lukebuehler.com About the life of a pilgrim

The First Few Days

On tuesday morning I woke up in the apartement of my good old friend Dan Krüsi. After a generous breakfast, I went to the trainstation of Rapperswil, the meetingpoint for starting my second day with Joelle and Monica. It was the only day where I would walk on the famous pilgrim route of St. James. The weather was great and conversations were better. On the Etzel (Mountain) I got to see one last time the whole Zürich lake. After saying good bye to my home we started hiking towards Einsiedeln. The whole day Joelle tried to get the number of people that she knew would be living close to that town, but nothing worked, even Monicas searches on the web were unsuccessful. Tired we've made it to the a swimming place at the lake. We were only an hour at the lake when that couple showed up at the same place! We couldn't believe it and it kept getting better, at once they invited me to stay at their home and we found out that they know my parent well. Esther and Manfred Kron invited us to dinner too and Monica had the opportunity to drive home to St. Gallen with guests that visited them. Everything worked out perfectly. Joelle and me decided to visit the monestary of Einsiedeln which is an important destination of pilgrims. We prayed there for a half an hour and looked at the imposant architecture of the church.

The next day I walked along the Sihlsee (lake) and further back into the valey where I met a guy that was really nice and even gave me half of his food after I realized that I forgot some of the food the Krons gave me. Then I hiked up to the spring of the Sihl a small lake, actually more like a pound, called Sihlseeli. For the first time I really expreienced the hardship of what it means to hike up1000 meters when you have walked for the last three days for eight hours. Anyhow to my suprise I wasn't alone up ther, there were three guys that were fishing up on that lake and imediatley became my friends. We talked about my journey, fishing and their studies in university. They wondered why I only brought my bible and I explained it to them. Before they left they gave ma good dinner, some meet for the fire that we made and some bread. I felt so blessed because I knew that someone above is looking after me. The night I spent in my tent. I was a little scared because the cows would come and trip over the tent and it was raining and windy, but I survived.

The next morning which was today I packed my stuff together and passed the passing called Saaspass at around 1860 meters. I slept only about a 100 meters bolow that passing, so most of the work was done the day before. I hiked down to the Klöntalersee (lake) which is so beautifull because it is sorounded with majestic and steep mountains. There I lay in the sun and dried my tent. Later when I started to think where I could sleep over night I turned on my phone and saw and SMS from Joelle. She organized that I could stay over night with someone form her smallgroup called Steffi. She and her son are really nice to me and I get to sleep in a comfortable bed once more.

I want to thank all the people that extended their hospitality and prayers to me. You are my friends.

Tomorrow I'll walk towards Elm and then try to make it over the Panixer passing if the weather allows it. Next update in a few days.