Own appreciation of the new Way of St. James (in five stages from 2021)

I started my new job at Deutsche Bahn in July 2020. & I love it! 🙂
I quickly realized at work that you need to be in good running condition outdoors (from 15 km / day of running). I quickly remembered my first Way of St. James from Trier to Barcelona in 2008 and thought to myself - this is going well! 😉
So I started running my laps again, this time at work, instead of hiking in my free time and doing what I subconsciously enjoyed the most. As the weeks and months went by, I came up with the idea of continuing and completing my old Way of St. James. My motto was: If I can walk up to 25 km a day at the train station, I can also complete the Way of St. James -> all the way to Santiago de Compostela in Spain! But I didn't know how I was going to get at least 7 weeks of vacation for the remaining 800 km? Then I remembered an idea and its words (present in my head) from my occupational therapist from the hospital in Heidelberg (around 2010): „Divide the Way of St. James into stages - then you can complete the route while you're on vacation at work in the future!“ So I split the route into stages and walked from Avignon to Lourdes as the first stage in new Meindl boots.
During this start stage I had to break in the excellent boots and got really big blisters on both heels, which forced me to take breaks and shorten the first stage (Avignon - Lourdes). Christian, my hostel father in France (Occitania), said to me clearly when he saw the bloody wounds on my legs: „This stage is finished for you - you have to travel the rest by train to Lourdes.“

I didn't overdo it as a whole, but I thought I would run the route in fewer stages (the plan was a maximum of four stages instead of the current five). I also received the golden tip from two French women in the second stage not to run in the Spanish summer heat from July to the end of August (from 40°C in the shade)! If everything works out, I will finish the last stage shortly before Pentecost 2026 and then reach my ultimate goal of the cathedral in Santiago de Compostela. By the way, thanks expressly to my school friend „Uwe-Torti“ 😉 from eh. Seligenstadt, who motivated me from Australia (new place of residence) via Facebook to finish the Camino when I easily weighed 190kg (Dzimbos Camino Trigger 😉 )! 

The original motivation was to walk the Way of St. James again with the goal of my own recovery! 

Target: „When I enter the cathedral, I want to be healthy / no longer afraid!“

Ich stieg völlig unwissend in den französischen TGV in Frankfurt / Main mit dem Ziel Avignon ein (2021), um ein Abenteuer von 2008 (erster Jakobsweg) fortzusetzen. 

I thought to myself over and over again: ‚If only the fears can be reduced, also via techniques, then I have achieved success!‘ 

Everyone knows the reality: My fears are since June 2025, thanks to the latest drug switched off (been!)!

Bei der Abfahrt (2021) von Frankfurt, Gleis 19 (das Frankophonische Gleis bei uns am HBF in Ffm) kam dieser Song via Zufallsliste auf meinem iPhone: