Via Romea Germanica Day 28: Schmalkalden - Meiningen

Life would be much better if the speed limit was three miles an hour.

- Jennifer Pharr Davis, Becoming Odyssa: Adventures on the Appalachian Trail (2010)

I was happy this morning to wake up in a house where everyone gets up early! Ingola and Andreas had to leave for work at 7 a.m., and so we agreed on breakfast at 6:30. It was so nice not to have to wait until 8 o'clock for coffee!

On the other hand, when I arrived in the centre of Schmalkalden, after walking twenty minutes along a footpath beside a stream, everything was still closed. The church and the tourist information office would not open for another two hours, so I had to go without a Schmalkalden stamp on my pilgrim credential. Never mind: Ingola had stamped it with a pretty butterfly stamp she happened to have, and written in it for me. I didn't think of it the first week, unfortunately, but since Celle I have been asking my hosts, and people I meet along the way, to write a few words in my pilgrim credential; there's plenty of space in the giant Via Romea Germanica pilgrim pass: an empty book, the size and weight of an average trail guidebook!

I bought a sandwich from a bakery/café and walked around the centre of Schmalkalden, a town of about 20,000 people with a very long history and a lot of beautiful half-timbered buildings. The only people on the streets at 8 in the morning were children on their way to school, and the owners of a few market stalls setting up shop for the day.

I left Schmalkalden behind, heading uphill out of town to join the Hohestrasse, the "high road" of medieval origin which I had come across while walking along the Rennsteig the previous day. The Via Romea Germanica followed this road through the forest along a ridge at an elevation of around 500 metres, then turned onto another broad gravel road to begin a long, slow descent. 

It was cool and peaceful; the only sounds were the wind blowing through the trees and the birds singing. A deer crossed the road right in front of me at one point! But the side effect of an early breakfast was that by 10 a.m. I was already wanting to eat my sandwich. I came to a little shelter in the woods and stopped for an early lunch break; then I continued downhill along the gravel road to the village of Wallbach, where I sat down for a few moments in the cool interior of the church.

I continued along the side of the road to Walldorf, crossed a highway, several railroad tracks and the river Werra, and stopped at a small supermarket. I bought a banana and a mango lassie and sat on a bench in the playground beside the store to eat and drink. 

The last five kilometres into Meiningen were rather tedious, walking on a cycling track that zigzagged through the broad, grassy river valley. The asphalt was hot and hard on the feet, there was no shade, and the wind was blowing into my face, so I had to keep my head down to prevent the rim of my sunhat from turning up; only the chin strap prevented it from blowing off entirely! But the seemingly never-ending cycling path eventually went into the shade... then became a road, and finally crossed the river, coming out at Meiningen castle. I celebrated the completion of today's 27-kilometre walk with an ice cream at the eiscafé in front of the castle - which turned out to be the wrong eiscafé (explanation to follow).

Then I walked into the centre of Meiningen, stopping at the church. The kind volunteers stationed inside the door asked me if I would like to climb the tower for one euro, or sit down in one of the back pews, where a table had been set up, for some free coffee and cake! I declined both offers (thinking I should have skipped the giant ice cream and accepted the free cake) and asked if they had a pilgrim stamp, but they didn't. So I went on to my hotel.

Feeling refreshed after a shower, I thought I really should have gone up the church tower. It's only open on Wednesday afternoons,  and I just happened to arrive on a Wednesday afternoon.... surely it was meant to be! So I went back to the church, in my civilian clothes and without my backpack, paid my euro and climbed the tower.

On a landing part way up the tower was a man with a table set up with Apfelschorle and mineral water, available for a donation toward the renovation of the church. The man spoke only German, but we managed to chat a little and I told him about my pilgrimage walk and said it was a shame the church didn't have a stamp. He offered to write something in my book, and he signed it with the word "Pfarrer" before his name, so then I realised he was the pastor of the church. And the endorsement of the priest or pastor of a church is even better than a stamp! (The only thing better yet is the stamp and signature of a bishop, or an archbishop - I've managed to get a few of those in the past, too!) 

So I went happily back down the tower, then walked around the town for a bit. It was a lovely evening and I didn't want to go back to my tiny little hotel room yet, so I sat down for a beer at the eiscafé in front of the church and immediately realised this was the right place to get ice cream in Meiningen. It looked delicious, and when I went inside to use the washroom, I heard loud voices speaking in Italian. On the way back I stopped to talk: the owner and almost all the staff came from Sardinia, and were really friendly. I had ordered a beer, as I wasn't ready for another giant ice cream sundae just yet, but this was clearly the place to get ice cream in Meiningen, as the owner claimed. They're not even Italians at the other place, he said; they're from Kosovo! Didn't you see that they spelled caffetteria with one F? (Or maybe it was one T, I don't recall.) 

Thr café was closing by the time I had finished my beer - which was also giant, and very good: it was a Maisel's Weisse, which I felt I had to try after seeing the name written on the sun umbrellas in so many bars. So I sat down with the owner and he wrote in my little book... which is becoming more than just a pilgrim credential, it's a record of the people I have met, talked to, or been hosted by along the way!

I now have Italian in my book, as well as German, English, Polish and Spanish!

Meiningen 

Founded in the 6th or 7th century at the intersection of two major trade routes and a ford on the Werra River, Meiningen was the capital of the Duchy of Saxe-Meiningen between 1680 and 1918. The ducal palace Schloss Elisabethenburg, now used as the town hall, was built between 1682 and 1692.

The town now has about 25,000 inhabitants and is known as a centre of theatre, music and art. It also specialises in mechanical engineering and the high-tech and electronics industries; in addition, Meiningen has the only plant in western and central Europe where steam locomotives can still be completely built, repaired and maintained.

My home for tonight

Schmalkalden - Meiningen 27 km