Via Romea Germanica Day 41: Dinkelsbühl - Fremdingen

Im Mai weckt Gottes zarte Hand,
mit segensreichem Wirken
die Blumen an dem Wegesrand
und in dem Wald die Birken.
Oh Mensch, betracht' mit Staunen nur 
dies große Wunder der Natur!

(In May, God's tender hand, 

with its blessed work, 
awakens the flowers across the land, 

and in the forest, the birch.
Oh man, gaze in amazement 

at this great miracle of nature!)

- poem on the maypole in Fremdingen (in German, it rhymes)

There were no big groups staying at the youth hostel in Dinkelsbühl, but there were several families with children - schools being closed in Bavaria for spring break - and with dogs, too. One of the dogs had been left alone in the room next to mine and whined all evening, until its owner(s) came back at 10:30 pm! Otherwise,  everything about the hostel was perfect.  I had a four-bed dormitory all to myself, with its own bathroom, just like in a hotel. The breakfast buffet was great, and the ladies at reception were really nice; they even printed out my train ticket for me on their office printer. So I decided not to complain about the dog, which wasn't their fault, anyway!

I set off across Dinkelsbühl and out of the old town through the Nördlinger Tor.

Outside this city gate I found the letters I had seen at the opposite end of town, outside the Rothenburger Tor, in December! They've been moved!

I followed a cycling path out of Dinkelsbühl, with a minor detour through a car dealership parking lot to avoid a construction site. The cycling path followed beside the main road up to a giant sawmill, which it detoured around before heading into the village of Wilburgstetten. The most remarkable thing about this place was the stork's nest at the top of the church belltower... just like the ones I saw on the Camino de Santiago in 2019! ❤️

Wilburgstetten had a fine maypole, too! After going through the village, the Via Romea passed by a small lake and then into the woods... following dirt roads through the forest, up and down hills... 🥵 I was ready for a break, but there was nowhere to sit. Until I came to the village of Bosacker: just a clearing in the forest with a few fields and a cluster of houses, but big enough to have a name, and a bench! 

More forest roads followed, leading to Fremdingen, a small town with a population of 2000. Here I was undecided whether it was worth taking a small detour to see the church; but I was glad I did, because it had a stamp, and for the first time, I met another pilgrim stamping his credential! A bicycle pilgrim, which explains why I never met him before: we travel at different speeds. He started near Hannover, and joined the Via Romea in Wernigerode on May 19th; I was there on May 4th. By this evening he will be in Nördlingen, where I arrive tomorrow night. He is riding his bike all the way to Rome, and he also said he hadn'tmet any other pilgrims before! He was German but spoke English well, so we were able to have a little chat and wish one another well upon the Way. He informed me that I had just crossed the Limes: former boundary of the Roman Empire. And so, he said, now let us go on, to the capital: Rome!

I told him I would be going to the supermarket first. And that is what I did, though it wasn't worth the detour of several hundred metres, because they didn't have much in the way of ready-made dishes in small portions appropriate for a walker. I bought half a kilo of strawberries, because they were fresh local ones, and a vanilla pudding to eat with them, figuring I could have dessert in my room after dinner at the guesthouse!

Maypole in Fremdingen. I would have liked to go to the Beserk music festival!😄

From Fremdingen, my gps track showed a straight line, one kilometre, to my guesthouse in Raustetten. But at the local park, the waymarkers pointed off to the left. Ha, I thought, that must be a new route, but I'm going straight ahead to my accommodation. A grassy track led into the woods and then - to a red and white barrier, with a steep drop-off behind it. I couldn't see what was below, but I could hear cars. I turned back and walked the new route - 1.7 km instead of 1 - and could then clearly see a new highway in a culvert, cutting right across the old route.

In any case I was almost at my destination by this time. I was happy to see, across the field, the small agglomeration of houses that is Raustetten, which for some reason has two guesthouses! I chose the cheaper one, of course! Gasthof Jägerblick looks like it was last redecorated in 1979 😄. But it's clean, the bed is comfortable, and the lady of the house whipped me up a fine omelette and salad for dinner. I sat at a small table in the evening sunshine, all alone in the vast dining room, with a large glass of beer and a tasty dinner, watching the cats playing in the courtyard,  and it was all just absolutely perfect! 

Raustetten 

Dinkelsbühl - Fremdingen 24 km