Kolbermoor Town (Tomasito photo)2
Call to Pilgrimage
I was staying with friends in Bavaria, the beautiful southern province of Germany, when I felt the insistent internal call once again to make a pilgrimage: to go alone and on foot to some holy place.
It is absolutely no problem in Bavaria, a land richly blessed with traditional sites for pilgrimage, to discover a holy place to visit since the “way of the pilgrim” has been accepted for centuries as a good technique for developing spirituality.
Almost every village has a pilgrimage church, a sacred grove, spring or holy stone to visit with reverence.
Ancient footpaths, worn by pilgrims long ago, can still be found and used by the determined pilgrim of today.
Carved stones or field crosses, the traditional wooden covered crucifix so typical of Bavaria, often mark mossy and overgrown pilgrim tracks, winding through forests and alongside fields and streams. An attentive modern pilgrim can follow in the very footprints of many generations of spiritual searchers, far away from the noise and haste of highways and shopping malls.
My friends own an up-to-date semi-detached house in the village of Kolbermoor on the Mangfal River near Rosenheim. They know well my pilgrimming habits and when I asked them for a likely walking destination, they suggested Straubing on the Inn, a famous pilgrimage town two hundred kilometers north of Kolbermoor on the Inn River.
Straubing has a famous church, an historic town hall tower and a fine metal commemorative statue of Saint James, the Patron of Pilgrims.
I like long hikes and this seemed to be a perfect destination so I selected a sturdy pilgrim’s staff from the dried branches in the nearby forest, put some extra warm clothes in my “rucksack”--since it was mid-November which can be a snowy month in Bavaria--and early one morning, after a hearty breakfast, walked out with my friend’s cheerful blessings.
Tomasito, 2009
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2 comments:
You know, I've been reading about all these travels, and I guess your mentioning trails sparked a memory.
Back in my teens I used to walk for miles and miles through the cane fields- leaving Russell's house, heading up mauka traveling above plantation fields working my way towards Hanapepe, where turning down I would walk towards Hahapepe winding up at Salt Ponds, stay for a short while and then walk back along the beaches towards Makaweli... a good five, six, or seven hours- hoofin' it.
I did this often, and I did it alone. Making sure to duck into the cane fields when I heard the big cane haul trucks bumbling down the roads heading my direction. I liked walking by myself, and didn't really want the company- I wonder if that was true for you as well?
Hello, Paul,
Lone walking is usually good for a person, I think.
I guess the main difference between the walks you describe and my pilgrimages is that I was really on the loose as an older person with a "pilgrimage goal" to reach--and when I did mine I practiced a mantra as I walked--which makes SOME kind of difference which is not exactly something you can express in words--at least I can't.
(I like your remark about ducking into the cane fields--sounds real Hawaiian!)
I appreciate your comments. TW
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