Via Romea Germanica Day 31: Bad Neustadt - Rannungen

Man reist ja nicht, um anzukommen, sondern um zu reisen

(One travels not in order to arrive, but in order to travel)

- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1788)

My travels today got off to a good start with a hearty German breakfast: the guesthouse/restaurant where I spent the night also included a bakery and café, so I got a freshly baked croissant and three different types of bread roll for breakfast! With homemade plum jam, butter, yogurt, a selection of cheeses and hams, orange juice and coffee. I ate the croissant and one of the bread rolls, and made sandwiches with the other two, discretely tucking them into my bag when the waitress was on the other side, serving customers in the bakery! 😁

Then I settled my bill and walked out of Bad Neustadt, crossing the river Saale.

The salt marshes of the Saale

If you think the name Saale sounds salty, you're right! The river valley is a salt marsh, a rare habitat for specific plant and fish species. Around 258 - 250 million years ago,  large parts of what is now Central Europe lay under the Zechstein Sea. Over time, the salty seawater evaporated, forming huge deposits of gypsum and rock salt. In the Saale valley near Bad Neustadt, these salts lie beneath deposited Triassic sediments at a depth of over 600 metres. Salt dissolved in ground water comes to the surface through cracks in the rock, forming inland salt marshes: rare habitats concentrated in only a few locations in central and northern Germany.

Climbing into the hills above the river valley, I came to a viewpoint over a limestone quarry: further evidence that this area was, for millions of years, under the sea. 

Five kilometres into the day's walk I reached the town of Münnerstadt, concealed in the valley between two ridges. At a panoramic spot on the way down I met a friendly lady out for a walk, and asked her to take my photo. 

The Via Romea skirts the outside of Münnerstadt, but I went into the centre to take a look around, and happened to come across the Augustinerkloster.

Münnerstadt 

Münnerstadt suffered particularly severely from the upheaval of the Reformation. The town had been the seat of an Augustinian abbey since 1279; but in the early 16th century, Martin Luther's preaching created an uproar among the farmers and citizens, who burned down the abbey of Maria Bildhausen. The riot was quelled by the reprisal of the Prince-Bishop of Würzburg, but the Augustinian monks were forced to leave town when the first Protestant priest took over the Ministry of Münnerstadt in 1552. 

In 1585 the Catholic Prince-Bishop Julius Echter purchased a large part of the town that was not already owned by the Bishops of Würzburg, and approximately 400 Protestants, mostly craftsmen, left town. In 1631 the region suffered further upheaval from the effects of the Thirty Years' war, when Swedish invaders took the town. 

The Augustinians returned in 1652 and rebuilt their abbey, in flamboyant Rococò style.

I sat for some time in the back pew of the church, charging my phone, but no-one came by except a few tourists, so I couldn't ask if there was a pilgrim stamp. I poked around in the corners of the church but couldn't find one. Nor could I see any way of getting into the cloister, though a sign said you could view it for five euros. I moved on to look for somewhere to get a snack, thinking I would save my sandwiches for tomorrow, when it will be Sunday and everything will be closed. I found a bakery and had a cinnamon bun for lunch instead!

Then I continued on my way, out past the old tower and gate in the town walls.

A narrow road or cycling path took me through the valley of the Talwasser stream to the Talkirche, a little church in the woods, with a life-sized crucifixion scene carved in wood on the grass beside it. The church was closed, but I peeked in through a glass panel in the door. In Münnerstadt I had seen a notice announcing that a service would be held at the little church at 3:30 pm, but it was not even 2 o'clock, and an hour and a half seemed like a long time to wait in the middle of nowhere! And I had another 7 kilometres to walk to Rannungen. So I rested for a while lying on one of the benches outside the church, listening to the birds singing and watching some big black clouds approach. When I was sure the clouds were going to blow over without bringing any rain, I moved on.

The trail took me through the woods and crossed over the Autobahn. I could now see the rooftops of Rannungen, and the church spire, over a hill or two. Gradually they came closer, and soon I was walking the streets of the village looking for the address of my hostess. Gabriele is a pilgrim herself and has walked the Via Romea Germanica from Stade to her home; she plans to continue in the future. After husband passed away, she walked for four months, from her home across Germany, France and Spain to Santiago, and when she came home again, she decided to set up a room in her home for pilgrims on the Via Romea. Gabriele made me a delicious dinner of potato and beetroot patties with rice and lentils and a cucumber salad, followed by a rhubarb pudding - it was so nice to eat home-cooked food again! Then she made a phone call to help me straighten out my accommodations for the next few days. All the while putting up with my extremely primitive German! 😅

Approaching Rannungen

Bunk beds in the pilgrim room

With Gabriele 

Gabriele doesn't have a guestbook to sign; she has a guest wall!

Bad Neustadt - Rannungen 24.5 km