A rebel without a clue.

Following the remains of the Roman wall, with the Rhine hidden to my right, I'm going fly straight as a skillfully thrown javelin towards Bingen today. The Jakobsweg in Mainz is very silly as it appears wriggle without getting free from Mainz for too long! This Jakobus Hessenische is not all that practical! I've decided to head due west, stay high above the Rhine, pass the Gutenberg University and head to Ingelheim am Rhein. ... The sun shining to my left offers me relief from negative mindgames as I stuggle to find another bed for the night! Blossom is spreading either side as I come down the Jakobsweg to the Rhine at Bingen. The Jugendherberge seems to be another expensive option and I wonder if this Pilgerweg really hasn't been backed up with any rational means of not becoming destitute on the Way! Pyramidal piles of stones on the roadside verges does suggest many walk through here, but perhaps it's 99% superannuated octogenarians only? ... Thank you Mark...

Arrived in the Jugendherberge around six, it's at least two kinds kilometres out of the centre back along the Rhine, and paid out from what the Monk gave me in the Karmelitekloster - leaving myself half again for eventualities to when leaving Mainz. At €40 for a room I guess it's not too bad for two people, even if I really feel like I'm back working at YHA Thameside with its layout and over sensitive extractor fans, otherwise for one it's so so expensive: there was again no expression, or sense of compassion, when I tried to get a reduction because I'm on the Jakobsweg. Some music started blaring out somewhere on the corridor (and I think someone was also singing along) around 5:30 and now I'm down in the lobby waiting for anyone to appear and give me coffee, with only another thirty minutes to wait. As a girl goes out for a cigarette and comes back in again I recall last night's dreams, which were both equally intense: the most perculiar was wh...

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...