Trondheim (Nidaros) to Santiago de Compostela

[lovingkindness]

...

 

[KiwiNomad06]

lovingkindness....Palmy being the 'small' place that it is...... Last night I was at a friendly local event where somehow the conversation came around to walking, and someone was speaking of the Camino and how she might like to walk it someday... so I told her I had walked it.... Then she asked if I knew ****** who was walking through Scandinavia at present.... I had to say, well yes, kind of.... I said that I knew who she must mean, and that I had been avidly reading all your posts on the forum, and that I knew you played in the orchestra when I was in the the chorus for Sound of Music... So Palmy is a small world, but there are at least two of us here wishing you well right over there about as far from Palmy-home as you can get!
Margaret

 

[lovingkindness]

nice to hear from you KiwiNomad.
Days 57-60 on the beach

 

[lovingkindness]

...

 

[lovingkindness]

I am walking in light, on a path so sure that I need no arrow to guide me.
I am following the sun as it silvers and weaves on drifting minds and hearts still numb from the freezing tides of sorrow.
And with the birds I wail and turn and weep as my pain is danced out on the winds of dawn
and roaring in the sea I plead to the Light, Give me Freedom.

-Lovingkindness

 

[ksam]

Lovingkindness, I don't just want a book of your wonderful pictures...I want a movie! Please! Those sea pictures are spectacular! Grazie! Karin, as always, awaiting your next post!

 

[oylero]

Lovingkindness, I don't just want a book of your wonderful pictures...I want a movie! Please! Those sea pictures are spectacular! Grazie! Karin, as always, awaiting your next post!

I would have liked not to disturb you with this matter, but when the issue became present ...
I can't help with a movie, but I have a publishing company i Norway, and for a week or two I have been thinking of the possibility making a book (not only with text in Norwegian) and have some ideas.
Feel free to contact me at http://www.efremforlag.no when you come home or sooner. Not only a publisher; I did 760 km (only – when talking to the giants) this September as my first Camino (Ávila-Oviedo-Santiago) Routemap, a "pilgrim in Spe", so to say.
Buen camino!
Oyvind

 

[lovingkindness]

Days 59-65 Heading inland

In the land of the Danes where the earth is flat and the flat-earthed people eat flattened-out bread I too am become Flat.

And if I walk to the end of the world, till the end of time will there be anything left in my flattened out mind to fall over the edge?

-Lovingkindness

 

[Debinq]

Never nothing left Lovingkindness - for surely there are always those 'seven mountains' ahead of us that most people do not see ....or do not notice

"We didn't see the seven mountains ahead of us.
We didn't see how they are always ahead, always calling us, always reminding us
That there are more things to be done, dreams to be realised, joys to be rediscovered…
Beauty to be reincarnated, and love embodied.

We didn’t notice how they hinted that nothing is ever finished,
that struggles are never truly concluded,
that sometimes we have to re-dream our lives,
and that life can always be used to create more light." (From Ben Okri - Songs of enchantment)

Ultreija

Peter

 

[lovingkindness]

Day 65 Viborg
Thanks for the poem, Peter. It's always good to focus on someone elses thoughts rather than my own. I'm sitting with my feet up in a youth hostel in Viborg reading maps and preparing for the next couple of weeks. It is a holiday week here in Denmark, the Pilgrims Center in Viborg is closed and I have missed the weekly Pilgrims Mass in the Cathedral. The women in the Tourist Bureau, however, have been fantastic, friendly and kind. It is no longer 'Pilgrim Season' so all the pilgrim hostels on the Haervejen Trail are closed and I am having to search out alternative routes and accomodation. I am no longer carrying a tent or sleeping bag so cannot take advantage of the primitive shelters or camping sites which I had hoped to use south.

I had such a happy time in Norway that I felt almost exhausted by it. When I reached Denmark I decided that I needed time for reflextion and calm so I walked the beach from Hirtshals to Sletterstrand and had no encounters.Heading inland I took the Himmerland Trail from Logstor until Moldrup, then roads. The Himmerland Trail is a converted old railway track. It was as taxing as walking asphalt but did have some nice scenery.

-Lovingkindness

 

[lovingkindness]

...

 

[lovingkindness]

Day 67 Viborg Domkirke

 

[lovingkindness]

Viborg Cathedral

Today I fled the flat and entered the spires of an ancient church and there as I prayed a strangely wrought song composed itself: Weaving beyond and above a liturgical ‘Ground’ came the apniac snores of a sleeper pew-bound, and within the tides and waves of this glottal sound, came the jangle of a cell phone.

I have no idea what the Pastor said as she spoke in a language not yet in my head, so for thirty odd minutes I absorbed her drone to the frescoes. And as the frescoes ‘spoke’ a baby screamed and a choir sang anthems in a chordal dream and at the end of each stanza so perfectly sang they went flat.

So at the end of this ‘work’ I circled the nave and walked in the crypt and viewed a few graves, and there in the midst of much flat-eyed art saw the devil. But reigning above in a flat-paint sway on a gigantic throne in pastel array with hands outstretched in a passionless pray was Jesus. And in the golden glow of candles and light, embraced in a sheen of green-coloured plight I chose to forsake my flat, tired bent and turn upward.

And all the way ‘home’ in the icy rain, under leaden skies and leaden terrain I sang songs to my heart and sharpened my brain, determined: There are 277 kilometres between Viborg and Padbourg. They are quite flat and I will walk them.

-Lovingkindness

 

[KiwiNomad06]

I have travelled through Denmark on the train and was struck by its remarkable 'flatness'. It is hard to imagine covering all that distance at walking speed, and it somehow puts a different perspective on the Meseta, which is not nearly so far or flat.... Go well lovingkindness, and may your determination remain strong.
Margaret

 

[ivar]

Once I visited Denmarks highest mountain.... Took the boat there... ...that says something. We actually biked from the northern tip down to Copenhagen... Beautiful country!

