driving Northwest on the Autobahn. The clouds were low, and sometimes I would see just the bottoms of the huge blades of the windmills as they disappeared above the clouds. Sometimes there were whisps of stray clouds rising from forests on the side of the road, dark green pine trees and the red bare wood of deciduous trees making Christmas colors on the hills.

I stopped at Burg Dagstuhl, a castle ruin I chose almost at random on the map a little over halfway to my destination. This ruin is open to the public and free to explore. It was slippery hiking to the wet ruin, happy plants sprouting from the black stones. There were the usual blackberry brambles and the occasional fern; this is the first time I have seen nettles, and there were patches of small wild strawberries growing in this bunches at the base of some of the walls.

I walked around the medieval ruin for about half an our in the drizzly rain, and managed not to fall on the slippery leaves as I hiked back down to my car.

Less than an hour later I arrived at the Treetop Walk location, and parked in a nearly empty parking lot. I had arrived just in time for lunch, and somewhat at random chose a restaurant called Buchnas Dorfküche, and seem to have accidentally chosen something that won a Michelin award at the very least according to a plaque on the wall as I left. The restaurant served elevated regional food. I had a delightful seasonal onion torte, calf’s liver with apple and potato puree, and an almond-plum strudel with pear ice cream. It was unbelievably delicious.

I walked back down to the nature park and hiked around a bit before going up to the Treetop Walk tower. The Saar river snakes through the mountainous terrain here, and on one of the finger-like lands is the Burg Montclair, a cute castle that I am definitely going to hike to in the future.

It’s been raining quite a bit in the last 24 hours in this area, so the river is muddy looking and running high. I’m told it has a more aesthetic color in the spring. Nonetheless, the view and landscape are breathtaking, and the dramatic clouds slip by South-to-North quickly shapeshifting, occasionally dropping a few halfhearted rain flurries.

Sunset is scheduled at 1633h, and at 1540h I use my ticket to access the wooden walkway up to the tower of the Treetop Walk. The lights are on, but they are a little underwhelming after memories of the river of lights back home.

The walk spiraling up to the top of the tower was around 700m, warning signs telling walkers to get off the top viewing deck if there is lightning or a storm. The clouds were still low, but it wasn’t raining at the moment. Arriving at the viewing deck at the top of the tower, I could feel the whole structure shaking in the wind.

I sat on the bench at the top of the tower for a while while I took in the view, watching the landscape start to darken. People file through, take windblown selfies with the river, then file back out, chattering in their various languages – German, French, Loud American.

1633h hit and it started to rain. I took that as my cue to depart, I left my umbrella in the car drying out after my adventure at Burg Dagstuhl. I skipped the store selling Glühwein at the bottom of the tower and made it back to the car, darkness rapidly closing in around the landscape.

It rained in earnest my entire dark drive back home. I didn’t have to slow down much, though; the Autobahn is wide and well designed to keep traffic moving even in weather.

Back at the hotel, I had dinner in the restaurant as a lovely cap to the day. I came back upstairs and lit my Solstice candle, the subtle scent spreading in the room while I wrote these thoughts and sipped a nice Earl Gray tea.

And so went the shortest day of the year; the shortest day I have ever experienced, and so began the longest night. Happy Solstice everyone, tomorrow the light makes its return bit by bit.