Via Romea Germanica Day 37: Gaukönigshofen - Aub - Sechselbach

Für jeden Morgen soviel Licht wie nötig ist für den Schritt aus dem Dunkel

Für jeden Augenblick soviel Liebe wie nötig ist um glücklich zu sein und glücklich zu machen

Für jeden Tag soviel Kraft wie nötig ist für das, was er fordert

Für jeden Abend soviel Stille wie nötig ist um in Gelassenheit die Nacht zu erwarten und das Erwachen danach

(For each morning, as much light as you need to step out of the darkness

For every moment, as much love as you need to be happy

For each day, as much strength as you need for its demands

For each evening, as much silence as you need to calmly await the night, and then the awakening)

- Wilma Klevinghaus, Pilgersegen 2024 (2024 Pilgrim blessing in the church in Aub)

A slow day. I felt like one of the many snails I encountered on the path, all out and about after last night's rain. I  crushed only one small one, and felt so bad about it I didn't want to look at my phone any more all day while walking, but watch where I was putting my feet instead. Most of the day's walk was on cycling paths, but in this case it was a good thing, because otherwise it would have been muddy. I walked over the fields all day, up and down gentle hills; every time I approached the top of a hill, the tip of a church spire would come into view, first glimpse of the village in the next valley. 

I always hoped the village would have a café, or a bakery, but it never did. But it always had a bench to sit on, and a church, or even two: Catholic and Lutheran. In the first village, Rittershausen, mass was underway when I entered the Catholic church. For most of the day I was walking on the Jakobsweg, and references to St. James and to the Camino appeared frequently, even this far away, and in some cases, with the number of kilometres to Santiago!

Several villages and many, many fields later, I came to Aub: the biggest town on my route today, with a population of 1400. The church had a beautiful Jakobsweg stamp, and there was a café/Konditorei open in the main square! I stopped in for a slice of cheesecake and an Apfelschorle, having eaten my lunch of leftover cold pizza and an apple in a bus shelter with a picnic table at 10:30 in the morning 😄

Marktplatz in Aub

I then detoured to the supermarket to pick up supplies for dinner and breakfast, as I would be staying in a self-catering flat, and struck out over the fields again for the final five kilometres of the day. I climbed a hill and the tip of yet another church spire came into view - but it wasn't the last village of the day, not yet. It was Waldmannshofen, and it had a castle, as well as a church!

Finally I reached Sechselbach and my accommodation at the Sechselbacher Spatzennest, meaning "sparrows' nest": a little holiday rental apartment above the home of the owner. Who, if I understood correctly, invited me to come down for dinner, though I declined: I was too tired to face the idea of attempting dinner conversation in German, and quite happy with the idea of dining alone in my flat! Besides, having carried the groceries all the way from Aub, I didn't want to carry them any further! I made cheese and cucumber sandwiches for tomorrow, and ate the lentil soup, egg salad, green salad, and half the cinnamon bun I had bought at the Edeka in Aub, where I also renewed my supplies of instant coffee and herbal tea. Ready for one more week on the Via Romea Germanica!

Sechselbach 

The Sechselbacher Spatzennest 

Helmut, my host

Gaukönigshofen - Sechselbach 22 km