SIMPLY SLOWLY

Summarizing slow living: ‘You see stuff, hear stuff, learn stuff, connect stuff, appreciate stuff.’ For want of an ideologically saturated, nausea inducing attempt at describing a commonly cliched state of gratitude, mindfulness, contemplation and solace; simple is best. Simple is transparent and simple resonates. It sits well with the territory; the tractors, the old towns, the church turrets, the corn fields, village fountains and the ever – present tabby. Simple is what we have strapped to our backs, stuffed in our mouths and sets the unassuming perimeter for expectation and enjoyment.

Our real time GPS ‘dot’ moves slowly across the map in this crawl from town to town, forest to forest and field to field. As our kilometres are clocked, each path connects places to people, sites to stories, heroes to history and asking to answers. In a challenge not to count down, but to chalk up, we soak in the sun, seek out the locals, smash the unfriendly and sustain from taking shortcuts!

We move through the forests of Frankenwald to the Fichtelgebirge. Though the regions of Thüringen, Oberfranken and Oberpfalz. We cross boarders East and West, skirting Kingdoms, countries and current city lines. The rivers Selbitz, Saale and Eger narrate a past shaped of mills, wealth and toil; of mining, farming, smithing and guild crafts. We pass through the medieval towns of Münchberg, Laubersreuth, Kirchenlamitz and Heidelheim. We conquer the heights of the Waldstein and Kornberg, inhaling views from the top of Großbüchelberg. We light a candle of the faithful at the wood side Fatima chapel, so quietly she listens to prayers unspoken. We pass the Herr Gott Stone, of legendary magic and the granting of wishes. We sit at the Teufel’s Tisch in an invitation to play cards with the devil. We’re introduced to Bockpfeifers (Bagpipers), Napoleon, and the pioneering naturalist Humboldt. We follow ancient way markers through thickets, dark woodlands and medieval fortresses with an era of von Sparneck knights. We hide behind rocks of refuge sheltering gypsies, victims of Wars and the region’s most Wanted. We intersect with the ViaPorta von Volkenroda and the St James Pilgrim Ways, with the long – distance routes of E5 and E6 and develop appetite and appreciation alongside the educational Potato and Carp trails. We walk tracks studded with granite, shale, gneiss, basalt and all manner of geological treasure and meet the ‘porcelain princes’, Hutschenreuther and Rosenthal on roads paved ‘White Gold’.

We walk all of this with boots strapped tight, Band Aids protecting blisters, Autan applied in defence of dreaded ticks and compass bearings confirmed. This slow daily foot march of discovery rapidly assumes a pace of its own. It’s a fast way to form local connections. It’s an expedited journey through time. It’s an accelerated examination of society. It’s a high – speed way to slow down.

OF HISTORY AND HOPE

“Yes, across Europe, this wall will fall. For it cannot withstand faith; it cannot withstand truth. The wall cannot withstand freedom.” Ronald Reagan, West Berlin, 1987.

“The wall will be standing in 50 and even 100 years.” GDR Head of State Erich Honecker East Berlin, January 1989.

“It comes into effect according to my information, immediately.” Günter Schabowski, East Berlin, November 9^th, 1989.

“Now what belongs together will grow together.” Willi Brandt (Berlin’s Mayor), November 10^th, 1989.

“The wall was not brought down by Washington, Bonn or Moscow. It was razed to the ground by courageous and intrepid people, from both the East and the West.” Gerhard Schroeder, Former German Chancellor, Berlin, 1999.

“For anyone to understand a regime like the GDR, the stories of ordinary people must be told. Not just the activists or the famous writers. You have to look at how normal people manage with such things in their past.” Anna Funder, Stasiland.

“The woman who used to own this guesthouse was originally from the East. She fled to the West. A baker moved into the house and ran his business. After the wall came down, the woman returned to reclaim her house. The baker had to leave. She was not popular with the town’s people. When she sold me the guesthouse, she told me I won’t be popular with the villagers and to watch what I say. I’m from West Berlin and enjoy living here. I haven’t had any problems.” Guesthouse owner Blankenstiein 16^thSeptember 2019.

Heading North East out of Nürnberg, the single carriage train pulls deeper into former East Bloc territory. Once controlled by the USSR, houses and train stations lay dormant, desolate and decrepit in this region of former East Germany. Coloured graffiti disguises flaking rendered walls, glass window shards, smashed shale roof tiles, pigeons pooping in doorways, once manicured lawns now running wild, tell a story of a past in which we understand only shadows, a period in history disconnected from, yet intrinsically interwoven into its present. Cosy cafes now replace ration coupons. Train rides go unnoticed. Anglers are free to fish on both sides of the bank. Rusty wire waylaid, no longer garnishes autocracy. Concrete pylons stand naked and exposed, their former fortifications so fantastic – disbanded. Sirens, strobe lights and shotguns lie buried with a broken ideology, and of the “Wall of Shame” only memories remain.

There’s an irony in starting a 450km walk where distance was once measured by proximity to the Wall. Where a compass could confidently point in every direction except West. Where now, not 50 meters from the ‘death zone’, the Blankenstein Wanderdrehkreuz, marks the intersection of five regionally famous hiking trails, and maps a horizon in every direction. Not surprisingly we head off ‘West’.

The Selbitz river shares a narrative of boarder troops and lives lost. It speaks of desperate freedom flights, of isolation and disconnection. It tells of boundary houses erased and generations displaced. It shares a story of restoration, of colour and of hope. It crescendos in a chorus where bridges now replace frontiers and of freedom’s kaleidoscope. With a heightened gratitude in our footsteps, and confidence in our direction, we step into the Frankenwald, the first forest to form a connection to our 450km destination.

Trekking a trail through tall ‘Tannenbaum’ and quaint farmhouse villages, the sliding door sensation of what we have seen and heard accompanies us through a region scored with tragedy and triumph. In a testament to human spirit and solid belief in something greater, we are reminded of the 40^thanniversary to the exact day, on which a homemade balloon flight made history. Where the dream of a better tomorrow, scaled the heights of fear and imminent death. Where in the stealth of darkness bravery trumped politics and boarder police.  Where the‘Anti-Fascist Protection Rampart’was successfully navigated, not 4km from the end our first ‘Etappe’. A night remembered for setting a borderless bearing for freedom without limits and a new horizon for hope.

Stats:
September 16th, 2019
Blankenstein to Selbitz
Kms: 18.5