Buen camino!
Ivar

 

[lovingkindness]

Day 70 at the B&B
Yesterday I walked too far and now I'm suffering. 30 kilometres a day used to be easy. Now I only seem to manage 20 before wanting to quit. There is nothing to do and no one about and I feel cooped up and crazy. -l

 

[lovingkindness]

Days 71 to 75 on The Haervejen Trail
I am stranded in gorgeous and strange colours, adrift in shades of feeling. The birds have departed The Haervejen and so have people but I hardly seem to notice.

There is something about long distance walking which alters the mind, that peels the senses and leaves one skinless and some days no matter how hard I try to think nothing sensible appears. My thoughts focus then refract then focus again and disappear and after a while there is nothing.

Lovingkindness

 

[lovingkindness]

...

 

[ksam]

And thru all that you see the beauty around you and share it. Gracias, Karin

 

[lovingkindness]

thanks, Ksam
-Lvgkdns

 

[lovingkindness]

Day 76 at Jelling,
the haunt of Harold Bluetooth, King Gorm the Old and his Queen Thyre (10th century)
the birthplace of a nation, viking burial mounds and an ancient church.

 

[lovingkindness]

Day 78
I came across a girl one day in a place not far from here. She communes with trees and leads a dreamy life hypnotising souls and sticking pins in people. I asked her, What is the language of trees and she replied, Silence. They speak in Calm and withdraw deep within as their leaves begin to fall. They say that like the trees we too should practice quiet and shed our surplus ‘skin’ and as the skies begin to sleep and the mists begin to swirl we like gentle colours should become soft and weep too.
-Lovingkindness

 

[CaroleH]

......you walk through two landscapes, the physical . . . and the landscape of your mind. The two are interwoven and represented in such a wonderful way.

Buen camino
Carole

 

[ksam]

You (and the trees!) remind us we are a part of nature, as much as we think ourselves separate and distinct. We are not. So rejoice in it.

Where are you currently???

Pax, Karin

 

[lovingkindness]

Day 82
Where am I? What a complex question. Which part of my multifaceted always-changing personage can/could/should/is even able to reply?
..............................The outer part of me is still slogging away in Denmark........................................The inner part is all over the place.......
....Cheers

Lovingkindness

 

[Caminando]

Well done ! Buen camino!

 

[lovingkindness]

Day 81 Indulgences
I’m sitting in bed with a raging head cold eating mangoes and Danish pastries. I’m reading Mr Sammler’s Planet by Saul Bellows (Nobel Prize for Literature) simultaneously with Shopaholic & Sister by the ‘number one bestseller’ Sophie Kinsella. I also have The New Testament in King James English stuffed in my pack and a list of plans and priorities but they can wait. For days I have been craving the chance to hole up in bed and now I have it. The radiator is on full bore and the air is stuffy and stale, so here goes. Shopaholic & Sister: …God, my nails look fab… Mr. Sammler’s Planet: ….he thought, since he had no job to wake up to, that he might give sleep another chance [plus much more in an unpalatable vein].

And after ploughing through 38 pages of these books I, too, fell asleep, but not before pondering probability and fate and wondering why it was that, having earnestly craved a good read for so long, having rummaged through every second-hand book store I could find from Viborg to Vojens, the only English novels to come my way were these -one ugly in its sordid realism, the other insanely frivolous. So then I turned on TV just in time to be cosseted and comforted by a Hollywood movie starring New Zealand’s very own Anna Paquin and a pack of waddling geese…
-Lvgknds

 

[lovingkindness]

Day 81 quack?
In reply to my forum buddy who is ultra-particular about words but too nice to publicly point out my errors

Ok, so is it a pack or a gaggle? ....gaggle?pack?gaggle?pack?gaggle?....If you say it fast enough I don't think it matters. Geese are such aggressive creatures. Five seconds after this shot they went on the attack, ten minutes later an Alsation sunk its teeth into my Gortex thigh and all the rest of the day it poured and rained and seeped miserable precipitations.. so I think the word 'pack', which has a vicious, malevelant, hysterical feel to it might just fit....
-Lvkdns

 

[Debinq]

Oh no!

Hope the bite will not hold you up / slow you down too much

que tenga suerte

Peter

 

[ksam]

Ugh (head cold) Ouch (dog bite) :shock:

Are you ok...skin broken or anything...Seriously that could be a real problem.

Hope the rest of the day in bed went better and your feeling up to trekking yet again.

Pax, Karin

 

[lovingkindness]

Hey, there. Yes, things are fine and getting better by the minute. Exercise is certainly a quick cure for head colds and cerebral contortions. No decongestants necessary, mental activity impossible, and a faster recovery provided you can cope with the effort. Perhaps we could market the camino as the next 'Sudafed' or tranquilizer or something. Fortunately only the Gortex got torn by the dog and nothing else. The last time I was bitten it took three months to heal and I had to school myself in calmness every time I saw a Rottweiler, a Chiuaua or even a placid Lab.
-Cheers, Lovingkindness.

 

[lovingkindness]

Days 80 to 83 just a few photos

 

[lovingkindness]

and a few more...

