Pilgrims: Exciting accommodation along the German Way of St. James

Hape Kerkeling’s bestseller “I’m Gone Then” has created vivid visions of overcrowded pilgrim hostels for many. deterrent? Obviously not for everyone. Was there a Kerkeling effect after all: after the book, more people than before made the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela on the Camino Francés.

But it doesn’t always have to be the most famous Way of St. James in Spain, not always the bed camp. In Germany, too, there are more than 30 different routes for making a pilgrimage.

And: The German Way of St. James network has exciting accommodations for different needs and budgets. Here is a selection of special and curious places to stay:

1. Pilgrim Suite, Greven (NRW)

It is said that the Way of St. James begins on your doorstep. That is actually true for Andrea Poleratzki from Greven in Münsterland.

The Westphalian Way of St. James – from St. Peter’s Cathedral in Osnabrück via the Teutoburg Forest, Münsterland, Dortmund, Wuppertal to Cologne Cathedral – also leads through the Grevener Bauerschaft Schmedehausen with a small town center and picturesque houses.

Diagonally across the street from Poleratzki’s hostel is the church “To the Holy Guardian Angels”, next to it is a large information board with a scallop shell. A symbol of pilgrims for centuries, today the shell is both a signpost and a symbol of identification. Stylized yellow on a blue background, it can be found on the notice board at the church – and on the wall of the hostel with the idiosyncratic name: “Am Dom guest rooms … something different“.

The rooms of this hostel, which according to its own information is somewhat different, are called “The Cathedral Room” and “The Pilgrim Suite”. The name is program. Around 70 pilgrims stop there every year.

Since 2014 they have found “a curious hostel”, as the landlady Poleratzki says. The crockery shelf in the kitchen was originally a nostalgic suitcase, the bench used to be a carriage. The water in the washing facilities either bubbles out of a tap or flows out of a milk can.

“Every part gets a second chance. The charm of old furniture is simply greater. They have their stories,” says the 59-year-old, who also offers breakfast on request. It is precisely here that she often strikes up conversations with the guests. “With us it’s not anonymous, it’s small, family-like,” she says. “The guests can also use the garden with its many quiet corners, really arrive. Often it is as if something is opening up.”

According to Poleratzki, many pilgrims tell their stories. Like the Norwegian with multiple sclerosis, who was also a guest in Schmedehausen on her mission to run a marathon every day until Paris. According to the hostel mother, some pilgrims come back later for a vacation. Then that would be particularly nice.

2. Covered wagon, Neukirchen (Saxony)

With horses and donkeys on the Way of St. James? “I’ve already had everything,” says Bert Bochmann. With his brother Tilo he runs an organic farm in Neukirchen, on the edge of the Ore Mountains. Pilgrims can sleep here in a covered wagon on hay. Further accommodations are planned. Horse and donkey can be accommodated in the pasture next door.

The brothers, whose court is directly on the Saxon Way of St. James lies, not yet. Although, Bert jokes: “We make a pilgrimage every day, just just the small part of the way.”

3. Construction trailer, Vechta (Lower Saxony)

When the children were younger, the old trailer in the garden of the Sander family from Vechta was still used a lot for playing. But over time this decreased and the car just stood around.

Then Thomas Sander read about the North German Pilgrim’s Way Via Baltica, which runs 20 meters in front of the house. Without further ado, he and his wife Daniela decided to convert the car into a hostel for pilgrims. Prepared, got the bed, put in the table and seating, done.

“We leave the doors at the back of the house open so that the pilgrims can use our family bathroom and kitchen,” says Sander. “You have to have trust in the person who comes.”

And over the years, since 2017, all kinds of people have come. “Consistently lovely people, humble and grateful as pilgrims are. From Germany, of course, but also from France, Norway and so on. Every pilgrim has their own background,” says Sander. “The last pilgrim, for example, went the way for a children’s hospice and collected mileage money as donations.”

In 2019, before the pandemic, the Sanders counted more than 20 overnight stays a year. “If it is ever too cold, we also take the pilgrims indoors. In the room of our daughter who moved out to study.”

4. Fire engine, Bernau-Börnicke (Brandenburg)

Tatütata, the pilgrims are here: It must be something similar at the pilgrim hostel in the fire engine in Bernau-Börnicke, north-east of Berlin. Since 2016 there is this accommodation on the north Brandenburg Way of St. James from Frankfurt (Oder) to Bernau.

The historic vehicle from the manufacturer Magirus-Deutz, built in 1963, is in a suitable setting: at the old fire station. Also in the house is – according to the organizer – the smallest theater in Brandenburg. In the game schedule there are fairytale productions that are told with characters, as well as readings, chamber music and more.

“They play four times a month,” says theater director Ekkehard Koch, himself a passionate pilgrim. So if you stop there at the right time, you can not only enjoy an overnight stay in the converted fire engine, but also culture in the fire station theater.

5. Boathouse, Torgau (Saxony)

Rowing and pilgrimage – that fits, thought the 1909 founded Torgau Rowing Club and has two sleeping alternatives for tired pilgrims on her Away through the district of North Saxony.

Once you can spend the night in the hall at the boathouse, with an air mattress, sleeping bag and the possibility to use the kitchen. In 1994 a small rowing home was set up, which is not only used by rowers but also by pilgrims on pilgrimage to St. James.

If you want something more comfortable, you can stay in the “Alten Bootshaus” on the club premises, a restaurant with a small guesthouse, right on the Elbe.

6. Mini Hut, Soltau (Lower Saxony)

It’s called the “smallest pilgrim hostel in Germany”.Pilgrims Housein Soltau. With an interior dimension of 1.60 by 1.98 meters, i.e. around three square meters, that can be good. Behind a small, brown garden fence lies this tiny half-timbered pilgrimage idyll, framed by greenery. It is also a popular photo opportunity.

Sponsored by the Soltau Salt Museum, the mini hut was put into operation in September 2019. Its location is ideal: it lies directly on the pilgrimage routes Via Romea and Jacobusweg Lüneburger Heide as well as on the Heidschnuckenweg, a well-known hiking trail.

(dpa)

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