Via Romea Germanica Day 5: Scheeßel - Bellen

Walking . . . is how the body measures itself against the earth.

― Rebecca Solnit, Wanderlust: A History of Walking (2000)

Starting out this morning from Krystyna's home in Scheeßel, I passed through the town centre again, stopping to buy groceries for lunch and have my Pilgerpass stamped at the church secretary's office. Then I left behind the red brick houses of Scheeßel and followed a cycling lane, a small road and a forest path with a boardwalk over boggy areas, coming to the village of Bartelsdorf.

There were no places of business in the village, so I continued on my way, following a dirt track through a corridor of trees between a marsh and cultivated fields. 

The dirt track emerged onto a quiet road, where there were frequent benches and picnic tables as this route is not only on the Via Romea Germanica but part of a network of local hiking paths. I sat on a bench for a long lunch break... and it was really hard to get up again afterwards! I had walked 13.5 km and had at least ten more to go.

Many more fields and trees later, I came to the town of Brockel, whose chief attractions are a windmill and a Netto supermarket. As I sat eating an ice cream at a picnic table outside the latter, an elderly lady struck up a conversation. She wanted to know all about my trip, and though I was not really able to hold up my end of the conversation, I did understand that she thought I must be crazy spending my holidays walking in Germany, if I live in Italy! 😆

My destination for the evening was another hour's walk from Brockel, in the tiny hamlet of Bellen: Widu Mühlenbau, a workshop where brothers Udal and Reimund Wiederhold make miniature wooden mills for grinding grain. You can buy their mills and sacks of organic grains, and grind your own flour at home! The mills run on electricity, or you can turn a little wheel to use muscle power instead. They deliver world-wide; here's their website!

Bags of grain and a grinding mill in Reimund's kitchen

Reimund lives in an apartment upstairs from the workshop, and hosts pilgrims in his spare room. There aren't many, he says; a total of ten stayed with him last year! 

That's what makes pilgrimage routes like this one, with so few walkers, so fantastic: people are super-hospitable, and do whatever they can to help!

Scheeßel - Bellen 25 km