The beauty of nature is everywhere

By Mathias Huckert 22 June 2016, 12:00AM

Samoa can without a doubt be described as a country best known for its hospitality, its rich and traditional culture and of course the numerous natural wonders that make the archipelago a special one in the world.

When visiting the To Sua Ocean Trench on the island of Upolu, one can have a pretty good impression of what makes Samoa a tropical paradise in the South Pacific. 

The swimming hole, which is surrounded by a variety of beautiful, lush gardens, certainly belongs to the country’s most prominent spots with its characteristic turquoise blue water.

If you ask most people on earth, what their description of a natural wonder would look like, they would most likely come up with something that resembles this description of a paradise in the South Pacific Ocean.

But what about other places on earth, especially those whose beauty still has to be discovered by many, as it is by now not as ubiquitous as the typical natural wonders of our world? If you take a close look to the Southwest of Germany, you can find a beautiful natural wonder that almost no one has ever heard of. 

This wonder is called Saarschleife.

Located in Germany’s second smallest federate state in terms of total population, the Saarland, the natural beauty of the Saarschleife can look back on a long history. 

The state’s name itself derives from the name of its biggest river, the Saar, which does not only cross most of the state’s area, but also the one of the neighbouring federate state, Rhineland-Palatinate.

The Saarschleife can easily be described as the river’s most beautiful spot, although the Saar offers a whole range of spectacular viewpoints with its total length of approximately 235 kilometres.

During these eleven kilometres of the Saarschleife, which means in translation “bight of the Saar”, the river is different, as it suddenly follows a sinuosity located near the two towns of Merzig and Mettlach.

This change in the Saar’s direct route results in one of the state’s most beautiful spots, as it offers a spectacular viewpoint which comprises the river’s beauty as a whole. 

The viewpoint, called the “Cloef”, can be discovered on foot and has so far attracted many visitors, including famous ones like the current chancellor of Germany, Angela Merkel, or the former French premier Jacques Chirac, but sadly even rather infamous ones like dictator Adolf Hitler, who visited the Saarschleife in 1939.

Even though the beauty of the Saarschleife is not known by a huge variety of people around the world, it still can be described as one of the natural wonders a country like Germany offers to its visitors and inhabitants. It might not have the exotic surroundings that can be found on a laid-back, far away Island in the South Pacific, but compared to something like the To Sua Ocean Trench here in Samoa, both, the trench and the Saarschleife share their beauty with their visitors and in the end, this is what matters when admiring the value of nature. 

By Mathias Huckert 22 June 2016, 12:00AM
Samoa Observer

Upgrade to Premium

Subscribe to
Samoa Observer Online

Enjoy unlimited access to all our articles on any device + free trial to e-Edition. You can cancel anytime.

>