 

[lovingkindness]

...and another kirke....there's not a lot out there ....just tarmac and terrain.....and headcold haze..... I kept getting lost every time I tried the traditional trail so in the end I glued myself to the motorway and cycle paths for a few days... I had a lovely time in Rødekro kirke playing JSB on an electric clavier but was driven out by the tolling of death......then I arrived at the Lindely Farm where the hostess was fantastic. She gave me a grand dinner of Danish meatballs, potatoes and cream and made me bacon and eggs for brakfast then pushed me off at 7.30 am....actually, it wasn't quite like that. The wonderful hostess had a huge amount of work to do and many hours of travelling ahead herself. She was the one who took off at 7.30am. I could have left at any hour I pleased but being up and dressed and just 'rearing to go' I took my self off not much later than that...
-Lvkdns

 

[lovingkindness]

Day 84 and to Padborg
...And then it was the next day [and the day after that (and after and after again if I can find the energy)] and suddenly the German border is only an hour away and the urge to cross is powerful. I feel exited and emotional and also reluctant. For thirty days I have been walking from Hirtshals to Padborg and it has been solitary and difficult. Every inch is imprinted on my soles and planted somewhere within my psyche and now I feel very much a part of the landscape, awash in beautiful light and varied, muted colours. I don’t want to leave....I do want to leave…no I don’t…… people have been kind to me here ….yes/no/yes/no….. International travel is far too taxing. It’s 10.30 am and the last Danhostel on Viking earth is just up ahead so perhaps I should dally a while, take time to reflect and consider, tie up a few loose ends and sleep, indulge in my last Danish pastry, find the last piano in the last Danish kirke, play some polyphony and say a few prayers. Passing from one country to the next is momentous. It deserves grand ceremony.
-Lovingkindness

 

[ksam]

Just a little reminder...those are modern borders! Bet the Vikings ventured below the current "German" border! So don't let modern conventions trouble you...after all it's all Gods earth.

Question..what are those black apparently metal things on the outside of the white church? They look for all the world like swords??

As always, loving your journey as I sit here at home. Wishing I could actually be there. SO for now just journeying in my heart!

Pax, Karin

 

[jabri]

Question..what are those black apparently metal things on the outside of the white church? They look for all the world like swords??

Pax, Karin

These metal things are cramp-irons, we call it "wall-ancors", they are connected with the inner skeleton of the building and they keep the wall to the building. In these times they were made by a blacksmith. There is a large variety of forms, just straight hooks, swords, crosses and also numbers which show the year of building.
Jan Brilleman

 

[Kitsambler]

KSam, You'll often see something very similar here in the States, especially in the older parts of town where there are two-story brick buildings dating to before World War I. Most often they'll have a star design, and they seem most common on the seam between the two stories. These days, they'll have a turnbuckle-type device to maintain tension (counteracting the tendency of the old walls to bow outward).

 

[lovingkindness]

Day 85 Padborg via Kruså to Flensburg
Between Kruså and Flensburg there exists a tranquil waterside path that crosses over an historic little bridge on which the modern-day border between Denmark and Germany is marked. Tourists are often photographed here and mothers bring their children to play on happy outings, to stand with one foot either side of the boundary. The path winds by a sandy beach and through a stand of ancient trees before reaching a harbour in which old sailing ships with soaring masts and canvas sails are moored.

The alternative is on tarmac alongside a busy motorway passed a collection of sleazy sex shops, liquor outlets and roadside stores reeking of fat and spicy frankfurters. Here the border is announced on a billboard with ‘Deutschland’ stencilled in white within a circlet of golden stars on blue. It flits past obscured by streams of rushing traffic and roaring trucks billowing fumes. On this route one arrives in Flensburg via a derelict industrial area with boarded up windows, desiccated weeds and graffiti and there in it's dreary midst, full of echoes and melancholy gloom is an uninhabited playground, its swings and slide rusted out and forsaken.

And, yes, you guessed it, the latter is the route which I found myself on because once again full of dreams and nothingness I forgot to take note and missed a turn. The day became interminable and disappointing and when I finally reached the Flensburg Jugend herberge it was shut. The hike there and back added 6 kilometres to my day and I got lost heading to the city and to add misery to disconsolate fed-upness and self pity the only accommodation I could find late in the day was another 20 minutes’ walk in the opposite direction and as I stepped inside the room I was embraced by icy air and odourous damp and this came without linen or breakfast.
-L.

 

[ksam]

Ok .. so here's to hoping that all you meet from this point on in Germany is Herzliche Willkommen! Und eine gute reise, meine freundin!

Maybe a good German bier will help??? Schlaf gut!

Bis spater, Karin

 

[lovingkindness]

Days 86 to 89 in and about Flensburg
Moin, moin og Farvel but not quite yet because just when I thought I was leaving Denmark and due to say Guten Tag, wie geht’s I discovered that the long arm of the Danish kindness hadn’t finished with me quite yet. The next day, out of the black flew another miracle of Santiago. Down a billion cables, telephone wires and digital connections descended a call and instead of moping about Flensburg in the rain listless and alone, I suddenly found myself in delightful company: ‘Hello my name is ------- Would you like to come for dinner? ….Would you like to stay at our house and play the piano, eat Danish food, read an English novel, join in a cross-cultural multi-faith gathering between Flensburgian Jews, Muslims, Christians, Germans and Danes, drive over the border to a thatched cottage by the Danish sea, eat with old friends by the fireside and have interesting conversations about world epidemics, a man with ten wives, the number of calories an Eskimo eats and other curious things? Would you like to pass a few days in gentle quietness in a mellow house in the company of kindly, caring souls? ….Of course I would and as fast as was polite I said Yes! And then time drifted and swirled and flew from Days 86 to 89 and all too quickly it was time to leave.
-Lovingkindness

 

[Anniesantiago]

I hope you will make a book of your beautiful photographs and your tales of adventure!
I will be sure to buy it!

