Day 61: A Fluffy Adventure

It’s going to be a double post day today. Just a fair warning…

It’s so hard to believe that yesterday was our next to last full day of our trip! We’ve had so much fun and so many adventures…even as I write now, it doesn’t seem quite real that we get on a plane back to the States tomorrow *sigh*

Even with the reality of our trip ending sinking in, we had quite the special adventure for Day 61! It started, as they often have, with breakfast before we got on the Straßenbahn to Hattingen Mitte. From Mitte, we hopped on the S-Bahn and made our way to Essen Hauptbahnhof. Our destination today was in Essen, but once in the city, we had to hop a couple of additional buses to get to our final point. Where were we going? Let me give you some background…

A few years ago, a video popped up on my Facebook feed of three alpacas in bow ties. That video explained that there was a woman in Germany who owned those alpacas and she would post videos on her Instagram of them going on walks on their farm, as well as being requested at events, such as weddings (hence, the bow ties), I IMMEDIATELY started following the Instagram page and have been quite obsessed with the adventures of Alfi, Willi, and Fritz. As we got ready for our trip, we did some digging and found out the farm where they lived is in Essen! When we got to Germany, I reached out to their owner, Vicky, about setting up an alpaca walk, and that’s just what we did!!

The farm the alpacas and all their friends now live on is a different one from the original video I saw them in. There are also three more alpacas: Frank, Bruno, and Oskar! Vicky and her husband bought their current farm about 2 years ago and moved in last summer. Before that, they lived on her husband’s family farm. But circling back to the alpaca walk, we were scheduled for a noontime slot, so being me, we were there 20 minutes early. I called Vicky to let her know we arrived and she came out a few minutes later, her daughter having just finished lunch.

Because we were early and she had been doing a few other things prior to our arrival, we got to assist her with bringing the alpacas in from the small pasture to the corral where she put their halters on. She gave us branches of hazelnut leaves to lead them, and it was so fun! They are such eaters! Once the big ones (Alfi, Willi, and Fritz) were in their harnesses, we went for a GORGEOUS walk around the property and its surrounding woods. We stopped pretty frequently as the alpacas ate grass, leaves off of trees, and acorns that had fallen on the ground. Vicky led us walking with Alfi, Brandon had Willi, and I had Fritz! They were so easygoing! As we walked, Vicky asked us about how we had found her Instagram, where we were from, and how our trip has been. We asked her if she’s been busy with walks and she told us that she’s actually booked up through November! In fact, she made an exception for us because she had another walk scheduled in the evening yesterday, but because we were a special case and there would be time between walks, she put us on the schedule! We were so very grateful :)

At the end of the 90 minute walk, we got to watch the alpacas get hosed off before going back to the barn where we got to help feed them some pellets. We even got to go help feed the pigs! It was just the absolute best way to finish up this incredible trip! We then went back to Essen city to grab some lunch.

Back at the house, we chilled for most of the rest of the evening, playing cards and watching a movie before calling it a night. As I write this, it is our final full day in Germany, so we are going to putz around Hattingen one final time for good measure :) Enjoy the pictures!!