Via Romea Germanica Day 44: Mönchsdeggingen - Donauwörth

Somewhere between the start of the trail and the end is the mystery of why we choose to walk.

The weather forecast for Day 44, my last day on the Via Romea Germanica for now, was echt schlecht - a very satisfying German expression meaning "really awful". But I wanted to walk to Donauwörth and then take a direct train to Munich. So I disregarded the Via Romea Germanica route entirely, and instead of heading east to Harburg and then south to Donauwörth, I asked mapy.cz to devise the shortest walkable route, avoiding the detour to Harburg and heading directly southeast to Donauwörth. 

The route it came up with began with five kilometres along the road through the forest from Mönchsdeggingen to the next village. But there was no traffic, on a rainy long weekend morning, so the road was no trouble. My route turned off the road and crossed the fields on small farm roads, then went back into the forest, zigzagging this time through a grid of dirt logging roads. Luckily my gps signal never abandoned me, or I would have had no idea which way to go through the forest, in that maze of unmarked roads; on a cloudy and rainy day when the sun is not visible, it's easy to lose your sense of direction! But a gps signal can be picked up just about anywhere these days, so it was no problem to navigate my way through. I tried to memorise the next few turns, just in case the signal was momentarily lost, and marched through the forest to the beat: second right, right, left! Second right, right left! Which then became, right, left! Right, left! And finally, left, left, turn left! Before consulting the map again and memorising the next few turns.

It took about an hour and a half to come through the forest. When I emerged at the edge of the village of Wörnitzstein, I found a bench that was sheltered from the rain and sat down for ten minutes - the only break I took in 20 kilometres! Everywhere else, it was too wet!

In Huttenbach, the dirt road came out onto Riedlinger Strasse, a road with some traffic, which I followed until I came to a sort of miniature zoo, or house with a lot of pets! The sound of cockatoos and tropical birds singing in the cold and the rain was incongruous. But then I came to a cherry tree laden with fruit, with plenty of branches hanging out over the fence, and ripe for the taking!

Just after the cherry tree, the gps track mapy.cz had devised for me left the road to take a dirt track through the trees, which was much nicer to walk on, even though wetter underfoot. Only I missed a turn-off, and carried on straight ahead, which looked on the satellite view map as though it ought to work equally well - until I came to a locked gate and a DO NOT ENTER sign! I turned back for a few hundred metres, then took a footpath through long, wet grass - I was wearing waterproof trousers so it didn't matter - hoping it wouldn't just end in the woods; it looked well-trodden, so I assumed it would lead somewhere. And it did, bringing me out onto a cycling path that crossed over the railroad tracks. I didn't need to cross the tracks, however, but follow them on the closest road, to get to the railway station!

Soon I was on a road running parallel to the tracks, among the houses on the outskirts of Donauwörth. The road took me into a district of discount stores and supermarkets, past a shopping mall and a multi-level car park... to Donauwörth railway station! 

Mönchsdeggingen - Donauwörth 20km

A train was due to leave for Munich in just a few minutes, and I still had a valid Deutschland Ticket. So I hopped right on, and found myself in the car with space for wheelchair users. There weren't any, in fact the train was quite empty, so I was able to spread my things out and hang the wettest items over the railing to dry a little, in the hour and twenty minutes that I was on the train. I took off my hiking boots and peeled off my waterproof over-trousers; I was right next to a spacious wheelchair-accessible toilet, where I was able to change out of my wet T-shirt and into a dry one. I hadn't bothered to put my poncho on, and the rain had managed to sneak in at the wrists, neckline and zipper of my waterproof jacket 😅 

Arriving at München Hauptbahnhof was a bit of a shock after so much time on the trail, overnighting in tiny villages and small towns... the sheer variety of people was overwhelming! Including a man in lederhosen, nylons and high heels... (sorry, no picture! 😄) But I made my way through the station and the crowded concourse to the U-Bahn station, managed to find the right track, got off and transferred to a streetcar... all following the precise instructions sent to me by Emma, my friend and hostess for the evening, now 39 weeks pregnant!! 😮

And so here I am, after one final, wet day on the Via Romea Germanica, ready to spend an evening with my friends, and most of tomorrow too, before catching the direct overnight train home. It's been an amazing 44 days and 930 kilometres! I've walked from the mouth of the Elbe to the Danube, from a land where passers-by greet you with Moin to the land where they say Grüss Gott. The cherry trees were in blossom when I set out; today, I ate ripe cherries off the tree. 