 

[KiwiNomad06]

lovingkindness,
I am so pleased you were given this nourishment for your soul! It is a real blessing whenever you meet such kindness.
Margaret

 

[lovingkindness]

Day 90 Leaving Flensburg

 

[lovingkindness]

Day 90 on the way to Suderschmedeby
I saw a Camino shell today and for a moment stood transfixed. Then full of emotion and excitement I rushed up to the pole it was glued to and hollered. I would have hugged the post and kissed the sign and even the ground it was protruding from except I thought that anyone watching might get a shock. Instead I shouted to the sky and clomped about in my heavy boots swinging hiking sticks in a frenzied, careering delirium and wasted ten minutes taking photos. 90 days and suddenly there it was, a stylised shell, yellow on cote d’azur blue, the very first Jacobsweg sign on my Way and although there are nearly 3000 kilometres still to walk, although it will probably take me the rest of my life to reach Santiago DC it felt like I’d be there tomorrow. And after that, from then out and further on in every time I saw a shell a zap of happiness hit my solar plexus and somehow I felt strong.
-Lovingkindness

 

[nellpilgrim]

Day 90 on the way to Suderschmedeby
I saw a Camino shell today and for a moment stood transfixed....Instead I shouted to the sky and clomped about in my heavy boots swinging hiking sticks in a frenzied, careering delirium and wasted ten minutes taking photos.... And after that, from then out and further on in every time I saw a shell a zap of happiness hit my solar plexus and somehow I felt strong.
-Lovingkindness

LOL I had image of you doing a sort of freestyle pilgrim stomp to the tune of Lady Gagas 'Just dance' but you'd changed the lyric to "Just walk" :lol: Actually now I come to think of it that wouldn't be such a bad walking song .........only the pace would kill you!
Nell

 

[ksam]

Day 90 on the way

LOL I had image of you doing a sort of freestyle pilgrim stomp to the tune of Lady Gagas 'Just dance' but you'd changed the lyric to "Just walk" :lol: Actually now I come to think of it that wouldn't be such a bad walking song .........only the pace would kill you!
Nell

I will never be able to look at or hear Lady GaGa with out laughing!! Oh wait...all ready doing that...but now really laughing!!

Well, they always say it's the little things that really matter...and so it goes ... Buen Camino! Gute Reise, meine freundin!!

 

[lovingkindness]

Hi Nellpilgrim this photo is just for you!! In this part of the world the Dänischer still reigns….in the Bäckerei, in the cafes, and in the Dänischer Wohld all the way beyond Kiel to at least Plön where I ate one of these.
-Lvkdns

 

[nellpilgrim]

Hi Nellpilgrim this photo is just for you!! In this part of the world the Dänischer still reigns….in the Bäckerei, in the cafes, and in the Dänischer Wohld all the way beyond Kiel to at least Plön where I ate one of these.
-Lvkdns

Thank you lovingkindness your mouthwatering photo brought back many happy memories. My sister in law, who lives in Copenhagen and Nordjylland, has learned to make little cakes/pancakes just like this for her family (immediate and extended ). She uses a sort of dimpled frying pan on the top of her oven.... anyway they are delicious especially when eaten warm in the kitchen on a cold snowy day. Enjoy as many as you can for as long as you can!

 

[lovingkindness]

Days 91 & 92 Süderschmedeby to Schleswig
I have just walked 26 ½ kms in the pelting rain under angry skies in feeble light, through ancient stands of naked trees over buried ground on rustling leaves, along cycle tracks and muddy drains all the way to Schleswig; and there, in Holm, in a Bibel museum, by a Kloster where psalms and tropes no longer spring, in an upper room with wistful panes, I came to roost…..for two nights.
-Lvgkdns

 

[lovingkindness]

Days 93 to 98 Schleswig to Plön via Kiel
In this part of the world there is only one word and that is Moin -not Guten Tag, or Hej or even Hello or Hi, just a string of Moins with a thousand different inflections. It can be heard at any time of the day or night from Flensburg to Plön & beyond in friendly exchange or as polite discourse, from the mouths of elderly men and mumbling adolescents and elegantly dressed ladies. Plattdeutsch is such a practical language. Why squander a thousand words when just one will suffice?
...Moin

 

[lovingkindness]

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[lovingkindness]

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[lovingkindness]

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[emvb]

lovingkindness -- I just read through all your (current) travels in one go this evening. I'm awed by your strength and ambition! And I love your photos and commentary.

You reported some cold nights in late summer when in Norway, and now getting into late autumn further down into northern Germany, it's got to be getting seriously chilly. I wish you health and strength on the wintery route southward.

Ultreia,
Eric (in soon-to-be sweltering Oz)

 

[lovingkindness]

Hey, thanks Eric. It's now below zero and snowing outside and I have just purchased yet another pair of gloves and am pondering the need for snow shoes....

Day 98 to Plön of blessed memory…..
I never know from one day to the next what to expect or whom I’ll meet and some days become so chaotically mixed up with unexpected encounters, kindnesses and curiosities that the very air seems filled with golden dust and miracles. And that is how it was in Plön. Whilst indulging in yet another Danish pastry in a Bäckerei packed with streudels, cream-cakes and breads an elderly lady came over. She had noticed my pilgrims’ shell and wanted to say hello. After exchanging greetings we chatted a while then as she left she turned and spoke over me a beautiful blessing. Full of happy feelings I headed off to the cobbled market and bought fruit. Later when I opened my sack I discovered that the fruiterer had blessed me, too. There, amidst my apples and pears were a handful of freshly picked clementines. Next, I had a chat with the Bio-bread man and we laughed and exchanged funny stories. He, too, hoped that I would encounter only loving souls and kindly people on my Way and as I headed off in the sleet he handed me a bag full of cookies.

