Peace Walk

Bains-les-Bains -> Mirecourt --> Poussay -> Nancy -> Frouard --> Marbache -> Rosieres-en-Haye (?) -> Appremont-la-Foret I had my first dream! Even though it wasn't a very nice one and I woke up during the night a few times, the morning started with a hope that today is the day when I finally reach Saint-Mihiel and finally start walking with that stupidly heavy bagpack (but, hey, I wanted to feel what these guys felt, right..? So walking with a 30+kg backpack is the way to do it, right..?). I hoped to reach Saint-Mihiel by afternoon (that's called "being overly optimistic". Or "having foolish hopes"). The day started nice. Cows and sunrise were the first things I saw after opening my tent. Despite the heavy dream, a perfect place to sleep indeed. I ate the second half of the can that I started yesterday before sleep (that was the drill), packed my things and went to the road. It was starting to get frustrating - how can I man...

A day with not so much First World War but with a lot of living ones. The approximate route: Pfetterhouse -> Rechesy -> Delle -> Belfort -> Frahier-et-Chatebier? -> Saint-Sauveur (Luxeuil-les-Bains) -> Fontaine-les-Luxeuil -> somewhere at a crossroad -> Bains-les-Bains. The Harvard map of the trenches had a big star indicating an important battlefield at Saint-Mihiel so I decided to went straight there to try to win some time. The plan was to reach Saint-Mihiel today but that didn't happened... But everything from the start... The day started at the fish pond that grew to be like second home to me after spending three nights there (sleeping next to water is great because you can wash yourself and your clothes). I packed my stuff, put the knee supports and walked to the end of Pfetterhouse where I started to hitch-hike to Belfort (decided that splitting the road and choosing bigger and possibly more well known towns would give me higher...

First night in the tent was interesting. The pond has some big fish - they were jumping at night or early in the morning, frogs were singing and cows or some devices in their 'house' were making bumping sounds all night somewhere behind the pond. Some member of different species made sorrowful voice (most probably some other member of another species used the first one for late dinner or early breakfast) in the next-to-tent forest. The sun rose and the tent became a sauna. I planned to walk to the sign I saw yesterday and look at the old railway from the First World War. But I remembered that I had a meeting with a girl in Basel (that's what happens when one mixes Saturday with Sunday). So I walked-hitchhiked back to Basel (38km). This allowed me to meet some amazing people from Germany (two were living in Saint-Louis, one - in Gottingen), who made all this lost day worthwhile. After the meeting it was quite late, so I slept next to garages in a place with many spiky plant...