This old joke works well this morning.

“I was born by cesarean section….you can’t really tell. Except I always enter my house through an open window.” – Stephen Wright

Well this morning started out like a Keystone Cops flick. We expected a nearly 19mi day with significant elevation so we got up at 5:30 and intended to hit the trail by 6am. Well we came pretty close and grabbed our backpacks and headed downstairs to start the day at 6:05. Unfortunately the exit door was locked or jammed shut. We tried for several minutes and tried another possible exit, nothing would work. We were trapped. I thought for a moment about opening an alarmed emergency exit but the Nadine spotted a window. So we each consecutively pushed out backpacks and then ourselves out the window.

Nadine here

It’s always fun breaking out and of course, Nadine is the one willing to try anything.  So here’s the evidence..

It was hard to keep quiet while laughing about the latest craziness of OnceLostTrio.

The local deli that we’d visited for lunch Day12 was open at 6:00am and we treated ourselves to a coffee/tea and a pastry before starting out on another grey day with light misting drizzle. Fortunately a few hours of mist was as bad as it got during the day.

At one point on our walk today I remarked that although the walk was tough, it was beautiful and definitely worth it.

Our walk took us upstream along the Pfreimd River and the scenery was magical. The colors of the moss covered forest floor and the tall spruce trees made us feel like we were in a fairy tail.

Our route in the section is called Burgenweg or Castle Way. It gets its name from a string of castles that once protected the border. We can’t spend the time to visit them all, but we did have a chance to walk around the outside of Leuchtenberg Castle first built in the 12th century. The history in Europe is what attracts me back here so often.

Our lunch was a meat and cheese and chips, Pilgrim special that we’d been given in lieu of a breakfast at the Youth Hostel. We loved the lunch but it was supplemented by a huge supply of wild blueberries along the way.

We passed a small chapel in a field with a gathering of what looked to be all men. From a distance they seemed to be laughing but also looked to be in all black. We don’t know if this was a wedding or funeral or some other gathering.

To our delight the distance to our destination was only 17 and not 19+ miles. The place we are staying for the night is pretty fancy for pilgrims but it was the only option within a reasonable distance. It has a nice patio from which we’ve hung a whole series of wet smelly clothes.

Nadine here again.

Today was tough even though it started out so fun!  It seemed like a lot of up, up, up.  How in the world will I ever be able to climb in the Alps?  It’s a mental game for me for which I don’t feel very adept. 

I’m so very happy the day was a little shorter than the 20 miles we anticipated.  We have landed in a beautiful family run establishment.

I want to back up to last night for just a moment.  I went for a short walk after dinner to discover the little town we were visiting.  I just meandered around (going uphill none the less-so unlike me!). I happened upon a beautiful old church, beautiful cemetery, and further away a large barn where cows and calves were feeding. 

When I returned I was able to communicate with a group of youth and their chaperones.  This group of teen altar boys (and girls) from the Catholic Church take a retreat every year to different locations throughout Germany.  We had a fun talk about their culture, (me stumbling through German and they through English), and the importance and seriousness of their jobs serving at the church.  We talked about the Lord’s Supper and other common points of our faith.  They taught a new-to-me word in German “Servus”.  Its modern usage, “servus” functions as a friendly greeting, similar to “hello” or “goodbye,” and can also imply “at your service”. They laughed when I left repeating the word in a song sing way.  It was a delightful exchange!