To Herrstein, 26.8kms - an epic day 1!

 We were awake early this morning, and ready to start soon after 6.30.  We had a brisk 3km walk to where we had to begin the big ascent.  It is always difficult to begin the day with an arduous climb, even more so when it is day one of the journey.  We were too late to order breakfast at the hotel, and so we headed on our way expecting that we would find a Cafe open.  How wrong we were!  The town is full of cafes and restaurants, but none were open at at 7.15.  

Walking into town we saw even more gems - this wall decorated with almethyst

and pieces like this decorating the wall of one of the gemstone museums

and this lump, outside the shop.

Yesterday we managed to set off an alarm in the supermarket Lidl, and Edith wasn't keen to return to the scene of the crime, so I left her minding the packs and retraced our steps to see if I could get a breakfast from them.  As I approached I could see they weren't open, so I headed straight on to the railway station, confident that their cafe would be open.  Wrong.  As I left I spied a bakery that was open, and purchased not only breakfast, but lunch AND coffees.   Just as well, as this is the only food we had all day.

This path is beautiful,  but quite isolated with the first day being only "in nature " and not passing through any towns at all.  Having said that though, we passed by quite a few Germans out and about, some walking, some cycling, and at times it was quite busy.

Here you can see the type of paths we followed


..... through forests and pasture land

I had begun the day with an extra 2 1/2 kms, but then, sometime after our second breakfast, we managed to get off the path which added even more to our distance, but this time for both of us.   We were about half way down a steep descent when we realised our mistake, but neither of us wanted to retrace our steps uphill, and so we continued down, took a left turn, and rejoined the path further on.

We had a lot of uphill walking today, and some steep descents,  and so, by the time we arrived at Herrstein we were VERY tired, so tired we only ate half our dinner.  

I had a stuffed kartoffel (potato dumpling) in a creamy sauce, and with apple sauce.  This is a senior portion, fill size would have been 2!!  I only managed half!

Herrstein is a very historical town.  The centre has old half timbered houses, with beams bent with age, and even the rooves appear to have bent and changed shape with age.

The historic entrance to old Herrstein



Our room for the night was in this building.



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