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Herzlich willkommen bei Frau Pilgerhut
Pilgerexpertin, Autorin, Pilgersteinmalerin
Pilgererfahrungen aus erster Hand
Pilgrimage under one hat - on the way with Sandra
Bavarian Swabian Way of St. James
Stage 9: From Reinhartshofen - Kirch-Siebnach 19.5 km
Monday, June 28th, 2021
Half past nine in the morning in Germany
After I didn't really find my way into a hiking flow yesterday, I am hoping for more for today. The first five or six kilometers I usually like to run briskly, without interruption, at most I stop and take one or the other photo. So is the plan for today, start quickly and let in what happens afterwards. But it is already clear to me that it will be another hot day and I will be on my feet before breakfast creamed. There is a lot of work it eh not, just face and arms. I could unzip my pants and expose my tight calves to the fresh air, but I have had bad experiences with prickly botany, biting fauna and common nettles, especially in slightly overgrown forest and meadow sections that nature is trying to win back, so I have prefer to protect your legs under your pants.
I leave Reinhartshofen behind me and cross an asphalt road and reach a small parking lot for hikers, which already offers a first shady bench to rest. I may have just walked a kilometer, but I can already see that the weight in the backpack is better despite my attempt to pack this morning, even more, and even more unevenly on my shoulders than yesterday. The muscles there already ache.
Instead of trying to remedy the situation, I of course ignore the bank and walk into the forest on the driveway. On the left hand side I see two mothers who are chatting in the lighter thicket, while behind them their offspring is squeaking with pleasure in a natural forest playground and wallowing in the pine needles on the ground. Maybe it was spruce too, to be honest I didn't pay attention to the conifer species.
Opposite, at the edge of the path, stands again, as in every significant place, a notice board for the Bavarian Swabian Way of St. James.
In the box in the lower right corner there is always information about the current location and the history of the church there. The board I am standing in front of belongs to Reinhartshofen, but does not refer to Justina, but to the church I was in yesterday.
It's a shame, I would have liked to find out more about the Justinakapelle here.
Opposite, at the edge of the path, stands again, as in every significant place, a notice board for the Bavarian Swabian Way of St. James.
In the box in the lower right corner there is always information about the current location and the history of the church there. The board I am standing in front of belongs to Reinhartshofen, but does not refer to Justina, but to the church I was in yesterday.
It's a shame, I would have liked to find out more about the Justinakapelle here.
Tipp des Tages:
Packe deinen Rucksack gut, sonst verlässt dich schnell der Mut,
stopfe auch was in die Lücken, sonst wird' s dich am Rücken drücken,
Schultern machen keine Welle, wenn Schweres liegt an tiefster Stelle.
Zieh die Riemen ziemlich fest, bis sich nichts bewegen lässt,
Damit auf ausgesetzten Wegen, du nicht rollst dem Tal entgegen.
Pack your rucksack well, otherwise you will quickly run out of courage
also stuff something in the gaps, otherwise it will press your back,
Shoulders do not make waves when heavy things are at their lowest point
Pull the straps pretty tight until nothing moves.
It doesn't help, my shoulders are making waves. I have to take my first break to heed my clever short poem and to repack the backpack. In fact, I put on the searching handle into it that my two-liter water tank, its shape a huge Capri sun with an endless straw (the drink of my childhood for on the go, when you were still without hesitation blowing plastic straws into nature) has completely slipped.
My backpack has an extra pocket sewn near the back into which you can put the hydration bladder. But some of the rest of my utensils got the way of the container is blocked at the lowest point, so that the weight is too high on the back and thus releases pressure on the shoulders. I correct that, put the rest of the sums back in and fumble with the various adjustment straps. Lo and behold, when I put my backpack on again, it's much better. However, my shoulders are so tense from yesterday and today that of course the pain does not go away immediately.
I secretly curse that I didn't take a diclofenac ointment like I was planning to. But another 50 grams extra? Since I had zero shoulders last time, I thought I won't need them this time either. Instead, the choice fell on petroleum jelly. Deer tallow for the foot, Vaseline for the arm.
Hm. Maybe it's even mocked twice and I could also use the deer tallow for my arm? I'll have to deal with that again when I get home.
Opposite, at the edge of the path, stands again, as in every significant place, a notice board for the Bavarian Swabian Way of St. James.
In the box in the lower right corner there is always information about the current location and the history of the church there. The board I am standing in front of belongs to Reinhartshofen, but does not refer to Justina, but to the church I was in yesterday.
