The Way of St. James

Here is the map showing "the way" from Bamberg to Santiago de Compostella in Spain.

Here is the trail shell symbol - "links" is left, "rechts" is right, and "geradeaus" is straight ahead

The Pilgrimage Church - Viersehnheiligen (14 Saints)

Inside the Baroque Church - Gorgeous!!!

There are always Candles to light

And there is almost always beer associated with the Churches in Bavaria  :-)

2 cute stragglers

My silly husband (notice the directional arrow  - and off he goes...)

Gotta have the hiking sticks, and a good leader...

The destination of Staffelberg  - way off in the distance...

Can't believe these kids are almost all as big as I am...

Marking our territory :-)

taking it all in...

Yes - we are soon finished!!!!

A little love shown among siblings

And Bailey even found a Lady Bug - definitely a lucky day!!!!

Last year, Bryan and I watched a Martin Sheen movie called "The Way." It is a great (very simple) film about a father whose life changes drastically after his son dies. In honor of his son, he ends up walking the "The way of St. James" to the very end in Santiago de Compostela, Spain.  Over a Hundred Thousand people complete the pilgrimage each year  to reach the site of the "grave" of the Apostle James in Santiago de Compostela. We really enjoyed the film, and when we were talking to our German friends about how much we enjoyed it, we were shocked to hear that "the way of St. James" comes right near Bamberg!!! One of the famous pilgrimage churches along "the way" is in a town about 20 minutes from here in Bad Staffelstein. The church is called Vierzehnheiligen, and translates to the "14 Saints." We visited it this weekend, and are now inspired to hike much more of it next summer.  The trails go throughout parts of Europe, and are marked with a special shell symbol, that not everyone would recognize as being "the way" (see photos). It is supposed to be an extremely spiritual experience to hike "the way of St. James" - for us it was very special to hike a small piece of it!!!! Now we want to do much more of it!!!