Day 5 Murrhardt to Winnenden, 31 km +

A pretty uneventful day, apart from the fact that Angelika went back home. It was so amazing to meet her on the first day! The first morning! And apart from the other two women we met that same evening - who were only out for one night — there have been no other pilgrims . There have barely been any walkers at all. This is not a busy route. So it was excellent to have good company. We had a lot of fun. I’m going to miss her! How amazing to be able to just go for a long walk every so often and be home again in a few hours on the train.

Nice walk out of Murrhardt just as children were going to school. They do good playgrounds here, with climbing structures that would be seen as too risky at home. Some of the small parks have had zip lines.
And also good design. Lots of them are beautiful. As are some of the schools.

After Murrhardt we went up into the woods for a good while. There was a bit of climbing but nothing too bad. The forests have been a mix of evergreen and deciduous trees, so kind of shady. Lots of mushrooms but not much undergrowth. The forest paths are sometimes wider tracks and sometimes single file trails over dirt or grass. And despite the fact that there is cut wood stacked here and there, it doesn’t feel like the forests are primarily a source of wood.

The place is littered with routes! Every intersection shows a stunning number of walking and cycling routes. Lots of markers everywhere. Still, we managed to loose the route again today (!) by taking the most obvious path out of the woods to a bench with a view (today’s castle off in the distance). And then we just kept going straight along a path into a huge field. At some point, I checked my phone and saw that we should still have been in the trees. So we crossed the field to where the map showed some small trails that joined up with the Jakobsweg. But what’s on the map was not on the ground. We spent about 10 minutes crashing around trying to find a way through, but no luck. So back up to the bench and back into the woods and about 5 metres behind the bench was a Camino marker on a tree over a barely perceptible path through some small shrubs and long grass.

The villages were closer together and more numerous today. I think they are maybe bedroom communities for Stuttgart. The smaller ones are really pretty, with lots of things still blooming in gardens - asters in huge clumps, roses, sunflowers.

At one point we were walking down a path in a place that wasn’t really a park but was some kind of public recreation area. Orange spray paint on the path: “The forest path is closed.” Was that the path we were supposed to be going on? We didn’t know? Is there only one forest path? So we kept going. And then eventually we got to a big unmissable sign, sort of like a banner people would use in a large demonstration, tied to trees to block the path. “The path is closed. Tree work. Life danger!” But we could see another path about 5 metres in. So we went past the sign and then squeezed by a huge tractor and down the side path. A few metres along it also had a big sign across it, but it was for people coming the other direction. So we figured if we got on the other side of that sign that we would be out of the “life danger.” We could hear people working in the forest and at least one big tree coming down. The new path took us down along the river (the Murr as in Murrhardt), one of the only fast moving rivers I’ve seen so far. A lot of the others (and every day there are rivers) are murky and slow At the end of the river path we came out to a road and then Angelika and I went in different directions. She went west to get a bus to take her to the train, and I went east to the village of Steinbach where I had my first coffee en route.

The rest of the afternoon went through alternating fields and orchards and villages. The villages were getting bigger - with new housing around their edges and bigger roads. In Weissach I went to the church to get a stamp. But it was hard to tell which side was the front. So just started trying doors, working my way around. By the time I got all the way around to what was the front, a man was calling me from the other direction - wait, I saw you, I have the key! He let me in, chatted for a bit, and then left. There was a stamp, a guest book, water, and post cards set out for pilgrims. Really sweet. Again it was a Protestant church. They seem totally into the Camino!

I had lunch on a bench at the side of a soccer field. I bought the “snail” pastry I had been looking for for days in the next village. Then up again, past a lot of apple trees, and then the last down, through a couple more villages, past vey small children having riding lessons, and what is the fourth or fifth gravestone carving place over the past few days.

It’s a fairly long walk into Winnenden, and I made the rookie mistake that I continue to make at least once a trip of booking a place way off the path. Today, after 32 or 33 kilometres, it was probably about a kilometer further than I needed to go. A charmless but perfectly fine hotel on the ring road. Apparently there is a very good Greek restaurant downstairs but Monday is rest day, So I just went next door to the Lidl supermarket and got some food.

Tomorrow’s a shorter day. It looks like the route is a little less rural than it’s been. I’m hoping for good coffee!Read more