Time to go home and take a break! 

Bis bald, Via Romea Germanica!!

Via Romea Day 43: Nördlingen - Mönchsdeggingen

Wie merkwürdig ist die Situation von uns Erdenkindern. Für einen kurzen Besuch ist jeder da. Er weiß nicht wofür, aber manchmal glaubt er, es zu fühlen.

(Strange is our situation here upon earth. Each of us comes for a short visit, not knowing why, yet sometimes seeming to divine a purpose.)

- Albert Einstein,  Wie ich die Welt sehe (How I see the World), 1930

Corpus Christi: a public holiday in Germany, the first day of a four-day long weekend. And so, of course, it's going to rain for four days straight! At least that's what the weather forecast said. I planned a short stage for today, only 16 kilometres, as the alternative was a long 27-kilometre day all the way to Harburg. 

The sun was shining when I left my hotel outside the walls of Nördlingen, but there were big black clouds in the sky, so I put my raingear on as a precaution. 

I left my hotel by the train station and walked to the Deininger Tor city gate, built in 1389, where I climbed up to the ramparts in order to walk a section of the wall. It's possible to walk a circle all the way around Nördlingen on the ramparts, which would have looked awfully cute on my gpx track, but would also have added 3 km to my walk, which I didn't need! So I descended the steps at the Reimlinger Tor and made my way out of town, following the same route I had walked in December, when I was here with my friends visiting the Christmas markets, to the Hexenfelsen.

Deininger Tor

Reimlinger Tor

I realised during my visit to the Rieskrater Museum yesterday that what I had thought was the rim of the crater in Marktoffingen was actually the northern rim of the inner crater, shown as a dotted line in the image above, while Nördlingen itself is situated just inside the southern rim of this inner ring. Fremdingen, where I set out from yesterday morning, was on the northern rim of the outermost crater, while Mönchsdeggingen, where I finished my walk today, is on its southern rim, which I will be walking around tomorrow on my way towards Harburg. Nifty!

Walking out of Nördlingen therefore involved an uphill stretch to the Hexenfelsen, meaning "witches' stone", on the top of the inner rim. This inner ring, with a diameter of about 12 km, was formed when the impact of the asteroid caused the "crystalline basement" of violently compressed rock with a depth of 600 to 800 metres to be raised to the surface. According to the explanatory sign at Hexenfelsen, the ring wall of granites, gneisses and amphibolites represents the thin rock rim of a primary crater that was temporarily 4 - 5 km deep and had a diameter of almost 15 km. This primary crater was unstable, and collapsed to become a flat, 25 km wide bowl-shaped depression with a central bulge and a peripheral rim.

The inner crater ring is still visible today as a ring of elevated locations: Wallersteiner Felsen, Marienhöhe (Galgenberg-Hexenfelsen, Meyer's Keller, Stoffelsberg), Adlersberg, Hahneriberg, Steinberg and Wennenberg near Alerheim. The bedrock of these hills is mostly overlaid with carbonate deposits (limestone, dolomite) from Lake Ries, which was formed after the crater was created and lasted about two million years. This sequence of crystalline rock and Ries Lake carbonates, typical of the inner crater ring, can still be clearly observed at Hexenfelsen. 

Hexenfelsen 

As I walked over the flat fields on the other side of this inner ring, the storm you see in the picture above blew across the sky, and I had to put on my rain poncho and stop taking pictures for a while! But once the storm had blown over, it gave way to a beautiful sky and occasional patches of sunshine.