It was snowing by 3 pm and almost dark so after resting a while in the St Nickolai Kirke, I decided to eat before arriving at the next pilgrim-friendly abode. I wrapped myself up in hiking Burhka with hat drawn to my eyebrows and scarf to my eyes and headed out into the frigid air for a Falafel. When I walked into the Takeaway the chef looked up, startled and stunned. He said, Who are you? and staring at my scallop shell he enquired, What are you? So I told him : I am a pilgrim, a little like those who walk the roads to Mecca and beyond. My hands and heart are in my Father-God’s and I listen and speak with Him throughout my day. He said, please, please can I come with you? Can I walk to Santiago by your side? ....and he would have dropped everything he was doing right there and then and without gear or boots headed out the door. I’m sorry, I said, Ich wandere allein. But in my heart I carry the needs of others and my tattered rucksack weighs heavy with their souls. To which he replied, Please, please will you pray for me, too? So, after eating the best dinner I have had in a very long while and drinking copious amounts of delicately scented tea, I sang him a song: ‘The Lord bless you and keep you, the Lord make His face to shine down upon you and give you Peace.’ After which I pulled out my purse to pay and he refused.

And so I sang and rejoiced as I headed up the streets of Plön bemused, wondering how it was and why it was that today all these lovely things occurred. And when I arrived at the place I had organised to stay the hostess greeted me with a smile... and there, on a table lit with candles and cheer, beside coffee and cream and a room full of art she had lovingly placed an exquisite plate full of treats.
-Lovingkindness

 

[jl]

Hi Lovingkindness, I do so enjoy reading your posts and looking at your wonderful photos. I love hearing the tales of your music making too. On previous caminos I too shared music with friends and hosts, and I am always amazed at how energising it is to stand in a church with wonderful acoustics and sing a few hymns or spirituals. For me a 10 minute sing was like a 30 minute rest, and by the sound of it you find something similar. May you continue to have opportunities to make and share music along the way, as well as your wonderful photos and words. Buen camino, Janet

 

[ksam]

Amazing journey! Will have to pray that the weight of all of us in your pack doesn't feel too heavy for you! Gute Reise! Karin

 

[lovingkindness]

Hi there, Ksam and JL. It's great to hear from you both. Cheers, Lovingkindness

 

[lovingkindness]

Days 99 & 100 after Plön….. in the footsteps of others…
Days pass and the past tremors in a daze through the air that I breathe, in the soil upon which I tread and in the burdened mind of a gentle man whom I happened upon one frozen night. I have stumbled upon Remorse, into the home and life of one who bears witness to things that should never have been. I have met a man whose father before him wrote a chronicle of sorrows meticulously accounting for every man, dog and house in his quaint but untimely village. He tells of teenagers sent to war, their lives leached and wrecked then forgotten, of death marches and post-war trials and children so bowed down that they killed themselves. He spoke of a mother holding vigil for the near-dead and dying as they staggered within feet of her gate... In April-May 1945 five hundred prisoners from Auschwitz were force-marched from Lübeck along this route, the Jacobsweg which I´m following. At every village there stands a memorial stone and a weather-proof information board least any forget.

It is hard to find oneself in a place like this and even more difficult to write about it with sensitivity and care. These events occurred long before I was born in a country far away from my own. It is hard not to ponder as I walk, to physically feel in my muscles and bones something of what those wretched people experienced as they struggled and walked without clothing, boots or food……………………………
………………………And as I looked at the ploughed, frozen fields about me to also feel a sadness and sympathy, something very strong, for the generations that came after, the ones born into peace who inherited these troubled fields and the burdens which they carry.

Peace and Goodwill to all Men (and women as well!) -Lovingkindness

 

[lovingkindness]

and so to Lübeck....

 

[lovingkindness]

Days 101 to 104 and so to Lübeck….
How good and pleasant it is when a father loves his children and the children adore the mother and the mother worships her Ehemann with shining, pretty eyes. How sweet it is to hear a little girl sing as she spins and weaves tales to a manic cuckoo clock, as the others sing canons before tea. Then when Breakfast-time comes, in the pre-dawn dark, in the glow of red candles and Peace, the father intones stories in a resonant, deep voice and auf Deutsch Pippi Longstocking appears …..in the snow, surrounded by old maps and book-laden shelves and post cards from all over the world. Or so it seemed, in a pilgrim-friendly house that I happened upon in Lübeck, in Große Grüpelgrube Straße not far from Sancta Jakobi Kirke and the medieval Gertrudenheberge with its recently discovered Jacobi frescoes (1365).

Lübeck Cont…..Many years ago, when just a young thing pounding scales and Czerny and Hanon, I heard an interesting tale set in Lübeck. It goes something like this:

Once upon a trail, a very long time ago, in 1705 on 1st of October, probably at dawn to be exact, an enthusiastic young man named Johann Sebastian Bach set off on foot from Arnstadt to Lübeck - at least I think he went by foot. I’m not sure of the details but I'm sure he didn't have a camel or any North Face, Meindl or Berghaus gear -and as he whiled the miles upon his feet he amused his mind by constructing musical cathedrals out of exquisitely twirled notes and intelligently wrought counterpoint. And every day he sang Psalms and hymns and spiritual canons with anyone he met, astonishing the locals as he improvised praeludium(s …what’s the plural?) and fugues upon every Lutheran organ he happened upon. And eventually, after a couple of weeks I should think, although records show that he played truant for three months from his job, he arrived at the feet of Buxtehude the Great -no, not Frederick the Great but Dietrich Buxtehude of Buxtehude -the famed organist/composer/Kapelle Meister at the twin-spired Marien-Gemeinde Kirke, Lübeck.

