Day 4 Schäbisch Hall to Murrhardt, 26 km

Another day of perfect walking weather. Overcast, temperature somewhere between 8 and 14.

Nothing spectacular today in terms of landscape, but a really nice day, with some great views and lots of turning leaves. Felt appropriate for Thanksgiving weekend. I am very sorry to be missing dinner with the friends!

We only goofed up two turns today. The first was on the way out of town and was resolved quickly. The second, later on, added maybe half a kilometer. Not the end of the world, but I I don’t think I have ever lost the trail this many times! For the most part, the route is really well marked. But every so often finding the mussel shell is a bit challenging. I’ll put a photo here of the marker we missed at our first wrong turn. Can you see the Camino sign?

There was a nice path out of the town. It took us quickly into the first village and to a beautiful small church with a stamp. Then out into fields until village number 2, which actually had an open bakery! Because we are pilgrims on the jakobsweg, we were sent on our way with free pretzels, which were delicious.

More fields, another small village with a church. When we got there people were leaving the service. Some were hanging around inside. Others were on their way down to the hall to prepare the lunch. Any Canadian Protestant minister would have been thrilled with the crowd!

The church was very pilgrim friendly. Water, chocolates (!), a stamp, a basket of small message cards that had been written by I’m not sure who. And the people there were also really welcoming. One man invited us to join them for lunch. If the day had been shorter we might have.

Next stop: Nature Park Schwäbischer-Frankischer Wald, the Swabian Franconian Forest. Most of the rest of the day was in and out of the woods. Huge trees. Spectacular leaves (though there is very little red). Lots of evergreens. Mushrooms.

At one point, we came to a sign saying there was a diversion on the Jakobsweg. We hummed and haaaaaaed and decided to ignore it. It was the right call. If I had been on my own, I probably would’ve followed the sign. But it didn’t say what the diversion was for. Or where it would go or where it would come out or anything. So both options seemed a little dicey. The path we took was definitely muddy and overgrown, some trees had come down in a storm, and there were brambles everywhere. But we had thought a bridge might’ve been out further down or that it would be impossible to get through. In Ontario, it would just be considered a kind of sketchy trail. Nobody would suggest you go around it.

We had lunch at a rest area with many tables, some playground equipment for children, and a roof for shade. There are so many benches and places to sit everywhere. After lunch we were back into the forest where, at some point, we missed a turn. But then we fixed it.

The day’s big disappointment: we passed a small café that is only open on Sunday afternoons for cake and coffee. And it was too full for us to go in. Very sad. But about 50 m down the road we passed a house where they had a little shelf outside the front door with a stamp for pilgrims, a little guest book, and a deck of cards that had messages on them. So we shuffled the deck and both pulled purple cards. Mine said something along the lines of: you manifest the things that happen to you or something like that. Which is all well and good when those things are nice, but, really, no sociologist buys that!

We got to Murrhardt about 4:30. So it was a long day. But really pleasant walking. A few hills, some mud, the brambles, but mostly easy.

Angelika and I are both staying in the same gasthof. For dinner I finally got to eat local food. We went to a small place that is like a pub. We had excellent local white wine that is made from some kind of grape, the name of which I am forgetting, that usually is made into red wine. For dinner I had Maultaschen, a very typical Swabian meal — little pasta pockets (taschen) filled with meat. It was really good. And then, schnapps. Ice cold. Perfect.

Angelika goes home tomorrow afternoon. I have a 30 km day. Everything feels fine, so it will be ok. It looks like there will be smaller hills but more asphalt. So, not so great for the feet, but hopefully I will be done in decent time.Read more