Day 2: Kloster Schaeftlarn to Geretsried – 24km +

What was supposed to be a shorter day ended up a longer day than the first one. By taking a different route not all the way through Wolfratshausen I think I did a detour?

Took some time in the morning to visit the monastry gardens and the church. The gardens host more than 80 different kinds of roses and were cool and quiet in the morning. Kloster Schäftlarn was founded in 782 by Benedictine monks. There used to be a brewery and since 1866 when King Ludwig II gave it back to the Benedictine monks it has been home to a Gymnasium (a Highschool).

And again, when I walked into the church there was mother Mary. I dedicated a candle for myself really, for a safe trip, and a happy ending. And just as yesterday at the Marienklause I felt tears welling up. Inside the church there was a lot of peace and stillness. I could feel the energy of connectedness, the eternal, a place of “going inside”.

Then I left, full of energy for the first 30 minutes. Miracously my feet had recovered and my backpack seemed lighter? Until I reached the Isar canal and the heat was burning down on me again, and again I had left late, at 10:30! Loved the fields I followed leaving Schaeftlarn: must be organic! They had a belt of beneficial plants around their perimeters: sunflowers, calendula, phacelia, and borage.

Pretty hot and exhausting next to the canal in full heat. I left soon for a hiking path that was at least partially shady.

Around lunch time I finally found access to the Isar and decided to turn off the path to the water to at least put my feet in once, and have lunch, and a rest. I guess it was a dedicated nude beach although there were hardly any people there and no signs. This is a very common thing in lots of parts of Europe. I only stripped my heavy hiking boots and held my feet into the water.

Then finally I got to cross the canal and it turned into a very quiet hiking pass. It brought me the conjunction of the Isar and Loisach, up a steep hill where I tried my borrowed hiking poles (thank you Achim) for the first time and then through the Riemerschmid Park, a nature park dedicated to two brothers, Gerhard and Helmut, who fell during World War I, one in Poland and one in France. I wonder if there is a connection to the “Riemerschmidgasse”, a Street in Munich. Gorgeous view from up here and if you look closely you can see a shadow of the Alps in the distance. We have Föhn winds here, which is our Bavarian version of the Chinook winds, very hazy today.

Then I reached Wolfratshausen and because I didn’t need to overnight there I decided to make my way back to the Isar which might have let to my huge detour. A 16 km day turned out to be an almost 25! It let through lots of residential areas, then back to the Isar. People sun bathing and swimming, drifting on the river and me pushing on.

When I finally reached Geretsried I had another hour to go to find the Gasthof Geiger. This was really pushing the fun of this day. The kitchen was on summer break so I had to walk another km to find a restaurant. Ended up having my 5th mushroom dinner in one week I realized: a salad with – again – chanterelles. They are a lot smaller in Europe than what we are used to in BC, and definitely no white ones.