The Externsteine is a distinctive Rock located in the Teutoburg Forest in the Lippe district of Germany’s North Rhine Westphalia state. More information about this place and the Rock Pillars can be found in the website “http://www.externsteine-info.de” (It is possible to change the language settings to English). As we visited this place during Autumn season, more than the Rock pillars the surrounding forest became our point of interest. We reached around 10am and from parking lot it took around 4-5 minutes to reach the Rock pillars. There is no entry fee to enter the area. But if one wants to climb on to these rocks, there is a nominal fee. Tickets could be bought just near the Rock pillars. At the info centre, they informed us to first go near the Rock and then to decide if we want to climb or not.
Colorful carpet of foliage welcomed us to the Rock pillars. Along the way, we found this beautiful wooden sculpture of crocodile.Instead of exploring the history of Rock pillars, we started walking towards the forest along the lake. I do not think I can find words to express the mysterious beauty of the forest. The breeze made the leaves dance and fly in the air making a distinctive sound. I felt like sitting there for a while closing my eyes and experiencing that distinctive sound. But the beauty of the forest did not allow me to close my eyes. It really seemed like a place in Fairy tales. This tree, even after losing the whole of inner stem, was full of leaves. After reaching almost the top of the hill, we started walking back.
If you walks between the rock pillars, after 50 meters there are steps leading to forest. If we take those steps and walk further, one can climb on the leftmost rock from where one can have a beautiful view of the surroundings.One can walk further up in the forest. But we decided to end our day as it was already noon and we had other programs awaiting us. After taking this last picture at the parking lot, we started our drive back to home.