We slept well in our lovely Pension in Wipfeld and Frau Hildegard Gais, our host, had a wonderful breakfast set out for us this morning and indicated to us to make a packed lunch to take with us.
 |
| A sketch in the breakfast room of Pension Weinlaube, our home for the night. |
 |
Frau Hildegard Gais.
|
 |
| The Main River waterfront in Wipfeld this morning. |
 |
| Leaving Wipfeld. |
 |
| Looking back at Wipfeld. |
Most of today's walk was on sealed roads, and the first 3 kilometres or so were uphill. We're always foot sore and weary after a day of walking on hard surfaces.
 |
| Wipfeld from a distance. Only the church and the houses on the hill can be seen. |
Early on in our walk we followed our own tracks again as the official route would have added several more kilometres. This was the best part of today's walk as we chose paths which cut through cropping areas, high up on a plateau.
We were just saying that we were the only ones there when we saw a car in the distance. As we got closer to the car we could see 2 men and noticed they were wearing camouflage clothing. Closer still we could see they were wearing German army uniforms complete with berets.
One, obviously a higher rank than the other, was using binoculars to look out from the plateau and he had a map in his hands. He called out to us, quickly changing to English. He couldn't understand why we had come from New Zealand to walk in Germany.
He chatted to us for quite a while. We mentioned all the cropping we're had seen, and that we have seen very little animal farming. He said that cropping was destroying Germany. He called it dead land. He told us that the crops were needed for food and the farmers needed to grow crops to make a living but he said crops are ruining normal animal and plant life. He spoke of the lack of wildlife, including birds, and the absence of small stock farms.
There were many wind turbines up on the plateau and the officer said that wind turbines in Bavaria was another huge mistake. It was quite breezy when we were talking to him and he explained that Bavaria has very little wind and the wind turbines were only efficient on days like today, which are very rare. He said erecting wind turbines in Bavaria was a waste of money.
He did conclude by saying that a third of Germany is forest covered. He spoke of how many countries felled their trees in the early ship building days, saying Germany did the same, but 350 years ago this was stopped and every time a tree was removed another had to be planted to replace it. This is still the ruling. He said it was something that Germany got right.
Jeff and I had often commented to each other about the number of trees and areas of forests in Germany.
Later we walked into the village of Dipbach were we sat on a garden wall by the Katholische Pfarrkirche St Ägidius, St Ägidius Catholic Church, which a mix of old and modern, it's interior had been totally renovated.
 |
| Central Kürnach. |
 |
| In Kürnach. |
We had no choice but to carry on to our accommodation for the night which is in an outlying area of Kürnach, about another 3 kilometres on. Luckily, when we got there we found a café and two supermarkets just over from our home for the night.
 |
| On the way to the suburb of Kürnach where we are tonight. |
Our accommodation for tonight is rather unique - it's a unmanned hotel. It's really just a long two-storied block of units. Each unit opens directly outside. Once inside it's just like any other hotel room, equal to, or nicer, than some we've stayed in.
Finding accommodation is a bit of a mission at times. It's not always easy to find accommodation spaced at distances that we prefer walking, meaning we stay in range of accommodation styles.
Also, because we don't speak German we can't phone to arrange accommodation. Messaging with WhatsApp and emails is great as we can use Google Translate for both. We always explain that we are using a translation app and ask that they excuse any errors as I know that sometimes Google Translate can get things terribly wrong!
Kürnach is a municipality in the district of Würzburg in Bavaria in Germany. The distance from Kürnach to the state capital of Bavaria München is about 221 km
Population 4,921
Source: Wikipedia