It's a shame, I would have liked to find out more about the Justinakapelle here.
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Opposite, at the edge of the path, stands again, as in every significant place, a notice board for the Bavarian Swabian Way of St. James.
In the box in the lower right corner there is always information about the current location and the history of the church there. The board I am standing in front of belongs to Reinhartshofen, but does not refer to Justina, but to the church I was in yesterday.
It's a shame, I would have liked to find out more about the Justinakapelle here.
E-bikes without GPS
It is around half past twelve and I would now like to have my hot cakes with processed cheese. Around the next bend, a bench under a single, old tree comes into view, but it is occupied. Two e-bikers have fled there and made themselves comfortable under the shady giant leaves.
I still stand by you and ask if there is another shady spot a little further on. The two women are very nice, literally jump up from the bench and assert that they were just about to leave anyway. I really don't want to drive them away and thank you twenty times, rounded up.
We talk a little more about my pilgrims and they explain the advantages of their e-bikes, which enable them to visit their sister 70 km away in one day and cycle back home the next. A few years ago that would not have been possible for them with normal bikes in the hilly terrain.
Then the two drive in in an easterly direction behind me up the next hilltop and disappear from my view.
I enjoy the view, the shade, the silence and my shriveled rolls. Then I pour myself the first of my two daily rations of Magnesium Direct Powder in my mouth. I think this would be a good idea to make up for my salt and minerals loss. Somehow the powder got into it instead of under my tongue from where I find it kind of hard again get out. Feels like small pellets of detergent powder. But it tastes much better.
It's about 20 minutes passed when I noticed two cyclists from the west approaching me from the front. Hm. I’m probably frowning. They look like the two who were standing with me a moment ago, but that can't be.
No, no nonsense, it's the two of them!
They wave to me and one of them calls out that they took a short detour, then they roar for the second time up the street behind me.
"Next time you will spend one" I call afterwards.
I won't wait that long. I walk through Konradshofen, which, according to my preliminary research, would have had a pilgrim's stamp, but I can't make the detour to the church. I'm only about half the way behind me.
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The route remains behind the place It's still sunny, but every now and then a little wind comes up, which makes it more bearable. After what feels like an eternity, I finally reach a decent piece of forest again in which I can make good progress. Again, I don't meet anyone in the forest. Except for the two drivers in Klimmach and the e-bikers I didn't meet anyone all day on the way. Not even in the towns. I think that's pretty strange, but I had already noticed it last year.
Hikers aren't actually on the move here. But neither are locals. Could it be due to the weather?
Opposite, at the edge of the path, stands again, as in every significant place, a notice board for the Bavarian Swabian Way of St. James.
In the box in the lower right corner there is always information about the current location and the history of the church there. The board I am standing in front of belongs to Reinhartshofen, but does not refer to Justina, but to the church I was in yesterday.
It's a shame, I would have liked to find out more about the Justinakapelle here.
What you don't have in your head….
I'm actually more than a fox hungry, but before dinner I want to take a shower and pick up the pilgrim's stamp in the church of St. George.
I'm already passed her on the way to the inn. St. Georg is 100 meters from the guest house as the crow flies. Unfortunately, it is also 50 meters higher on the slope. So I go and climb the umpteen steps through the cemetery on Kirchberg to the gate. I am happy, the church is open. I step in, I'm happy again, I find a stamp. I look for the pilgrim's pass in my trouser pocket and discover that I forgot it in the room.
There are moments when your facial features derail and you have to first take a deep breath. But annoying doesn't help. So I go out again, resigned to fate, hobble down the stairs and up the stairs to my room again. I find the passport and am back in place ten minutes later.
I am very satisfied with the new imprint in my credential.
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Opposite, at the edge of the path, stands again, as in every significant place, a notice board for the Bavarian Swabian Way of St. James.
In the box in the lower right corner there is always information about the current location and the history of the church there. The board I am standing in front of belongs to Reinhartshofen, but does not refer to Justina, but to the church I was in yesterday.
It's a shame, I would have liked to find out more about the Justinakapelle here.
Information on stage 9
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My pilgrim-friendly accommodation:
Tavern at the Füchsle
Kirch-Siebnach 3
86833 Kirch-Siebnach
I got the gpx tracks for Bavarian / Swabian from here:
https://www.pilgern-schwaben.de/augsburg-bad-woerishofen-bad-groenenbach/