I took a shortcut along the road at one point, as there was very little traffic,  today being a holiday. And so a short day was made even shorter! I was soon skirting the woods that cover the rise forming the outer rim of the crater, then crossing the last couple of fields coming into Mönchsdeggingen, the only place before Harburg where I could find a guesthouse. 

Kloster Mönchsdeggingen was a Benedictine monastery founded in the 10th or 11th century. It burned down in 1512/13 and was rebuilt under Abbot Alexander Hummel; the pilgrimage church was later redesigned in ornate Baroque style. The monastery was dissolved in 1802 due to secularisation, and became the property of the Princes of Oettingen-Wallerstein. In 1950, the Congregation of the Missionaries of Mariannhill took over the monastery as a novitiate for prospective priests, and the generalate of the order, based in Rome since 1970, was also housed here. When the last brother left in 2009, the monastery was finally dissolved. The monastery church and the cemetery became the property of a church foundation, which continues to operate both; the remaining monastery buildings were sold to an investor in 2017, supposedly for conversion into private apartments, though it didn't look very much inhabited when I walked by. The church, however, is beautiful, in a flamboyant Baroque way!

Other than walking up to the Kloster, I spent the rest of the afternoon in my room at Gasthof am Buchberg. I even took a nap, and a bath - the plug had been removed from the tub, but I always carry a silicone universal travel plug, great for foiling guesthouse owners who would prefer you to take a shower, and hotels where they don't want you washing your socks in the sink!

Nördlingen - Mönchsdeggingen 16 km

Walking to the rim of the crater!

Via Romea Germanica Day 42: Fremdingen - Nördlingen

Das zuerst verborgene und verschlossene Wesen des Universums hat keine Kraft, die dem Mute des Erkennens Widerstand leisten könnte.

(The original hidden and reserved essence of the universe has no force capable of withstanding the courage of knowledge.)

- G.W. F. Hegel (1816)

Rain was predicted in the afternoon today, but I started out quite late nonetheless, because my landlady had specified breakfast at 8:30, so she would have time to get fresh bread from the baker, if I understood correctly. She asked if I wanted cheese or scrambled eggs with my fresh bread buns, and I opted for more of those delicious fresh eggs from the family's own chickens that I had eaten for dinner! I then set out across the fields, watching Raustetten recede into the distance. 

I walked through the village of Enslingen, and then Minderoffingen, where I went into the little church in search of a pilgrim stamp - and found a lady arranging flowers who talked my ear off for a quarter of an hour, not realising, or not caring, that I could only understand about five percent of what she was saying 😅. Luckily she didn't ask many questions or require much in the way of answers! 

On today's walk I came across a different aspect of the maypole tradition. In certain parts of Germany and Hungary, on the night before 1 May, young men erect young birch trees in front of the homes of their sweethearts. These trees, which may reach five meters of height or more, are sold beforehand by local foresters; they are usually decorated with multicolored crepe paper and a red heart of wood with the suitor's name written on it. 

In another village. Is Simon a two-timer? Or are boys called Simon particularly romantic?

Andy! I didn't know you had a girlfriend in Bavaria! 😄

As I came over the fields into the village of Marktoffingen, I had the distinct feeling that I was standing on the edge of something. And, being familiar with the history of Nördlingen - I have been there twice before - I could guess what it was: the Nördlinger Ries. An impact crater 24 kilometres in diameter, this depression was formed almost 15 million years ago, when a meteorite weighing approximately 115,000 tonnes and measuring over a kilometre in diameter hit the earth at an estimated speed of 72,000 km/h. The resulting explosion had the power of 1.8 million Hiroshima bombs, and ejected 175,000,000 tonnes of rock, about 1500 times the weight of the meteorite projectile itself, which evaporated entirely in the explosion. Boulders and chunks of rock were ejected from around the site of impact so violently they can be found 400 kilometres away.

