And Then There Are The Surprises..

Today was a really interesting day. Geocaching is sort of its own little animal. So much depends on so many varying factors that you can never really set out on a geohunt and "know" how it's going to turn out. Sometimes it turns out way better than you had ever hoped, and sometimes it's nothing like you anticipated. This morning was of the former variety!

 Stephanie texted me the day before about a 20-stage multicache nearby that she'd like to do and wondered if I'd like to come along. I said yes immediately, but later remembered I had an appointment scheduled for that day, so I declined. She went ahead and solved most of the riddles, but due to translation issues wanted to return and gather a few more needed details to solve the final riddle. This time I would be able to go along! I wasn't sure what to expect as it was my first multicache and knowing it had 19 stages, it felt a bit overwhelming. But having good company changes just about anything everything for the better, so I knew if nothing else I'd really enjoy time spent with my friend and time spent learning something I had no previous experience of before. I love learning new things. <3

Hohenheim Castle in the distance,
taken from the Hohenheim "monopteros"

It was such a delightful morning! I have company in town and had stayed up talking well into the night, so I was still waking up a little when we left, but I can not think of any better way to wake up than conversing down beautiful, garden path trails with cool breezes playing through our hair, delightful conversation, and solving little "mysteries" along the way! Even in the dead of winter the numerous plants and mature trees, lakes and ponds, and vivid green grasses were absolutely enchanting.

Hohenheim's very own monopteros.
Who knew!

We hopped from stage to stage, reading plaques and discussing events and times, and learning about a people who have come to this University for hundreds of years. We saw a man made lake that had held a venetian style gondola at one time. We came upon a small building that held a novelist who was so inspired by the Hohenheimer Gardens that he wrote his novel right on site. We climbed a circular path to a very beautiful monopteros and enjoyed the great views all around. We saw Roman Column ruins that had at one time been all upright, but then suddenly fell and the "ruins of the ruins" were left to be exactly as they were, lending their own sort of inspired romanticism that went on to inspire play-writes...

Near the end of the series we walked a beautiful, 200 year old, tree-lined walkway to the Hohenheim Castle and admired the vineyards near by, read of the memorial dedicated to the alumni who had died in both World Wars, and then finally solved the final riddle and made the way to find the actual prized cache container!

The 200 year old "Kopfweiden" tree walkway leading to Hohenheim Castle,
modeled after Italian Poplar trees.

We were gone for a little over an hour, yet it was such a fulfilling way to begin my day. Flower stems and bushes, history, multiple varied gardens, architecture, the sunshine, good company and cool January air reminded me why I love January so much... Because life hangs just around the bend. Beauty and peaceful aspirations, and hope for growth and change and new beginnings... it's all right there. And we get this incredible privilege of experiencing it every year, whispering and dancing in the air around us... showing us little secrets and surprises along the way.

Sometimes life hands you exactly what you expected or wanted, and then there are the surprises. And often times it is those sweet surprises that leave the biggest impressions upon our hearts. Geocaching might have surprised me by how much I fell in love with it back in 2014, but it's these continuous, ongoing "surprises" that I treasure the most and that keep me coming back. It's the new experiences of places I wouldn't have ventured to or learned about in other contexts. It's meeting people and finding something in common when we might not have connected otherwise. And it's the memories, planted like seeds in the gardens of our hearts, that over time can grow into a really beautiful collection of shared experiences, and even friendships.

Thanks for inviting me, my "cacher in crime" friend!
You're a treasure to my heart.