quiet mud

This post is about an 18km walk from Hülfensberg to Fürstenhagen. I walk on a muddy path through the hills.

The Franciscans had liturgy of the hours at seven in the morning. I was invited. No pressure, though. “You just do whatever you feel like,” they had told me at dinner.

I showed up at the chapel at seven. The liturgy lasted less than a half hour, and I found it surprisingly pleasant. Quiet and quieting.

leaving the mountain

Then we had breakfast, and then I got going. There was a thin layer of snow covering everything, but luckily the surface of the road wasn’t as slippery as I had feared. I made it down the mountain and to the little town of Geismar after an hour or so.

Little did I know about the sludge that lay ahead.

People had told me about a decommissioned railway line that had been turned into a path through the hills. It led northwest towards Göttingen, which was where I needed to go. My childhood friends were planning to come there on the 30th and stay the weekend.

The path turned out to be a mud fest, though. I was wearing my poncho and my gaiters, and I huffed and I puffed as I tried to pull the Caboose through the mud. At least it was quiet. Very quiet.

dinner

There was a monastery and a Catholic community center in the town of Heilbad Heiligenstadt. The monks of Hülfensberg had told me about them, suggesting that I try finding a place to sleep at one of them.

But when it got dark I was still on the mud path. And still far from Heiligenstadt. There was a little village in the distance with a restaurant that rented out rooms. I managed to get there, and when I entered I stood there in a cloud of steam in my poncho and my gaiters just as they were about to host a birthday party.

The boss was very kind. She gave me dinner and a shot of schnaps and a room for six people for the price of one.

pictures

the walk from Hülfensberg to Fürstenhagen:

my room in Hülfensberg

the living room in Hülfensberg

I need this!

with Friar Bernd

I sit in front of the Hülfensberg Monastery

light snow on the way down from Hülfensberg

THERE IS PEACE IN THE FOREST

snow over Döringsdorf

cows on Hülfensberg

the Caboose on a forest path near Geismar

misty hills

the Caboose on a muddy path through the hills near Geismar

old bridge near Krombach

snow on the hills

tower in Fürstenhagen

dinner in Fürstenhagen

Altmeister schnaps in Fürstenhagen

my room in Fürstenhagen