lukebuehler.com About the life of a pilgrim

Hiking on Streets and Loneliness

I started off from Venice at noon time, taking the bus to the airport using a ticket I got from my mom. From there I had to walk along the main road for a few hours. It was hard to be alone again after being with my mom and having the comfort of a hotel. I was so unmotivated to keep going and felt quite lonely. My next destination was Jesolo, which is a nice little town close to Venice but on the main land. But I couldn't make it in one day to there so I slept somewhere beside the road in my tent hiding in some trees. It was wired hearing the cars go by at night and hard to get used to. All those thoughts going trough the mind of what could happen and who could come by during I sleep. Nothing happened that night, but I realized that I had to get used to this way of sleeping because many more nights like this would come. Early in the morning right at sunrise, I started off and got to Jesolo early in the morning. In a cafe I drank my Capucho (Capuchino, how they call it here) and made my way towards east. The following days I had to walk most of the time along the main road leading to Trieste, because there are so few other roads and if I take one, it often ends at a dead end. One night I slept at a camping place at Caorle but the other nights I camped out in the wild. Sometimes close to fields and sometimes in the woods. One night I slept close to a corn field. Suddenly I heard a loud noise, I saw that the farmer was cutting the field at night with one of those huge farming machines. I was so scared he would get close to me and not see my little tent and I would end up in a corn can. He actually drove right by my tent and probably saw me, it was so loud though and scared the hell out of me. Any how life was simple until here, buying chap food at the grocery store, washing myself in the river and sleeping in my tent. Here in Trieste I found a nice Youth-Hostel right at the sea, with a nice view from my bed.

I want to tell you a little about what happened inside me so far. The journey is mostly an inner one. All the circumstances and adventures are minor to whats happening inside of me and what I'm going trough mentally and spiritually. The physical experience acts as a catalyst for the intense souls searching that happens right now as I'm far away from anything to hide and distract myself. One of the biggest challenges is the loneliness. The monotony of thought and seeing only roads for days really brings makes me meet my limits. Combined with the physical hardship, which makes me emotionally weary, the main challenge becomes overcoming self pitty and the thought to quit. So I see to it that from time to time I take a break, buy and ice cream or something. Since life is so simple I have become more simple too. Having an apple to eat and sitting down along the road already cheers me up. Someone who honks and shouts out of the car "Bravo, Go, Go, Go!", keeps me going for miles. I feel much closer to myself and more real as I have to face all those inner things. Walking has become much less of getting form A to B, but more about the fight of keeping an inner peace. The key to that is God. Without God, to whom we can relate to, I would get stuck in a hole of depression. He's a companion and someone I can cast all my worries onto. My prayers are simple, mostly keeping my heart focused on recognizing that there is someone who's watching over me. Finally it turns out to be a physical journey that takes me out of everything I've known so far and puts me into a place of facing my weaknesses and finding peace of heart. I'm curious of what else I have to go trough and a little bit scared to be honest, but after all, I already learnt much in the last few weeks and wouldn't to trade for anything else.

Adventures in the Mountains

The guy I met told me that there is a beautiful high track that I can follow town to Feltre, which was on my way. The day I left the Vajolet Rifugio it started to snow down to around 1000 meters. I just thought its gonna be a little cold. So down in the valley I bought some more food and moved on to climb the Passo De Sele. In a shelter still down in the valley, that looks like a real Italian tavern, I asked the guy there if I can to the passing and he said no problem. So I waled up to the next shelter where it already started to get windy. From there I had to do the last 600 to 700 meters up. As I went over the tree line it started to storm and snow intensely. I was so glad that I just bought two pairs of gloves down in the valley, one for climbing and one to have warm hands. Shortly before I reached my goal, the wind got so strong I could barely walk. When I made it to the shelter and entered it I was surprised to find one of the nicest Rifugios I've seen so far. The guy gave me nice single room where I immediately felt asleep after my battle with the storm. After I woke up I went town to the dining room where also a big group of people had gathered. Thy were from Austria and invited me to sit with them. As quick as they invited me to sit with them I also had a glass full of wine and the party started. They drunk the whole night and me with them. When it was already dark they started singing songs and dancing on the benches. It was so fun and felt good to laugh so much. The next morning I had to say good bye to my new friends and walked to the Rifugio Mulaz. After the night there I had to go over another high passing. There were only some steps in the the rock and everything was full of snow. I didn't have climbing equipment to hook in on the iron cables. It was quite an adventure to climb there alone in the snow and ice. Having survied this I had to walk over an high plateau up on around 2400 meters. I've never seen anything like it. Because It was so high up there were no plants at all, it felt like being on the moon. After walking up there for two hours I had to go down far to get to the next shelter. Being so tired I missed the the place I wanted to sleep and walked 40 minutes passed it. I was lucky that there was water so I camped out in the wild. To be a little bit warm I made a fire close to the river. I was only surrounded by stones for at least 10 meters so the fire was safe, but the guys up in the shelter saw fire trough the trees. As I was already sleeping for like 2 hours or so I suddenly saw flashlights and heard radios. Suddenly someone banged on my thent. When I crawled out, I saw that the fire fighters had come. They asked me if I made I fire, so I showed them the place. They told me that they had an alarm that there was fire in the wood. I felt so sorry for them because they were all voluntary firefighters and had to get up. The time the police arrived there were 10 guys there. The police took all my details and they all left again apologizing for waking me up. I apologized in return for making fire. The next day was quite tought on the body but at the next shelter I made friends again.  After sleeping for the last time in the mountains I walked down to Feltre. As I was walking along on the road, a couple whom I met the last night offered me a ride to Feltre what I was glad to accepted.