Buxtehude was so impressed by the young Johann Sebastian Bach that he offered him a position right there and then, but with a catch – if Bach wanted the post he must marry Buxtehude’s ugly, elderly daughter (she was only 30 years old but to a callow youth that must have seemed ancient). Bach looked once and thought twice and even perhaps tried to dally, but after serious consideration and probably tears -after all it was an outstanding, prestigious position, Bach declined and fled as fast as his feet would carry him all the way back to Arnstadt (and possibly beyond via Hamburg to somewhere else, because, why not see the world when you have the chance?) where he rapidly acquired two very appealing wives, had twenty children and never ventured forth again…. except to look for more work in Cöthen, Leipzig and somewhere else but definitely not for more wives...or at least none that historical documents reveal.

And that is why I headed South East in the sleet to Lübeck instead of South West from Schleswig to Glückstadt -to see the magical spires of Lübeck, to hear Orgelvespers in the Sancta Jakobi Kirke in the Alte Stadt and listen to a virtuoso play Buxtehude and JSB on the Great Organ in the beautiful Sancta Marien Kirke.

PS Local musicians have their own ‘take’ on this tale: JSB took one look at the daughter and fell dementedly, chaotically in love. He dallied and delayed and overstayed his leave but in the end his musical vanity won. Bach decided he couldn’t possibly spend a lifetime pumping musical ‘soup’ into the bath-room-like acoustics of the Sancta Marien Kirke. Nobody would ever hear the intricacy of his exquisite harmonies and melodies or appreciate how extraordinary was his talent. So, in the end, with much regret and love-lorn tears he dragged his despondent self all the way back to Arnstadt and married the first available girl, his cousin (or was it a local girl and then his cousin? Or were both girls local and his cousins? I’m not quite sure).

-Lovingkindness

 

[lovingkindness]

Vespers in the Sancta Jakobi Kirke, Lübeck…
Sancta Jakobi certainly gets around and in Lübeck he graces the seats of a choir stall, poses elegantly with cat’s whiskers on the outside of a Baptismal Font, he fades in and out and peels softly on an obscured fresco, then balances gymnastically atop a polished staircase knob. Sometimes he scowls, other times he looks exhausted and warn, and in one instance he has acquired the appearance of a beaten up boxer with bashed-in nose. In the Sancta Jacobi Kirke in Lübeck Sancta Jakobi also watches over the dead and drowned of an unfortunate boating accident. I sat for an hour one evening listening to the Great Organ played by a virtuso and was awed. In candle light the Priestess spoke and we sang a few chorales then out of the depths, floating above and through space we were surrounded by a multitude of different tonal colours and ‘voices’ as the organist revealed Buxtehude’s superb counterpoint. Ahhh……………….
-in LOV(E)ingkindness

 

[lovingkindness]

Days 104 to 111 Lübeck to Hamburg Zentrum
and so I left Lübeck one frozen dawn. I followed a canal out of the city, passed by frozen fields and snow-dusted houses and eventually arrived in Reinfeld just before a blizzard. The next day I headed along the Jakobsweg to Nütschau Kloster where I stayed overnight with the Brothers and attended sung vespers in a swirl of colour and golden glass. In Nahe I heard my second Advent concert in a week (this one in rehearsal) and stayed with a wonderful Lutheran Pastor and his family. It was so hard to leave.....next it was Hamburg-Fuhlsbüttel where the priest's angry cat scratched frantically on the window panes and yowled 'till he was let in.....and then, finally, one below-zero day I made it through the snow, the ice and mist to another abode of Sancta Jakobi -in Hamburg Zentrum, and here I am at this very minute, sitting in the cafe opposite the kirke drinking Frisch Gepresster Orange-saft and feeling happy, happy and content......

(more to come .....when I can find a way to express my appreciation and gratitude for all the kindness shown to me by local Hamburgians and their wonderfully devoted Pilgrims Priest).

-L

 

[ksam]

LovingKindness!! So happy to see you on here again...was wondering how far you'd gotten! Glad you posted that the one picture was of you, since even your eyes are barely visible. It's funny, when I saw the name Lubeck, I immediately mouthed the word marzipan. I'll have to seek some out today to quell the annual need for some. I only allow myself it at Christmas or I'd end up looking like the Christmas marzipan piggy! Stay warm. Karin

 

[lovingkindness]

hi Ksam, marzipan piggy? That's definitely me! I've gained 4 kilos since starting out from Trondheim. In Norway it was strawberries, waffles and cream plus frankfurters wrapped in bacon at the road side Kro. In Denmark it was Danish Pastries, Kafe Fløte and meatballs and now, here in Deutschland, it's Stolln every day, pumkernicle and cream cheese plus kartoffel mit sour zahne....and I've just been given a packet of Martin Luther cookies by a friendly Pilgrims Pastor. It has a cute little logo which I think I'll cut out and glue in my Pilgrims Passport -Lvgkndns

 

[lovingkindness]

arriving in Hamburg....

 

[lovingkindness]

....

 

[Debinq]

Stunning images L-k! True to form! NW European Winter wonderland in its typical late afternoon hues - splendidly captured! Was wondering when 'the war' was going to intrude into yr narrative- Flensburg being the true Nazi spiritual capital city... but the story of the 'dementedly and chaotically' in love JSB struck a stronger chord ....

ultreija!

Peter

 

[pat.holland]

Can I just say how much I am enjoying your account of your walk. I have been reading it at work where the images get screened out and so have been reading your words carefully but now that I have internet again at home, the photographs are beautiful
Buen Camino to you.
Pat.

