The City Tours Are Amazing

Saturday, 3 September 2016

On my way through Germany

adword September 03, 2016 Add Comment

My last hiking plans did not turn out at all as expected - and therefore I was a bit reluctant to publish my next plans, especially since I could not foresee how my body would fare with hiking after 6 week of reconvalescence.

But I am proud to say that I have already hiked 600 km now after my surgery with no problems!

So what is the plan? My doctors recommended easy hiking in Germany -always close to a hospital. And therefore I dug out an old plan: my hike from the Southernmost point in Europe to the Northernmost point, from Tarifa in Spain to the North Cape in Norway. I have already hiked from Germany to Tarifa in the winter 2013/14, but the second half from Germany to Norway was still missing. Of course the rest of the summer is not long enough to walk the whole distance of almost 5,000 km, but I decided to hike the missing part through Germany all the way up to Denmark.

Werner and I and the river Rhine

Like in 2013 when I hiked to Tarifa I started again at my friend Werner's place - but this time I was hiking North. Again I stayed one night with Werner and his wife - and again I was whining how bad everything is. In short: I was suffering from pre-trip depression again. It did not help that the night before my start date temperatures dropped down to 8 degrees Celsius. In the morning of August 11th Werner took me to Koblenz again where we had the obligatory start photo taken at the "Deutsches Eck". Then Werner accompanied me up to the fortress "Ehrenbreitstein". It was a first test for my physical condition - but huffing and puffing I kept up with Werner. After several more photos Werner finally sent me off on my way to Denmark. And I have happily been hiking ever since....

My planned route is about 1,000 km - I don't do anything shorter.... I have to be back in Berlin end of September and right now it looks that these five weeks is plenty of time. I have some speaker appointments in Germany and then I will be off hiking again in October in another place. But this is another post. I will keep you posted!

Wednesday, 3 August 2016

Things turned out differently than expected.....

E1 Germany

adword August 03, 2016 Add Comment

One day before I had planned to leave for Zinnwald and the starting point of my trip through Eastern Europe it started rather inconspiciously with a mild stomach ache. I thought "no problem", delayed my trip for a couple of days and blamed it all on the Vietnamese take-away place around the corner. But instead of getting better things got much worse every day: I got a very high temperature! "No problem" I thought again and consulted my GP. She was worried but could not find the cause for my symptoms. She tested basically anything that could be tested and called me the next day.

"Pack your things and go to the emergency room of the closest hospital", she said. "You have a dangerous infection in your body and they have to find the cause." I first refused to face reality. I wanted to go hiking - and not be in a hospital, but eventually I relented and went. Doctors there were worried, too. I was not - I wanted to go hiking. "You will not go hiking anywhere in the near future", I was told when they eventually found the problem: a huge abscess in my abdomen. My heart sank. Two days I was in hospital under heavy antibiotic medication before they could operate me.

I had never been in hospital before - except when I was born - and I was scared shitless. When I woke up after surgery I was told how lucky I have been. "You would probably not have survived if this abscess had burst somewhere in the wilderness." I felt lucky indeed but my first question was: "When can I go hiking again?" The answer was depressing: Minimum reconvalescence: six week! My mind refused to accept this fact but my body forced me to: I felt plain miserably. For three more weeks I had to take heavy medication that made me feel so weak. Going to the supermarket next door became an adventure. I had to cling to the shopping cart because I felt so faint. Outside my room a hot and wonderful summer seemed to pass by wheras I could not do anything.

Eventually I was taken off medication - and then things improved rapidly. Last weekend I did my first test trip: hiking 33 km in two days - and I was worried if I could walk so much. Luckily I could! And now I am planning to go on a bigger hiking trip again - exactly six weeks after my surgery. My doctor advised against going to Easten Europe so shortly after surgery. "You want to be close to high-standard hospitals and doctors that speak your language", he told me. I believe him and don't want to take more risks than necessary. I do anything now to be able to hike again..... And therefore Eastern Europe is off for the near future. I'll have to do something in Germany.

And I do hope that things turn out like expected this time......

Friday, 24 June 2016

Eastern European Traverse Part 1

adword June 24, 2016 Add Comment

More than one year I have led a sedentary life - not because I had been tired of travelling but because I had been writing a book. The book has become a great success which kept me some more months in Germany touring talk shows, giving interviews and lectures. I have thorougly enjoyed this exciting period but now it is time to go hiking again!

I had been deliberating back and forth which of the many projects on my bucket list I should tackle and I have decided to continue with one of the two big European hiking trips: I want to hike through Europe West to East - from Santiago de Compostella to Istanbul. Four years ago I had started from the German-Czech border crossing Zinnwald hiking westwards. And I had reached Santiago de Compostella 5 1/2 months later.

On Sunday I'll return to Zinnwald and hike eastwards. Although my ultimate goal is to reach Istanbul (or any other place that can be defined as the Easternmost point of Europe) I am taking a rather convoluted route: I'll hike eastward until Eastern Slovakia and then turn Southwest again. Why? This is not the straightest route to Istanbul.....

The reason is that I had tremendous route finding problems in Romania and Bulgaria. Although both countries have great hiking areas there are no long-distance trails. The so-called E-trails (European long-distance trails) are all interrupted and there is no hope that this gap will be closed in the near future.... But other interesting trails have sprung up on the Balkan like the Via Dinarica through Slovenia, Croatia, Montenegro and Albania and the Via Egnetia through Albania, Macedonia and Greece that will hopefully eventually lead to Istanbul. But instead of going straight from Zinnwald to Slovenia I am hiking one big loop. Why?

Because the trail and the countries it traveses are too interesting to be passed. I will basically follow the only international long-distance hiking trail that was created in the former East bloc: the International Mountain Trail of Friendship from Eisenach to Budapest. This trail was officially opened in 1983 and became a "cult" immediately in the Eastern European hiking scene. When the Iron Curtain fell the trail was incorporated into the E-trail network and is now part of the E3, E8 and E4. But I will not stop in Budapest but continue hiking Hungary's Blue Trail, one of the oldest long-distance trail in Europe that traverses Hungary from East to West althoug I will probably leave it at Lake Balaton to head towards Slovenia.

In three months I will hike through Czech and Slovak Republik and Poland following the Western Carpathian mountains and then continue through Hungary's hilly North. I have never hiked in these countries before and to say that I am pretty excited is an understatement. This is a trip I am really looking forward to because it interesting in so many ways: Beautiful landscape, interesting history, new cultures and some amazing cultural sights. As usual I will keep you posted here on my blog.