Automatic Translation

Wednesday, May 28, 2025

Via Romea Germanica Day 52: Peiting - Bad Bayersoien

Bleibe nicht am Boden heften,

Frisch gewagt und frisch hinaus!

(Keep not standing fixed and rooted.

Briskly venture, briskly roam.)


― 
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Wanderlied (English translation Travellers’ Song by Thomas Carlyle)


Over dinner last night, Sylvia warned me not to venture into the Ammerleite, the Ammer river valley, as it would be slippery after the recent rain. But guess where I ended up?

After leaving Peiting through a light industrial district, where every company seemed to be hiring - Wir stellen ein ! - Komm in unser Team! - I joined a cycling path and then entered the forest. The signage was a bit vague and the gps signal not so accurate among the trees, so I ended up on the path leading down into the river valley rather than across the fields at the top. A sign warned: "ATTENTION! You enter the natural forest reserve at your own risk. This forest is left to its own devices. Rotten branches and decaying trees can fall at any time. The path through the Ammerleite valley to Rottenbuch leads over numerous stairs and walkways. Sturdy footwear is essential. Danger of slipping in wet conditions!" However, the only other choice was to go back, uphill, and pilgrims don't like to go back! Ultreya means onward, and Susseya means upwards, but the pilgrim vocabulary has no word for backwards! 😅

The sign warned of fallen trees, slippery wooden stairs and walkways, and wet conditions; I encountered all of these, plus rotten and missing steps, narrow pathways at the top of steep slopes, slippery metal bridges without handrails - and plenty of mud! But the walk was no more dangerous than an average Sunday hike in the Cinque Terre, or dog-walking with my sister in Lynn Canyon in North Vancouver.  - Well, maybe a little! Let's just say it wasn't ideal for anyone who suffers from vertigo!














I emerged from the river valley muddied but unbowed, and took a break to recover before continuing through the fields to Kloster Rottenbuch. Built between 1085 and 1125 in Romanesque style, the abbey church was redecorated in High Baroque style in the 18th century. Because of its location on the pilgrimage route to Italy, Kloster Rottenbuch became the most influential house of the Canons Regular in Germany. With the secularization of the Bavarian monasteries in 1803, the monastic buildings were pulled down and the books in the monastery's precious library were sent to a paper mill. The Abbey church became a parish church, which it remains to this day.











After Rottenbuch I took a shortcut along a cycling track beside a highway, as far as the bridge over the Ammer, where I rejoined the official Via Romea Germanica route for the rest of the way into Bad Bayersoien. As I was approaching the village, the wind began to blow very hard and it started raining, so I decided to call it a day and take the bus to the accommodation in Oberammergau where I will be staying for the next two nights. - But more about that tomorrow!

Looking down at the Ammer from the bridge 





Peiting - Bad Bayersoien 16 km








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