From there I had to walk along the road to Venice but more about that in the next post.

Now I'm in Venice enjoying the sun and warm weather, giving my body a little time to rest.

Moving South in the Dolomites

After being for almost 2 weeks without Internet it feels good to be live again.

I've made it to Treviso one of the main cities besides Milan and Venice in the upper part of Italy. Much has happened, yeah, the greatest adventure wait to be told now. But for this time it will be hard to tell everything at once. But I'm taking a longer break in Venice and I'll have the opportunity there, to finish writing everything down.

Anyhow let's start where we left off.

Having realized that the upper parts of the Vinschgau are much more interesting, I was motivated to do those 1000 meters to get away from the boring valley. In Meran the lady of the camping site told me, that there is a high track from Meran to Bozen. After some minor getting losts, I found the way. It was so steep, I've never seen a way like this before. Mostly around 45 degrees. Later I found out that a guy broke the world record in making height in 24 hours on this very way. In 24 hours he walked the way around 14 times, which came to be, something around 16'000 meters in height! From there I moved on a little higher and found this amazing high plateau. It is called Langfenn and is once of the most beautiful places I've ever seen. After seeing only apples for days I came up there and saw a breath taking panorama of the Dolomites in all their glory of the setting sun. Imagine this place: Strong green grass with some awesome trees standing quite far apart from each other. From time to time you see horses and the only people you meet are some lonely riders. Trough the trees you see the mighty Dolomites in the evening sun because the way is always on the top of the hill. I couln't take it it was such a special sight. Later I found out that this high plateau is a secret tip of the Suedtirol.

The next day I went down to the city Bozen, which is not as cool as Meran in my opinion, but I met a really nice lady who owned a Pizza fast food place there. She offered me to stay at her house, but it wasn't on my way so I declined. She gave me her number and said whenever I have a problem in Italy I should call her and she would try to help. It's interesting to see how some people just feel that I'm doing something not normal and are somehow attracted to that. They want to know, help and be a part of it. Because I decided that I wanted to go into the Dolomites instead of around them, I walked towards the "Rosengarten". A famous group of peaks in the Dolomites. The next day I was already enjoying and hating them. From up close they are very beautiful but damn hard to climb. Always steep passings and crazy weather conditions. I would get to taste much more of that later. As I arrived in the Vajolet hut (Rifugio how they call it in Italy). I met a super nice guy called Henry. We had to use the emergency beds because the Rifugio was so full (over 80 people).We imediately got along well, he's the main DB architect of U2, a german telecom provider, and so we could do some serious geek talk for 2 hours plus. The next day I spontaneously decided to stay at this rifugio one day longer and join Henry on his planed adventure in the "Rosengarten". First we climed up on onto 2900 meters, from there we had to climb for quite a while. Most people used full safety gear but we had nothing. I didn't even have gloves as we had to climb some steep rocks by only 3 degrees. So after we survived this and enjoyed all the awesome sights (Pics still to come). We had a nice hike for another 5 hours. It was fun to hear about the former DDR where he grew up in and how similar things where but still different. It was interesting when the talk came to religion where he made a firm stand for atheism and me for theism.

That evening I heard it was going to snow down to 1000 meters, my plan was to go to the next rifugio on 2500 meters, which I did indeed. But more about that later...

