lukebuehler.com About the life of a pilgrim

Visiting the Vinschgau (Suedtirol)

The Vinschgau valley is know for its good conditions to grow apples. After
three days of passing nothing but apples I can affirm this. From the border I
walked to a town called Glurns which has all its medieval walls still intact.
Its quite astounding, people are living there normal lives but everything looks
like the clock st oped 600 years ago. From there I literally walked two days
along apple farms, probably 10 trillion apples . The good part is that
whenever you want to eat an apple you stretch your hand out and take one, you
don't even have to lean over a fence or something. The weather was miserable
and my feet were hurting badly because of walking on paved streets (always the
same pressure points on the feet, because of the flat and hard street). Then I
was camping somewhere and it was raining the whole night so my stuff got wet
and I was just so sick of it all, there were some other emotional blows to take
that gave me the rest. So two days ago I was at a low point, I would not give
up, but felt for the first time I was getting close to it. Yesterday was much
better, I walked along hiking trails on the side of the valley which is more
interesting and better for the feet.

I was going to come by the castle of Reinhold Messner but I stopped in a lunch
place to eat something (that was high up on the side of the valley). There were
many hikers but one guy didn't fit in, he looked like a hunter and because I've
met so many hunters the last days I asked him if he was a hunter but he said no
then I asked him if he owned a farm here, he also said no. Then I mentioned
that he was probably just a hiker too, where he sat that he wasn't that either.
After being so unsuccessful in establishing a conversation I gave up and walked
away. Later I realized that this guy was pretty sure Messner himself, because
he lives just a few meters up the hill in the castle. He looked like him and
had muscular legs like I've never seen before. Being a little bit annoyed for
being so blind I moved on until a town shortly before Merano. I found a bed and
breakfast for 20 Euros and stayed there for the night.

Today I only walked to Merano (2 hours). This city is so beautiful that I
decided to stay for the day. I brought my tent to the camping place and walked
around town.