 

[nellpilgrim]

LovingKindness!! So happy to see you on here again...was wondering how far you'd gotten! Glad you posted that the one picture was of you, since even your eyes are barely visible. It's funny, when I saw the name Lubeck, I immediately mouthed the word marzipan. I'll have to seek some out today to quell the annual need for some. I only allow myself it at Christmas or I'd end up looking like the Christmas marzipan piggy! Stay warm. Karin

LOL those Niederegger bars covered in dark chocolate are a Christmas treat in our house-just when you know you can't eat anymore someone appears with artfully cut slices of this served with dainty cups of dark coffee..... As a student Stephien had a summer job in Lubeck picking out and discarding any Mozartkugein that had been badly wrapped or damaged.....he gained about 9 pounds over the summer :shock: and has never learnt to say 'no' to Neideregger!

Loving Kindness your posts continue to be as evokative and beautiful as ever thank you.
Keep warm
Nell

 

[nellpilgrim]

Hi Loveingkindenss as a 'have to walk have to sing' sort of pilgrim I think you'll enjoy this little bit of Christmas cheer....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXh7JR9oKVE

Happy Christmas to you and everyone on the forum
Nell

 

[Anniesantiago]

Oh, that made me cry!

 

[CaroleH]

Oh yes . . .. tear to the eye and a big smile. I love flash mobs, the supposed spontaneity, and the ending. Experienced first one in Santiago, in the Praza do Toural, a group of wonderful singers, and it was amusing and fascinating the way they quickly dispersed into the crowd the second it was finished. Like we'd just imagined it.

HAPPY CHRISTMAS Lovingkindness and all on the Forum. Carole

 

[lovingkindness]

Days 113 and beyond: Hamburg.....

 

[lovingkindness]

hi, there all. Thanks for the video, NellP. It looks fantastic. I'm sitting in an Internet Cafe. Music is pounding and I can't hear a thing.....*Hi there, Carole H & Anniesantiago, Ksam & Pat.Holland & Peter DBenq and absolutely every one else out there on this planet who may be reading this. You are in my thoughts often. Have a fantastic, fabulous Weihnnachts time and festive season, whatever your situation. regards, Lovingkindness

 

[Caminando]

I do like your camino and how you talk about it in your blog.

Buen camino.

 

[jl]

You have been in my thoughts lovingkindess, as we see images over here of the havoc that the snow falls are creating in Europe. I trust that you are blessed each night with a warm safe place to lay your head, that you have a peacful and restful Christmas, and that the New Year brings you all you could wish for. (in what is turning out to be a very wet and cold pre - Christmas in Adelaide - although Christmas day is forcast to be 34 degrees!)

I do so enjoy reading your words and seeing your wonderful pictures. Regards, Janet

 

[lovingkindness]

Feliz Navidad, Caminando & Jl. Great to hear from you. I'm back in the same Internet cafe and the same loud music is blaring. I've just eaten exactly the same dinner as the one I had yesterday, but hey, who cares! It's Christmas and i've just heard, I have a bed for the night !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
-LovingK

 

[lovingkindness]

Days 113 to 121 Hamburg via Buxtehude to Harsefeld and the frozen beyond.....
In my dreams I’m sailing through air, I’m cycling through a cerulean sky and shimmering in gold with delicate leaves in suspension. I’m aloft in a chair and riding a horse and fleeing Angst on a mighty wind as I cruise down the Rhine in a silent barge/ on a feather. I am not walking….if I silvered through time on a pair of blades or flew over fields on Olympian skis, if I asked for a snow board and huskies and stars would that be allowed?....

-Lovingkindness

 

[lovingkindness]

...

 

[lovingkindness]

...

 

[lovingkindness]

Day 118 arriving in Bremen

 

[nellpilgrim]

Hi Lovingkindness,
A your snowscapes, and a friends reminder of the piece, brought the following to mind. It seems to capture that hypnotic lulling effect of falling snow.....well as long as you're not out walking too long in it!

'Yes, the news­pa­pers were right: snow was gen­eral all over Ire­land. It was falling softly upon the Bog of Allen and, fur­ther west­wards, softly falling into the dark muti­nous Shan­non waves. It was falling too upon every part of the lonely church­yard where Michael Furey lay buried. It lay thickly drifted on the crooked crosses and head­stones, on the spears of the lit­tle gate, on the bar­ren thorns. His soul swooned slowly as he heard the snow falling faintly through the uni­verse and faintly falling, like the descent of their last end, upon all the liv­ing and the dead.'

The Dead

James Joyce

Keep warm
Nell

 

[lovingkindness]

A Bremenite’s Pilgrimage* -a true story**
-heard when collecting a Pilgerstempel in the St Petri Domkirke, Bremen, Day 118
Years ago when she had a mind that was bright and a back that was straight, when her legs could bend loops and her digestion felt great a lady set off for Venice. She walked out the front door one very hot day with a tent and her daughter and not much else and along the Way they had such a lovely time until they reached the Dolomites (or some other mountain range). Suddenly, from out of the rocks and shady hollows, from overhead boughs and leaves underfoot slithered vipers and beetles and huge, gigantic lizards. They became so scared that they quit the rocks and took a train as far as they could to somewhere-else down-there on the Planes in the scorching bowels of Italy. But here the mosquitos bit and swarmed and the wheat in the fields had grown far too high, and even though they hacked and they slashed, they couldn’t see a thing. So, finding a bus they rode to a beach and slouched a few days and considered their plans and just when they had resolved to walk the rest of the Way along came a schooner. Seeing Providence’s mighty hand they hitched a sail across the waves and fathomed the depths of a few Gin & limes, and found themselves very happy and high in Venice. And there the lady bought a frightful pink suit and stuffed herself in like a fat porky pig (her words, not mine!) and lazed and reclined for the rest of their time on a Strand.

