During check-out, the hotel manager loses his over-friendly composure within seconds when I ask him about the lack of WIFI support in the hotel rooms. He stammers about technical problems, about trouble and costs. I point out possible repeaters, but he never seems to have heard of them.
Once again an example of how stupidity and greed lead the reputation of our highly praised hotel industry and gastronomy ad absurdum. Wifi in a congress hotel? What for!
I give him a pitying look as a farewell, which he acknowledges with grimly contorted corners of his mouth.
The longest bench in the world
Because of yesterday's half-time celebratory mood I didn't notice the longest bench in the world, made from a single piece of wood, 38,03 meter long.
The purpose escapes me, as it usually does in such matters, but the inclusion in the Guinness Book of Records certainly played a role. If I'm honest, I find this weird quest for the most absurd world records just... absurd.
"The biggest pizza in the world. The longest beard in the world. Most people in one car. "
The longest bench in the world fits in perfectly. Strangely enough (or no, actually obvious), the Swiss are represented above average in this book of records.
Well, in any case, the Lüdern-Chilbi, which is known far and wide, is supposed to take place here every year at the beginning of August, so at least there are enough people then looking for a place to sit.
Do I sound a bit cynical today?
Maybe, because at halftime of all things, pretty much everything hurts this morning. There are apparently muscles and tendons and all sorts of other things that were unknown to me until now. And may hurt. But that will be alright. Half an hour marching, and everything will be fine.
An overcast sky?
I can hardly believe my eyes when I look out of the window and see an overcast sky. Where the hell has the brilliant blue sky gone, the playful little clouds, the burning sun?
And are these really a few gloomy veils slowly and steadily passing by across the sky?
Anyway, even today I have a very pleasant path ahead of me, even if I have to take an alternative route again. The hotel on Moosegg was fully booked and no replacement could be found anywhere. The solution lies in Signau in the Roten Thurm. Well then.
In the heart of the Emmental, the route leads over a long ridge with scattered farms and lots of views down into the wide valley of the Grosse Emme, then up to Moosegg, which is also very scenic.
Original: Length: 16 km, ascent | Descent: 640 m | 840 m, hiking time: 4 h 50 min
Alternative: Length: 17 km, ascent | Descent: 740 m | 1165 m, hiking time: 7 hours
Honestly, I don't care about the weather, I take it as it comes. After all, it has been well-disposed to me in recent days.
The Lüdernalp including its incompetent manager stays back in the scarce morning light, for once I don't regret the farewell. The splendor of flowers on the right and left of the path brightens the mood in an instant, and the positive thoughts are back.
Nature reflects, you can not escape its beauty. Anyone who walks through this splendor, allowing negative thoughts, should stay at home. If anything, then no thoughts at all are best recommended.
A wise man
Fernando Pessoa. one of the most famous poets in Portuguese language. He belonged to the important authors of the 20th century, but was almost unknown during his lifetime, let alone recognized.
One can occasionally leaf through his most important work, "The Book of Disquiet" (nobody reads it from front to back), sink into the chapters chosen at random and wonder for the hundredth time why such a wise person remained unknown and ignored.
He wrote on 21.6.1934: Once we see the world as an illusion and a mirage, we can see everything that happens to us as a dream, as something that pretended to be because we were just asleep.
Well, if what surrounds me today, is merely an illusion, a mirage, then the illusionist has done a good job. I feel anything but asleep, but perhaps the occasional gasp on steep ascents is part of a nightmare.
But it reminds you of Buddha's wisdom:
Delusion or deception or illusion that makes us not see the world that way, as it is, but as we want to see it, or have mistakenly learned to see it. Some scholars claim that all of life is a great illusion.
It fits perfectly, doesn't it?
Crosses and pious benches
Again, crosses along the way remind you of the deceased, you drift away from life for a moment, but then your step moves forward, your thoughts change, lingering at a bench with a pious saying burned into its backrest.
One notices the religious background of the neighborhood.
A tree and a landing pad
But then a huge tree appears, just pure nature in all its power and beauty.
That might have been a tree where Tiburon might have landed after his nosedive.
Much later, when his memory slowly and fragmentarily returned, he recalled that sudden silence, the groaning of the poles, and the ground rushing at him with terrifying speed. His maiden flight had become a bizarre dance of death. The glider lurched toward a group of trees, and at the last moment he managed to pull up his legs before he was slammed into the spreading branches of a huge Maple tree.
The old tree shook like a wet dog, then got quiet.
(Extract from [A Snake in the Darkness")
Man and his pets
Every now and then a truck chugs by, "Live animals" is written on its side. It is fully loaded with sheep, another time with squealing pigs (which usually instinctively notice that something bad is going on).
