On Saturday Ana and I escaped the city, we rented a car and loaded up the pups and just headed about 50km outside of Berlin. We booked a hotel that was just fine near Leipnitzsee, one of Ana’s favorite lakes.  I desperately needed to get out of the city and it was a welcome couple of days. We stayed two nights and hiked around the lake each day.

At some point as we were coming up over a little hill a memory hit me from my first Camino and I turned to tell Ana about it.  She replied, “What made you think of it?” I had remembered this little cart with coffee and candy at the bottom of the Pyrenees summit on the way to Roncesvalles.  I, with a few others, made it to this point still fairly early in the morning on my second day and the coffee and chocolate I bought hit the spot. The wind was whipping and others gathered and it was just…perfect.

Ana hadn’t had this experience because she did the massive hike from St. Jean to Roncesvalles the day before. I stopped in Orisson in the middle of the Pyrenees. With jetlag and just everything I stayed as per recommendation from a few friends because I wanted to wake up in the Pyrenees. I am so glad for that.  Ana had the hard one day of hiking all the way through and arriving late to Roncesvalles.  I turned to her on our hike on Monday morning and said, “I really hope that when we do return there is a cart with coffee so I can share that experience with you.”

It hit me again that that won’t happen this year.  On the other hand our plans are shaping and forming for whatever is coming up. Our hiking in Germany is just the beginning of our bigger hike in Germany.

At the same time I was searching for others who walked the route we would like to walk and stumbled upon a blog by a guy from the US.  He is a rare documentation of this route in English but he didn’t list any of the places he stayed or map out any must make sure to dos.  I looked for his contact info and nothing is listed.

I posted, a few days later, on the “American pilgrims on the Camino” facebook page a message about walking this route and wondering if anyone else had. This blogger made a comment. Ah-ha! I messaged him to tell him I was wondering about him. He sent me his email address and we are talking and comparing notes.

The Camino provides.

I have ordered trekking poles and my poncho of choice came today. I have a journal ready to go.

We haven’t booked any places to stay yet and are still debating if we should.

Thanks for joining our journey!