Day 15: Blumenstein to Schwarzenburg

We started the day making good milage along a forest path towards Wattenwil,

when suddenly there were cows coming at us!

(Sorry for turning my camera half way through the video). Fortunately they passed by without incident.

Walking through Wattenwil we see an interesting food station – how does it work? Unfortunately we do not have time to find out.

A little further on we come across a crazy iron work artist, reminiscent of Dr. Evermore in Wisconsin (if you do not know his work, look him up), with lots of interesting iron animal figures.

Reaching Riggisberg we have to climb up to visit the local church (why did they always put them on hills?).

But there we met an 81 year old day hiker, very knowledgeable of the pilgerweg and eager to talk (in Deutsch, aber natürlich! Actually, Bernerdeutsch, but he graciously switched to Schriftdeutsch for us).

We take a break in Rüeggisberg to admire the ruins of the Rüeggisberg Priory, established between 1072 and 1076. This monastery saw mostly to the well-being of the pilgrims, but was closed in the 15th century.

As we come into Mättiwil our path is joined by the Pilgerweg coming down from Lucern. But we met no new pilgrims.

As we travel along we can see a clear change in geography and farms. No longer are there steep alpine pastures and the terrain has become more rolling allowing the cultivation of more than just field grass.

As we walk along the road, a farmer with his tractor load of Kuh Mist (i.e., liquid cow manure) pulls into the field directly in front of us. Fortunately, he is kind to us pilgrims and does not start his run until we are safely past (good thing too, because the backsplash went right over the path we had just walked on).

Along the way we come to a farm that not only has llamas, a camel, and who knows what else, but they have a sign post with directions and distances to everywhere. As much as we might want to continue to Compostela, it is not happening this trip.

And finally, after a 16+ mile trek, we arrive in Schwarzenburg, our destination for the night.