I find it increasingly difficult to bear such sights. Do I become thin-skinned with age? Do I endure misery less?
Humans are supposed to acquire a thick skin in old age, almost automatically, but that's silly, on the contrary. You become more permeable, more vulnerable, softer, perhaps as a result of your own life experiences. You look more closely, reflect, look beneath the surface, recognize the true meaning.
Mankind has always burdened itself with guilt. Recklessness, stupidity, abuse, thoughtlessness, cold-heartedness. Mass animal husbandry. Animal abuse. Orphanages. Verdingkinder... The list can be indefinitely extended.
When I think about the street children in Kathmandu, I remember the tears and once again I feel the painful helplessness.
Are humans really as they sometimes seem? Cold-hearted, self-interested, ruthless, cruel and brutal?
An old farmer's wife, loading heavy wood onto a trailer, comes just right. Chatting with her, I find out in a few minutes more about the nature of humans than can be found in any textbook. She has long since retired, but, as she laughingly announces, only theoretically, because she and her husband have to see how they can survive financially even in old age.
She tells it with serene composure, and there is nothing like bitterness on her wrinkled, wonderfully old face, even though she is well aware of the injustice of her situation.
So, humans are also kind-hearted, helpful, friendly and many other things too. Not that I did not know about it, but it saves my day all the same ...
The tallest silver fir in Switzerland
The path now leads again through a dense forest, the Dürsrütiwald, which is located at over 900 meters above sea level. And in this forest, the mightiest silver fir in Switzerland has been growing for over 350 years. It was about 57 meters high before the storm Lothar in 1999 robbed it of its crown.
Just imagine: height 57 meters, circumference 4.90, diameter 1.56 meters, age 350 years.
350 years! The dear old fir tree must have experienced a lot. Even before the French Revolution, before Napoleon, before all the events that followed, the little sapling saw the light of the forest. Crazy! Of course, there are trees that are still much older, such as Methusaleh, an 4700-year-old pine in the Inyo National Forest in Nevada.
But I can imagine that the forest around it has not changed much. Numerous firs and beeches and maples grew all around and disappeared again. Sometimes a human appeared, perhaps playing children, loggers or gamekeepers, foxes and deer and squirrels, later walkers and hikers.
None of this bothered the tree. It only felt the danger when a storm came or heavy snow, but it was only in Lothar, that cruel fellow, that it found an adversary to whom it was no match, who wanted its crown and got it.
I am standing here, amazed and admiring and touched.
Artfully stacked firewood
And another oddity (I'm always surprised by the unexpected discoveries along the way): this area is apparently famous for its stacked fireood. No idea who takes so much trouble to turn the logs into some kind of artwork.
The cart with the two wheels is not standing in front of the stack, but is a three-dimensional part of it. I imagine the people who might think long and hard about the future wood stack. Amazing! Sometimes my compatriots make me angry, but again and again they surprise me.
This is exactly what such hikes are for.
In the valley of the Emme
And then I reach the valley floor, the Emmental, walk a few meters through Emmenmatt and branch off. Now the Panorama Trail would lead in the direction of Moosegg, but I now hike along the Emme to Signau.
The river still makes a harmless impression here, like many of its kind. But when a heavy thunderstorm breaks loose, the river might turn into a raging monster in a matter of minutes.
So I walk cheerfully along the river, huge trees along the bank graciously give me some shade. It seems to be a dog lover's paradise, every few meters man with dog or woman with dog cross my path, I am sniffed devoutly and in some cases licked as a sign of a starting friendship (by the dogs of course, neither by man nor woman).
Then the path turns off to the other side of the Emme, the crossing is not just a bridge, but a wooden work of art from ancient times. I assume that this crossing played a more important role in the past than it does nowadays, but to give the artwork the necessary significance, I walk over it very slowly and devoutly.
The remainder is quickly told, via Schüpbach and an unnecessary detour across meadows and past farms, I once again experience the entry of the gladiators. The village seems deserted, or is it just the summer's afternoon heat?
I quickly find the hotel, but it is closed, so I have to call the manager (we know this in the meantime). The place is big and seems to suffer from a significant lack of guests.
The landlord, a young gentleman in his prime, turns out to be a fanatical supporter of cryptocurrencies, and is convinced that all the world's problems can be solved with them.
I'm skeptical, but I really can't counter that much euphoria. Besides, I'm much too tired for that ...
Song doesn't match the theme for once (but I'm in a Rimini mood): Fabrizio De André - Andrea
And here the path continues ... to Münsingen, where I will meet my hiking buddies
