Friday Evening Walk

Although I went for a walk every evening after class, I did not take any pictures on the Wednesday and Thursday. During the days, it was often raining and quite chilly, but thankfully, by the time class was over, the rain had stopped and I could go out.
On either Wednesday or Thursday I took a shortcut across a field to the supermarket to stock up on snacks, and frightened a hare that had been quietly sitting there. I had not seen the hare until it dashed across the grass from me, and of course it was way too fast for me to have a chance at a picture.

As mentioned in this post, Friday was the hardest day of the week, but also turned out to be the day with the most interesting walk of the week.

I started out in the opposite direction than usual and quickly arrived at a part of the woods where I had not been going any further until now than just the first line of trees. This time, I went straight ahead on the path.

After a short stretch, the path came out on the other side of the woods, leading to a sunny field framed by more woods. Not a single person was in sight.

 I had to step carefully to avoid treading on someone's house!

Past the rapeseed field in full bloom, the path led further on, back into the woods. I never knew what I was going to find behind the next bend, and all I could hear was birdsong and the faint noise of cars on the road that I had crossed at the start of my walk.

Someone had obviously been here before me!

From a distance, I could hear church bells and the bleating of sheep. I followed the sound and came across this sign on a tree. Do you know what it stands for?

It indicates that this path is part of El Camino de Santiago, or St. James's Way, Jakobsweg in German. In case you are not familiar with any of these terms, simply read what it's all about on wikipedia. I am not Catholic, or belong to any organized religion, but I liked the idea of walking, at least for a little bit, along a path that means so much to many people, and has been travelled on for centuries.
 

From the end of the woods, I could see the village where the sound of church bells had come from. I had already been walking for quite a while, and needed to go back to the  hotel the same way, preferably before darkness (no street lights in the woods!), so I decided not to walk over to the village. But I definitely want to go there next time I'll be here, which is scheduled for the end of June.
 

Zooming in (or trying to!) on the sheep. There were many lambs.

Returning, I took one last picture of the rapeseed field, and went straight back to the hotel. I was quite ready for something to eat now, and my head felt much better than when I had come out of class.