*In times of yore pilgrims from the North on arriving in Bremen overnighted in a Pilgerherberge in The Schnoor (now The Bremer Geschictenhaus). History tells that it was not uncommon for some pilgrims to sneak out after dark and head for the docks where they purchased passage and sailed all the way to Spain (unless, of course the boat sank in rough seas or was ambushed by pirates, which did sometimes happen).

**only slightly enhanced
signed, yours Truelly, L

 

[lovingkindness]

'His soul swooned slowly as he heard the snow falling faintly through the uni­verse and faintly falling, like the descent of their last end, upon all the liv­ing and the dead.' James Joyce...

Hey, Nel, I've heard of the man but never read his books. There is something almost morbid, so melancholy about his words....did you ever see the film 'Angela's Ahes'? So depressing.... L.

 

[ksam]

So happy to hear from you! Seeing all the reports of snow are exciting...and worrisome if someone is out it them! Your getting to walk thru a "Winter Wonderland!" What are your plans for Christmas??? Any idea where you will be??

One foot in front of the other...and stay warm!

Karin

 

[lovingkindness]

Days 120 to 124 walking along the Via Arctica.....from Bremen to Vechta
ps....in case you're worrying. Most of the time I now follow cycling routes close to or actually on the well-signed Jacobswegs. Snow on the cycle ways tends to be flattened out by traffic early in the day so it is less taxing on these paths to walk. If the snow is more than ankle deep I take the quickest route possible. I plan my day carefully, realising that energy is limited. To safe-guard against fatique I aim for as many villages as I can in a day and catch as many moments as I can inside cafe's. I'm eating like a glutton, consuming extra calories every day, and saying yes to everything eadible that comes my way.

-l

 

[Anniesantiago]

God Bless You Lovingkindness! You're in my prayers. I'm hearing that the snow and ice is paralyzing parts of Europe. I know you will take care. May you find a safe, warm bed and lots of great food on Christmas!

 

[lovingkindness]

...

 

[lovingkindness]

Day 122
Today I almost met an eligible man but he had to go out and catch a pig......
.....never lonesome-aber immer allein........Lovingkindness

 

[Anniesantiago]

Hahahah! Great minds think alike! Looks like you, ksam, and I were all typing at the same time! Well, I'm happy to hear your plan, and now that I've seen the food I won't worry! :lol:

 

[lovingkindness]

Day 124 and so to Vechta
Being a Pilgrim is such a fantastical thing and sometimes acts of kindness and hospitality manifest in the strangest place. Tonight I am sharing a cell with Camilla Horn, a glamorous Hollywood Star who, back in the early post-war days ‘pushed her luck’ and broke curfew. For her misdeed she received a 3-month prison term in the Vechta Zeughaus. The iron bedstead creaks, the blanket is rough and matted, the floor is concrete and cold and in the middle of the door is a viewing hatch with a flap that doesn’t shut. Nostalgic glamour shots drip from the walls and out the barred, curtain-less window snow has begun to pile. Upstairs, gracing a vaulted hall resides Jutta von Ravensberg (1231-1301) who was married off at age 13, widowed at age 17 then married off again at age 20. Jesus is her tortured companion, hanging life-size and skeletal on a wooden cross. High above, past a few dusty and cracked Stations of the Cross is a Paper Cut-Out museum and in the cell opposite mine, but thankfully out of sight, are the gruesome tools and reminders of an earlier era, of the days when witches were dunked in a pond, devils exorcized by torture and fire, and miscreants left to rot in rat infested dungeons. Sometimes I am welcomed into local homes, other times it is at a religious kloster but this time I find myself sleeping in a former prison and now Museum and I am laughing at the craziness of it all.
-Lovingkindness

 

[CaroleH]

As the craziness of Christmas takes over here . . . .. I dream and long for the other craziness of camino life, of prison cell rooms, of fantastical kindness and serendipity, of chance meetings . . . .

Go well Lk, take care and enjoy every little moment.

Carole

 

[nellpilgrim]

'His soul swooned slowly as he heard the snow falling faintly through the uni­verse and faintly falling, like the descent of their last end, upon all the liv­ing and the dead.' James Joyce...

Hey, Nel, I've heard of the man but never read his books. There is something almost morbid, so melancholy about his words....did you ever see the film 'Angela's Ahes'? So depressing.... L.

Ah I didn't mean to depress you Lovingkindness. Though I guess we Irish do tend to like a little melancholy to 'season' our joy!
Anyway I just love the way this story is written. It's the notion of snow as a gentle equaliser-falling on saint and sinner, the living and the dead without distinction-making everything pure again if only for a little while (and maybe that's all you need) that I find oddly affirming :? .
I completely agree about Angela's Ashes.............don't let that put you off though LK we 'do happy' to :lol:

Nollaig shona duit
Nell

 

[Debinq]

hi L-k
judging by pics from day 113 and 121 you could be in gingerbread house land - (only joking of course) - hope you've had a happy Xmas and 2011 will be prosperous, interesting and insightful for you - looking fwd to reading more abt yr progress

bon camino
Peter

 

[RestlessRose]

Hey Lovingkindness

I have been following your journey avidly, and am filled with awe and admiration for what you had undertaken. I hope some day I too will have the courage to embark on a similar journey.

This year is quickly drawing to a close. May the new year bring you your heart's desires and loads and loads of laughter and joy.

Go well, and keep well.

 

[giorgio]

Hallo LK, have been following your journey with deep admiration..can't wait for next posts..
Wish you all the best in 2011.
Buon Cammino!!
Giorgio

 

[Anniesantiago]

Happy New Year, Pilgrim... I look forward to reading about your travels in 2011...

 

[MermaidLilli]

Your pictures speak loudly to me of the magic and beauty of walking through the camino. Thank you for sharing them with us. You have a good eye!!
LOVE
Lillian