Hilly Westphalia […] seizes the attention of every traveller by reason of the thoroughly picturesque beauty of its position in the green-forested valley of an important and historically remarkable mountain range. The little province [Hochstift Paderborn] to which it belonged was in those days one of those hidden away corners of the earth without factories and commerce, without military roads, where a strange face still caused a sensation and a journey of thirty leagues gave even the more prominent person in his district an aura of an intrepid explorer – in short, a spot like which there were so many others in Germany, with all the faults and virtues, all the originality and narrow-mindedness that thrive only under such circumstances.Annette von Droste-Hülshoff: Die Judenbuche (The Jews’ Beech)
On my camino road again! #FinisEuropae & #Wanderlust: after 559 km another 90 km of total 3,000 km to Santiago de Compostela! Soon I will start from Höxter at the Weser river to my home city Paderborn, crossing hilly Westphalia and the Egge Hills-Teutoburg Forest Nature Park. It is an old region full of green hills and many baroque Catholic churches – and most important: many villages from my childhood where a big part of my ancestors spent all their famer’s life. My first day will lead me to Brakel where I will stay in a monastery. On my way I will do a small detour to that village Anne von Droste-Hülshoff the first time heard of the “The Jews’ Beech Thriller”.
All my St James way to Paderborn is described in German here.