Ja, renn nur nach dem Glück Doch renne nicht zu sehr. Denn alle rennen nach dem Glück Das Glück rennt hinterher.
Everyone chases after happiness, not noticing that happiness is at their heels.
― Die Dreigroschenoper (Threepenny Opera) (1928)
The Via Romea Germanica south of Donauwörth is very well marked, so I only occasionally need to refer to my gps tracks, and then only for reassurance, or out of curiosity, to see what might be coming up next. The Jakobus Pilgerweg is even more frequently marked, and today I followed this route all the way to Augsburg.
I set out from my guesthouse, passing again by the church where Mozart played the organ at the age of ten, and continued along a cycling path beside the road. After three and a half kilometres - close to an hour of walking - the route veered off across the fields to follow a dirt road beside a stream called Schmutter, a tributary of the river Lech.
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| Monument to Mozart outside the church in Biberbach |
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| The cycling path |
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| The dirt road |
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| The Schmutter |
After several kilometres the Jakobus Pilgerweg returned to a cycling path by a busy road leading into Gersthofen, a village that has practically become an industrial suburb of Augsburg. I passed by an odd-looking construction that turned out to be the United States Army Security Agency (USASA) Field Station Augsburg, the site where a Wullenweber AN/FLR-9 (V8) radio direction finder operated between 1970 and 1998, attempting to intercept "enemy" communications from behind the Iron Curtain during the Cold War years.
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| USASA Field Station Augsburg radio antenna, on the far side of a potato field |
As I passed the giant radio antenna, a cold wind began to blow and the rainstorm I could see on the horizon seemed to be blowing closer. I hastened my steps with the aim of arriving in Gersthofen before the rain; but soon another worry put the rainclouds out of mind. A sign indicated that the cycling path I was following was closed up ahead due to construction work, showing a detour. But I forged on ahead, confident that pedestrians can pass even where cyclists cannot; though I was concerned because the next stretch involved navigating a roundabout and a highway off-ramp in an industrial area. There turned out to be no obstacles, however, even for cyclists; perhsps the detour sign was a remnant from an earlier phase in the construction project!
I ignored a bend in the Pilgerweg and carried on straight ahead along the cycling path beside the road into Gersthofen, where I sat down for a break on a bench beside a bus shelter until I was sure the rainstorm was not coming my way. There were a number of cafes nearby that I could duck into if the storm broke. When I made up my mind to get going again, however, I only made it just across the street - where I found a bakery and café with a tempting array of cinnamon and other buns! I settled for cream cheese and apple flavour, with a lemon ginger tea.
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| This nice old lady looked after my backpack while I ate my bun 😅 |
I walked along the road out of Gersthofen, crossed a canal and the River Lech, then continued down a gravel road on the far side of the Lech - a greener way to get to Augsburg, rather than walking through the suburbs. The gravel road, frequented by walkers and cyclists, ran parallel to the river but separated from it by the trees, so I only got occasional glimpses of the water, until I came to the second weir. It began to get tedious, but in another half hour I crossed the bridge and entered the city of Augsburg, passing through the Jakober Tor - the city gate on the way to Santiago.
I soon came to the church of St. Jakob, where the pilgrim accommodation is located right in the church tower. However, I had a couple of hours to spare before meeting the volunteer who would let me into the pilgrim accommodation at 5; so I continued on into the town centre, as far as the cathedral, stopping in at Berthold Brecht's childhood home, now a museum.
The exhibits were only in German, and too hard for me to understand, but I looked at the pictures and the old editions of his books, and as the admission price was only 2.50 and there were comfy chairs and a washroom, it was worth the ticket price even if my language skills were not up to the task!
The cathedral had a beautiful pilgrim stamp and so it was worth the extra distance walked to get there too, even if I had been there twice before.
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| Flowers and candles in honour of the Jubilee Year, Pilgrims of Hope |
Augsburg
Augsburg (pop. about 300,000) is Germany's second-oldest town, founded by the Romans in 15 B.C. as a military camp, originally located on the high ground where the cathedral now stands. Augusta Vindelicum, also called Aelia Augusta beginning in 121 or 122 AD, was the capital of the province of Raetia from the end of the 1st century. A city wall was built around 160 AD. Thanks in part to its protection, the Roman city of Augsburg survived into late antiquity.
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| The marketplace in Augsburg, 1551 |
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| The marketplace today |
During the sixteenth century the city became an early centre of capitalism, thanks in part to its status as the most important post office in the Holy Roman Empire and the leading role the city played in the Reformation. In 1513 enlightened capitalist entrepreneur and banker Jakob Fugger founded the world's first social housing complex, still operative in the same role today: the Fuggerei, which I did not visit today as I have visited it twice on previous trips to Augsburg. More information on Jakob Fugger the Rich, one of the richest men who ever lived, and his social housing project may be found here.
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| A house in the Fuggerei, 2015 |
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| Back in the Fuggerei in December 2023 |
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| The Fuggerei today |
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