Going for Distance

After being at a wellness spa surrounded by old people I couldn't wait to get moving again. It was a rainy day but the landscape of Flims was so amazing. Around 10'000 years ago a landslide of the mass of 23 Matterhorns (mountains) came down into the Rhein valley. It created a very special kind of jungle looking landscape, providing a fauna for many special species of birds and other animals. The views were amazing. After I cleared the Rhein valley I walked along the highway for another 8 hours until Thusis. I made probably around 40 km this day and couldn't wait to fall asleep anywhere. Because it was raining and so cold it was hard to find a place to sleep. I couldn't make fire anymore (the wood was so wet) and I didn't have any food, so I stayed at a cheap hotel again with good Italian food.

This morning I started off searching for the way leading to Tiefencastel. After asking some people I was more confused than before because everyone said something different. I had to realize that the people living in those mountains villages are no better than us city people: They often have no idea of their surrounding. Later I found a map where I saw that there is a hiking trail up that steep valley, it seemed a little unused to me and indeed it was. Once I came to a tunnel where there was no light an no end in sight, I was lucky though that I had a flash light but what would someone do that doesn't have one? Anyhow it was an exciting hike along steep walls of rock, later I met guy who was collecting mushrooms the once he found were huge Steinpilze each being a quarter to a half of a kilogram or so. He took me with his car for 2 or 3 kilometers which I was quite glad to accept because I knew that I had much to walk for this day. In Tiefencastel I went over the river and up to a small village called Mon. For the first time I really lost it, I was hungry, cold and wet, and I took the longer hiking trail by an accident (like 2 km longer). I was cursing and so angry, I was expressing my anger to God, sat down and was fed up with walking but I knew I was only half way. After snacking some Balistos (energy bars) I moved on, after I made it on top I had a beautiful view that I wouldn't have seen when I would have taken the other way. But best was still to come: Suddenly there was a beautiful rainbow reaching from one side of the valley to the other. It's seriously the most amazing rainbow I've ever seen and the colors were so intense. I took pictures (for proof ). After some hiking some more hours I've finally made it to my destination: A super nice farmer family living one village before Savognin. Our family buys the meat from them becuase the cows are treated very well here (I've seen it myself today) so my mom made the contact and they had an open home for me. I got a shower, a warm bed, good food, good tips for my future route and can even use their computer. They are so cheerful!

I have many pictures to post, but I need Bluetooth... sooner or later I'll find a computer with one. I probably won't be able to blog for a while... a week or so.

Taking the First Break

After I slept in Näfels at Steffis place she brought me to the train station in Glarus, it was raining cats and dogs, so the temptation to take the train for a while was great, but I decided to wait some time in a coffee place and see if the weather would get better. That day I walked from Glarus to Elm and I got really wet for the first time. I was lucky though that some relatives live there, in the famous Suworow house where the general of the Russian army once slept when they were fighting against Napoleon (I think). The next day I took on the challenge of the Panixer passing, which the Russian army also passed in late fall (and most of the army died). It was tough but very beautiful. The landscape looks like the surface of the moon and there are huge waterfalls going over 100 meter cliffs. It got really cold though around 0° to 5° C because it was up on 2500 meters. Up there was a little hut with an oven where I made a fire and killed time with writing in the journal and reading the bible. Later in the evening some more people arrived and we had a good time talking about hiking and maps and geography.

For the next day I arranged with Mathias Langhans to meet me in the valley below the passing. He met me there at 9 and we walked down to the next village called Pigniu. From there I moved on to Flims which was an insane long walk (on the 25'000 map, from one corner to the other =). In Flims I remembered that my mom offered me to pay for a stay in a hotel they often go to. So I took the offer and now I'm hanging out in the hotel Adula. It has a huge wellness park which is fun because I'm not doing anything today except resting

Tomorrow I'll move on towards Tiefencastel and then at Savognin over another passing.

Thank you for all your encouraging comments!

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.

How Far to Walk (Some Numbers and Figures)

People ask me how far it is to walk to Jerusalem. It is hard to tell. I don't really know how to calculate such long routes and there are many unknown factors such as detours, dangerous areas, or special interesting places. Certainly I won't walk like a machine just having my route in mind. So the best thing is to compare to others that have done the thing I plan. I actually found only one person who did and he wrote a book about it. You can imagine how thirsty I read it. He walked pretty much along my alternative route starting in southern France. It took him about 8 months, there is no estimation about the distance.

Looking at some maps and comparing the known length of the pilgrim route of St. James (Jakobsweg) I would guess that the route is about 6500 Kilometers which breaks down to 27 Kilometers a day.

By the way the distance is about one seventh of the circumference of the earth (42000 / 6500 = 6.5).