An area about 200 km in diameter was devastated, destroying all plant and animal life and covering the area up to 25 km from the impact point with a layer of ejected material. The pressure wave emanating from the impact most likely felled trees all over southern Germany.  

But what was at the time an ecological disaster created a new lake, offering ideal conditions for new life to develop, and the Ries crater was most likely green again within a century. Ries Lake covered 400 square kilometres and lasted 2 million years before it dried up; fossil finds indicate that the area was populated by ducks, pelicans and flamingoes, as well as a variety of small mammals.

Another side effect of the impact was the creation of 72,000 tonnes of tiny diamonds, many of which are enclosed in the stone used to build the cathedral and other buildings in the city of Nördlingen. 

Nördlinger Ries is an easily accessible, large impact crater, a convenient analogue for lunar craters which was used in 1971 to train Apollo 14 astronauts to investigate lunar impact structures and related rocks. It is also the only example on earth of a rampart crater, a specific type of crater normally found on Mars, formed by a process analogous to firing a bullet into mud.

I descended inyo the crater through the streets of Marktoffingen, and could see low hills all around me, in every direction - the rim of the crater, eroded over the past 15 million years.

Looking back at Marktoffingen, on the rim of the crater

I walked along the cycling path beside the road for a while, then turned off across the fields to Wallerstein, where I stopped in a bakery and café for a cheese pretzel and a wine spritzer. 

Allotment gardens in Wallerstein 

The local fire department erected the maypole in Wallerstein 

Downtown Wallerstein 

The home of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde? 😄

I used the café wifi, the electrical outlet to charge my phone, and of course the washroom, then got moving again. I stopped again in the next village, Ehringen, and sat in a bus shelter eating strawberries until some threatening black clouds had blown over; it only actually rained for a couple of minutes. I walked the remaining couple of kilometres into Nördlingen, and stopped at the Rieskrater Museum, located in a 16th-century barn just inside the city walls. 

Nördlingen 

In the museum, I learned more about the meteorite impact, and bought a book called "How to find stardust", which tells you how to identify micrometeorites. The Earth is hit by around 100 tonnes of cosmic dust every day - around 40,000 tonnes per year, and though large impactors are very rare, in one giant event they can deliver millions of tonnes of cosmic material. The majority of the mass of tiny micrometeorites, however, results from the large number of particles falling from space every year. These are mainly grains of cosmic dust. Most of these tiny particles burn up in the atmosphere, and can be observed at night as shooting stars. But around 1,600 tonnes of these particles survive the passage through our atmosphere every year, landing on the earth's surface in the form of micrometeorites.

In other words: every year a particle with a diameter of 0.1 mm falls on every square metre of earth. Cosmic dust is everywhere! I hope to learn how to identify it from the book!

Next door to the Rieskrater Museum, and included in the same ticket, is the Stadtmuseum, which goes into great detail about the town's history. I didn't have time to give either of these museums as much attention as they deserve, because I arrived at 3 and they were closing at 4:30. But I took a quick look at the exhibits on local history, and one captured my attention in particular: about the tomb of a medieval pilgrim. During the renovation of the Nördlinger Hospital Church in 2018, archaeologists discovered a number of well-preserved graves from the 13th to 15th centuries. At this time, people were normally buried without any objects, in simple wooden coffins or shrouds. So archaeologists were surprised when they discovered five distinctive seashells on the upper left part of one body: symbols of the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela. The location where the body was found indicates that it was the body of a returned or returning pilgrim, who had received shelter and care in the hospital prior to departing on his final pilgrimage.

It was raining when I came out of the museum, which cut short my exploration of Nördlingen! This is, however, my third visit to the town, so a visit to the cathedral made of diamonds and a quick stop at the grocery store across the way were sufficient, before heading out of the old town centre to my hotel by the train station!

But if you would like to see more of Nördlingen - from above - just watch this video!

Fremdingen - Nördlingen 18 km