Instead I later rode to a small river named Sieg, which meets the large Rhine river nearby, and went swimming once more. Unlike the last time I went, some weeks ago, when the water had been only up to my chest in the deepest part of the river, the water was much higher this time so that you couldn't reach the ground anymore. A few other people were in the water, as usual on warm summer days, but nearly all of them stayed at the shallow sides (on either side) of the river. Besides myself, only two men dared to swim over, one of them commented that "this can get you killed," but he followed his friend. Myself I swam over and back twice.
On the far side, an older woman asked me whether I could still touch ground in the middle, I told her no. Two young girls asked me too whether I thought they could make it over; I replied that it's hard to tell just from looks (they looked tiny) how strong a swimmer someone was. I think they were wise not to try. To myself it was great fun to take on the challenge, I could feel what a powerful "machine" I'm driving that I can trust in. But after doing it twice I felt myself getting too cold in the water (as usual). :)
I didn't take my cam, but here's an older pic of the river Sieg, it was taken in November though - no season for swimming, although unusually mild on that occasion - and the water was very low back then so that I could wade far into the river to take this pic.
So... it's been the Awakening of Darkness already, as marked by the Lammas night. Summer has been going fast, as usual, and has been a pretty mixed bag, with warm and sunny days like today as well as thunderstorms and abundant spells of gray and rainy weather - nothing out of the ordinary for a German summer. Only one month left now - including another trip to Amsterdam to come soon!
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