Day 6: Stans to Flüeli Ranft

So, I'm lying in Bed and I'm very much feeling empty in regards of how to proceed. I have to

major problems. The first is the upcoming weather which looks awful with a lot of rain and heavy winds. Nothing to look forward to but also doable.

The other one is more severe as I feel a lot of pain in my right inner shins when I put pressure on it. It's probably a result of me walking funny because of my toe. Worst case scenario would be that it is a so called "shin splint" which is is "an inflammation of the muscles, tendons, and bone tissue around your tibia." regarding to Google. If it IS that I can't use my feet today because the pain would be too severe. And also it would make the condition so much worse that I had to finish my Trip already.

So I'm very much on the fence of what I should do. The nice Landlady offered me the possibility to stay another night so I could go

to the doctor and have my shin heal some

more so that's an option. My ego just HATES that tough because I want to do the miles! What do?!?!?

So yeah, of COURSE I pressed on. And I know, I know you think just because I look like an Idiot and seem like an idiot I must have no idea what I'm doing - but might I remind you that I'm an Idiot with 5'500+ km hiking experience in heavy terrain under his belt?

T'was the right decision because I got a few super nice experiences even before Lunch. In the church I met a cool group again who spent the same night in the Nunnery as I did. They're a christian youth group and I find them pretty awesome to be honest. They hike like a week on time on the Camino until they finally reach Geneva. They're not cringy or preachy or anything and I'm happy to have met them.

Next to the beautiful old church with its message of peace and love is a wonderfully violent and aggressive monument depicting the semi-mythical hero "Winkelried" who supposedly died a martyr during the battle of Sempach against the austrian house of Habsburg in 1386. I love how the Guy swinging his mace doesn't even look at the People he's slaughtering. It's just another Tuesday for him and he's already thinking about what he should have for lunch...

Then there's a grat statue of a young beautiful maiden brushing her hair and supposedly admiring her own beauty, unaware of the personification of death (or time?) lurking behind her, waiting until first her beauty fates and then taking her wherever all living thing must go one day.

What I find so awesome is how death is smiling and looking in the mirror too. As if the Girl makes a Selfie and he's Photobombing her for the lulz. Also he's got a sence of fashion as he has a very nice hat on even if he might otherwise be naked. Reminds me of myself during the "naked hiking day" in 2018...

I like to dream about what those statues mean and find the funny in it.

Back on the trail I played with some young cows who were like puppies - trying to get me to run around with them. I made a video too which I try to post later. I dig the Girls, they were so energetic and happy!

Otherwise the Trail is nice and leads trough old forests and little valleys. I need to take it easy because of my foot but I'm getting there slowly but surely.

Lunch today is a Wurstsalat or "sausage salad" because mixing cheese and sausages together and call it a salad is so very typically swiss.

During Lunch I browsed Facebook and found my post from exactly five years ago:

It's SO funny because yet AGAIN I'm in "excruciating pain" and I actually thought to have lost my beloved knife before finding it somewhere.... not much has changed really 😬

After around 60% of todays trail the Ibuprophene started to wave off and I was hurting again. With a LOT of luck and help I somehow managed to press on tough.

Good thing that the wooden Bandit showed me the way to Santiago or I'd have lost the trail here!

This unremarkable little Church in St. Jakob

has got a fascinating History as Archologists found out it stands on the same place as a roman temple before and probably a celtic temple before even that. Later the stinking french under the old Bugger Napoleon came over to fight the Nidwalder who fought back in what was considered a "holy war" in the likes of the Alamo or Leonidas with his 300 certainly-not-gay-at-all Spartans. So the Frogeaters burned the old Chapel down - pressumably to have fire to bake all their Baguettes in but I digress... they also got plugs where I could

load up my electronics which is what I appreciated most about the thing.

Now I'm FINALLY in Flüeli-Ranft! Here I'm standing in front of the house that the Saint Niklaus von Flüen built and in which he must've shagged his poor (lucky?) Wife Dorothea all day every day to exhaustion because they had like 10 children(!) before he was like "fuck that shit", leaving his family and went on living as an Eremit in some cave or whatever. I personally call that a dickmove but the Pope thought that was a dope-ass thing to do and proclaimed him a proper Saint in 1947 (presumably because I guess they had nothing else to do that year like maybe investigating the role of the Vatican in helping Nazis flee to Argentinia trough Ratlines organized by Priests or maybe look into a bazillion cases of rape by members of the congregations or something. Must've been a boring year...).

My friend an Co-worker Niklaus is named after the Guy and I often make fun of him for this fact.

Now I'm lying in my bed in a Youth-hostel trying hard not to feel like a Grandfather as the avergage age here is around 14... also I make a lot of "old-people-noises" when I move my body so there's that.