Joanne's long walks: Via Romea Germanica Day 60: Gedeir

Thursday, June 5, 2025

Via Romea Germanica Day 60: Gedeir - Nösslach (Gries am Brenner)

Never knew before what eternity was made for. It is to give some of us a chance to learn German.

- Mark Twain (1878)

Today is my last day in a German-speaking country. And despite my best efforts, after 60 days walking a total of 1250 kilometres across Germany and Austria, I still haven't learned the language!

I began studying German on Duolingo last year, three months before my departure for the first part of the Via Romea Germanica, Stade to Donauwörth, and have continued to dedicate ten to thirty minutes a day to German lessons ever since. 18 months later, I have a "515 day streak" and have reached the last unit in the Duolingo German course - but I still can't speak German! 😫

I was beginning to make some progress and communicate in a very basic way, but when Rossana joined us and threw Spanish into the equation, my brain kicked out German to make room for Spanish. After all, you actually speak much more with your walking buddies than with people you meet along the way, and besides, Spanish is just so much easier - especially if you speak Italian! At least I'm getting a head start refreshing my Spanish for my next Camino de Santiago. 😅

This morning, the German member of our group, Annette, took the bus once again, still resting her blistered foot, while the rest of us set off along the road to rejoin the Via Romea Germanica route in Pfons. We took a detour across a suspension bridge - not on the official Via Romea route, but it went the same way and was more fun than the road bridge!

We continued along the road into Matrei am Brenner, where we stopped for a drink at a Konditorei and obtained a stamp for our pilgrim credentials from the town hall next door.

From Matrei, we followed the river Sill, repeatedly crossing over and back again. Much of today's walk was on small roads parallel to the river, the railway line, and the motorway high up on the other side of the valley.

Following the official Via Romea gps track, after the village of Puig we came to a bridge with a locked gate on it, and were wondering what to do when a man stopped his car and told us we could just keep going without crossing the river; in fact the Via Romea came back to that side less than a kilometre later. There was no road, but pedestrians had blazed a trail through the long grass of the meadow.

We skirted the town of Steinach, staying on the other side of the railroad tracks from the town centre. Coming out of the town, just as we were looking for a good place for a picnic, we came across a bar right on the trail, where a group of men were drinking beer and playing board games. The perfect spot! We sat down at a picnic table outside, ordered beer and ate our bread, cheese and boiled eggs.

The trail continued uphill, through the trees, and down to Stafflach at the bottom of the valley, then up the other side, climbing steeply from the valley floor to the level of the motorway that had looked so high up and far away before, with the big trucks looking like toy cars. Now there they were, all lined up and moving slowly on their way down from the pass; we passed right by a motorway rest stop, and could have gone in for a bite to eat. 😄

The climb begins

That's a lot of firewood!!

Contemplating distant rainclouds

Passing under the motorway

It's a long way up!

At the top, with the trucks

Just past the motorway rest stop we came into Nösslach, and were reunited with Annette, who had reached our accommodation by bus and then gone out for a stroll. So we were able to walk the last kilometre of the day all together!