Via Romea Germanica Day 51: Reichling - Peiting

Das Glück ist die kurze Zeit, in der man die Zeit vergisst 

(Happiness is that short time in which you forget time)

- Thomas R. Böckelmann

I forgot all about time and slept later than usual in my comfortable bed at Ferienwohnung Heiland in Reichling, and by the time I got to the bakery just down the street it had already been open for two hours.

The bakery in Reichling has been open since 1744.
And since 6:15 in the morning!

Poppyseed Schnecke (snail)

Once I'd had my breakfast and finally managed to tear myself away from my comfy little apartment, on the way out of Reichling I caught my first glimpse of the Alps, peeking through the clouds in the distance! By the end of the day, they would be looming much closer. 

For the first time on this trip I found myself walking on a road without a sidewalk or cycling lane, or even a walkable shoulder. There were not many cars, but they were travelling fast, so I clipped bicycle lights onto my walking poles for added visibility: a white light facing forward on the right-hand pole, and a red light facing back on the left-hand pole. That way the appropriate light is always outermost, whichever side of the road I walk on. I keep these lights - which I found at a supermarket - in a side pocket of my backpack so I can take them out and put them on quickly when necessary. 

I followed the road all the way into Epfach, formerly the Roman city of Abodiacun on the Via Claudia Augusta. 

A bit of history: the Via Claudia Augusta 

The Via Claudia Augusta was a Roman road connecting the valley of the Po River with the Roman province of Rhaetia, encompassing areas that are now parts of eastern Switzerland, southern Germany, western Austria, northern Italy and Lichtenstein. 

In 15 B.C. Caesar Augustus appointed his stepson, General Nero Claudius Drusis, to improve the passage through the Alps and reinforce Roman military control over the Germanic peoples of Rhaetia. What used to be a trail for pack animals was consolidated as a proper road suitable for wheeled vehicles in a process that took sixty years and was completed under General Drusus' son Emperor Claudius. 

The northern end of the Via Claudia Augusta was on the south side of the river Danube, which until the end of the first century A.D. marked the northern frontier of the Roman Empire. Here the road branched out sideways into an important Roman military road running from West to East along the south side of the Danube river (the "Via Militaris Iuxta Riva Danuvii"), known to This modern-day German historians as the Donausüdstrasse. 

In the 1990s, interest in long-distance walking and cycling routes led to a revival of the Via Claudia Augusta, and it is now the principal cycling route over the Alps.

Leaving Epfach behind, I headed out across the fields along the cycling route on a paved road, and soon got caught in a rainstorm! Miraculously a bus shelter appeared among the fields - out here in the middle of nowhere! It had no bench, but I sat on my backpack and waited, listening to the sound of the rain falling on the glass. 

When the rain subsided I carried on along the cycling track, and saw a doe and fawn running across the field. I pointed them out to a couple of cyclists who had stopped to take each other's pictures in front of the view over the Lech river valley, for we were on the edge of a steep drop down to the river. Because of the risk of more rainshowers, I didn't follow the scenic route of the Jakobus Pilgerweg along the river, but took the more direct cycling route all the way to the next town, Kinsau.

Back out in the countryside, I passed a herd of curious cows who wanted to follow me all the way to Rome! 

My route went into the trees and became a narrow forest trail along the top of a cliff. I emerged out into the fields again, then stopped at a roadside chapel before coming into the village of Hohenfurch.

The church was pretty - and had a public toilet in the churchyard, as German churches occasionally do - but there was another attraction I wanted to see in the village. I walked an extra block to the Garteneisenbahn: a miniature railroad set up in the garden of a house. Complete with shops, factories, a church and wedding scene, and even (look carefully...) a nudist colony! 😅

The owner of the house, Roswitha, came outside to say hello and tell me more about the Garteneisenbahn. She and her husband built it all themselves. I asked her what about when it rains, and she replied that the miniature railway was weatherproof. The only problem is when it's really windy, she reported. She went back into the house to get out a guestbook to sign, and asked me to put a pin on a map of the world showing where I was from. I put the pin in Vancouver Island, as there were already lots of pins in Italy and no room for any more! Then I asked Roswitha if she had a stamp for my pilgrim credential, and she didn't but wrote in my book and glued in a card. With superglue! We said goodbye and I headed out, but the garden gate was very stiff and when I pulled it shut, a couple of pieces broke off the ceramic chicken (visible in the first photo) with the words inviting visitors to come inside on it! I called Roswitha over and apologised, though I couldn't think of the right words then and there (I've never had to  apologise for anything in German before). She shrugged it off so I suggested she might use her superglue on the chicken. Es tut mir leid, Roswitha!

What I should have done next was cross through Hohenfurch and pick up the official Via Romea Germanica route through Altenstadt and Schongau. But I chose instead to take the most direct route to my accommodation in Peiting. I turned off a road too soon and took what took what turned out to be a shortcut, which was fine until the trail I was following petered out in the middle of the woods. Unable to go any further forward, I took a side trail which required me to squeeze very carefully through a narrow passageway with a barbed wire fence on one side, and an electric fence on the other! I made it through with only a slight buzz of electricity, but then found myself in a field of waist-high wet grass. Luckily I was still wearing my waterproof trousers! I continued through an enchanted wood and eventually came back onto my intended route, having had a few adventures and saved myself a few kilometres. I celebrated by sitting down on a log with a view of the Alps to eat some hummus and carrots and a pretzel.

I walked down the hill into Schongau and crossed the bridge over the river Lech, but as it was starting to feel like a long day I didn't follow the twists and turns of the official route, which follows the bends in the river and then goes up the hill and down again into Peiting; I followed the cycling track beside the main road around the bottom of the hill instead. Finally arriving in the centre of Peiting, I realised with dismay that my bed and breakfast was another two kilometres away, on the far side of the town. Well at least that's two kilometres less to walk tomorrow!

The guesthouse owner, Frau Reisacher, explained things to me, asked me to fill in a form to select my preferred breakfast foods, and then opened the miniature refrigerator and pulled out a huge heart-shaped slice of pink cake. There was beer in the fridge too, so I drank the beer and put the cake back in the fridge for later, as I was meeting the Streckenpatin, the person in charge of this section of the Via Romea Germanica trail, for dinner. Sylvia came to pick me up so I wouldn't have to walk the two kilometres back into the town centre, and we dined at an Indian restaurant, where the staff were just as undecided as we were, whether to speak German or English 😄! In the end we settled for English, as Sylvia's English is much better than my very limited German. We had a very pleasant evening together, and then Sylvia took me for a drive around Schongau to see what I had missed by not walking through the town 🙄. She dropped me off back at my guesthouse, and I managed to get through half of the giant slice of strawberry cake! 🍰

Indisches Restaurant "Madam Curry"

Dinner with Sylvia

Reichling - Schongau 23.5 km