A rebel without a clue.

I cherish everything, being a reflection of the one and this morning really reflects this unity. And the landscape and essence has changed. I'm on the Jakobsweg, Bonifaceweg and Rheingau weinweg! Beautiful sunshine and a subtle shift to spring. Twenty two kilometres prior to noon. That's the thing about setting off with the sunrise ... I've such inspiration. It lags off if I walk after the sun has already risen. Yesterday I was on the go at nine am, but it was a very different day. Other than a stop for breakfast after I'd got to Kriftel I've flown because suddenly the landscape opened up for the first time since Flieden, Schlüchtern and Steinau and the sun is basking in its glory pouring down onto the Rheingau! What wonderful day, including a Croatian Weinstube/Restaurant in Hochheim where I simply had to go to Cevapčići, Ajvar and Rheingau Alt Reben Riesling. It was a long walk to cross the Rhine into Mainz on the Theodore Heuss Brücke, as the skies fi...

Last night was a long, broken night's rest, but I got through it and am getting closer to Mainz, and the Catholic area of Germany, which means finding a place to sleep should become simpler? It's six and someone came into the building a little earlier so it woke me. Sleeping on chairs is no fun especially with a very tender upper arm and right knee, but I managed on and off from 8 until 6 so don't feel totally frazzled. The last dream I had was one in which I was given a choice of returning to my previous body - way of life - or accepting the one I am in. With a lot of pain and trepidation I decided to stick by the new life, regardless of what I'm potentially missing from the old way and who I am offending. The priest, Christian, who brought me here did me a favour really as it looks like leaving "pretty" Höchst by foot would've revealed a huge industrial area which isn't really part of the Camino experience. To the north of Frankfurt are s...

Strange end to the day. After arriving in Höchst I went to the St Justinus kirch just as it was closing and I got a stamp for my Credencial, but when I asked for a place to stay: blank faces and in Germany a blank face doesn't have a nanosecond of emotion. They really didn't care less that I'd just walked 25 kilometres from Mike and Steffi's and came expecting something of someone, in one of the oldest churches on Germany, to care I was on the Pilgerweg and actually help me along! Unreal. The modern world is populated by people who haven't any character and Germany just seems to follow suit! Difficult days ask me difficult questions. Is this because Germany is driven by memories of the past - and I'm British - or because they are rampant capitalists who don't realise what a struggle the Weg/Way/Camino is?

Really I need to start the Jakobsweg again and now, with fresh legs after a hot soak last night, I decided walking from Mike and Steffi's home near Bad Vilbel using the many other "Wegs" radiating across Germany.  I can come to Höchst, connect back up with the route out from Frankfurt towards Trier and hopefully find a place to sleep. Yesterday was a long tiring day, but it was definitely worth not walking the Jakobsweg. With a worsening hangover i reached Frankfurt Süd bahnhof around eight thirty from Gelnhausen. Found an Backer Effeler and ate scrambled eggs while fighting off cold sweats: Apfelwein is lethal. Met the people who organise the pilgerweg for Hessen (as well as elsewhere in Germany) in Niederad, at the Vamonos 2020 Pilgerbörse, and collected a little more information about places to sleep after Bingen and a stamp for my Credential. Feeling much worse around noon I caught the number 12 tram to meet Mike, Werner and the Arabian horse Jenny. On rou...

Day three begins in another Happ. At 5:30 I was very much awake as the church bell rang in the hours. By six it added back the quarter chimes too. It is not such a bad thing: I've got quite used to the quarter and hourly chimes from so many years sleeping in and around monasteries, churches, abbeys and cathedrals. Last night I discovered that there is a special pilgrim gathering in Frankfurt and I was invited by the main organiser for the Jakobus Hessen association in Salmünster which suggests I won't be walking on Saturday - unless I get to within Frankfurt suburbia by lunchtime tomorrow.  On Sunday there is also a concert in the same venue, which is part of this weekend's gathering, but I was hoping to be leaving Frankfurt for Mainz then. I'm obviously in a little quandary. The coincidence of the meeting these folk in the local Brauhaus last night and all possibilities envisioned by meeting other pilgrims and pilgrim hosts tomorrow means I may have to hang...

Beechwood valley to my left and the distant sounds of a couple of trains as I come down from the snowbound hills above Schlüchtern. In to the town through an industrial sector and then I looked for a café to rest before the next part of the day. After I'd spotted one then walked around the centre I headed back to the first at it suggests relaxation! Wohenzimmer café for oolong and a free croissant. Truly too many instances of déjà vu. Just now as I turn left and see end of today's etape I am instantly back in Saint Bertrand de Comminges in the Pyrenees. It is the Weg/Chemin but that's nearly in Spain! But that didn't work. No where to stay. It's not a Catholic town ... and almost the same thing happened in St Bertrand because the gîte d'étape was a chambre d'hôtes. The thing with German Jakobsweg seems to be that there is a huge disconnect with its deeper meaning. In a hugely capitalist nation there seems little time for what I am trying to do. O...

That was one damp night's sleep. At 5am I had to get off the bottom sheet and decided I'd try my luck above the duvet, but below the blanket. Now I'm ready for my Geniesser Happen Frühstück(€6.50) in Bäcker Happ after seven and I don't think I'm crawling with bites from the blanket...today is a mere 21 kilometres to Steinau an der Straße. It's a big German breakfast at Happ, but three huge crusty brötchen which I cannot bite anymore without cutting into petite morsels and I've discovered the reason for a knife and folk! When you have bad or missing teeth they do the job for you! For how many millennium did humans suffer to eat tough, sharpe, crisp, crusty without a knife and a folk then some clever soul decided they no longer needed teeth but utensils? Day two begins shortly and it's neither raining nor snowing, there are some fast moving clouds heading eastwards so the conveyor belt will keep it forever changing and meeting me on the path?