Wednesday, June 6, 2012

6/4 Vielsalm to Burg Rueland




We woke to a brisk morning and after a marginal breakfast headed out for the long day of walking ~17miles. Vielsalm is another old town - saw only a little of it but diverting to the post office came across a bit of history in the form of an old American tank of WW2 - see photo. The crip clear weather made for good walking conditions and we moved along at a good clip mostly through the woods and tree farms. We passed a villa possibly of religious significance with the famous Scallop of St James on the wall - the Compostella route certainly nearby.
At one spot I pointed out a fresh boot print on a stone and commented there's someone ahead! We decided to stop for lunch and promptly came across a couple of walkers! Our first in a long while. This Dutch couple- Sebastiaan and Suzanne were also out to go the full distance and were camping out ! They started at Vise near Liege and so had only been out 5 days and were suffering from the blisters - ouch!
We gave them a card and expect to see them down the road. After our leftover pizza we set off at a good clip wind and rain to our backs we stopped magically at a covered bench just as the rain caught us. Umbrellas up we marched on through wind, rain and the horrific stench of freshly manure sprayed fields . We climbed through a forest and emerged at last into a high pastoral area with sweeping green vistas. Tammy played thematic Josh Grobin music on her iPhone - as the clouds and slightest sprinkles swirled by - awesome walking as we descended to our destination Burg Reuland. And magically we walked right up to our hotel the Burg Hof where the happy proprietor handed us a key before I even gave him my name. A great comfortable quiet room with goats out the window, we cleaned up and enjoyed some local food and beer. Tammy tried a Schnitzel and loved it while I had local trout- very good! Back in the room we turned on the TV for the first time of the trip to find a concert just starting of the Queens Jubilee in London. We only watched it an hour before crashing asleep.

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