Step by step, and with many interruptions, I have been walking my Way of St James to Santiago de Compostela since 2016 – on foot from Berlin, which only works with a bit of cheating. For me, it has become a horizontal test excavation right across Europe, roughly 3,700 kilometres long. Historic and present-day pilgrim routes are “just” benchmarks for my self-experiment: to encounter cultural and natural landscapes, strangers, myself – and, of course, to get a little closer to God.
My #berndscamino began in 2016 on my own doorstep in Berlin. Since then I have been walking it in stages: through Brandenburg and Saxony-Anhalt, my Westphalian home, the Rhineland and the Eifel, via Luxembourg and Schengen into France, and onwards through Lorraine, Burgundy, Rhône-Alpes, the Massif Central and Occitania. In 2026 I reached Lourdes – and with it, the Pyrenees. 2,867 kilometres since Berlin now lie behind me. In 2027 the next stage will take me from Lourdes over the Pyrenees to Puente la Reina in Spain.
Straight to a stage year
2016/17: Berlin/Brandenburg · 2017: Saxony-Anhalt · 2017: Lower Saxony · 2018: Westphalia · 2019: Bergisches Land & Cologne Lowland · 2020: Eifel/Luxembourg · 2021: Schengen/Lorraine · 2022: Lorraine/Champagne/Burgundy · 2023: Burgundy · 2023: Rhône-Alpes · 2024: Rhône-Alpes/Occitania · 2025: Occitania/Toulouse · 2026: Occitania/Lourdes · 2027: Lourdes – Puente la Reina (planned)
My Project
Status 2026: 👣 2,867 km of around 3,700 km since Berlin completed – I have arrived in Lourdes, at the foot of the Pyrenees.
Great People on my Way (in German) | My Stamp Collection (in German) | My Way at Komoot
About my Camino in a podcast (in German)
I have talked about my #berndscamino on the French podcast “Franko-viel – Der Frankreich-Podcast”: what you see when you leave Paris behind – and what you see when you leave Berlin behind. One hour about pilgrimage far from the postcard version of France, about country people, border regions and Europe’s depths beyond the capital cities.
My European test excavation at dokdoc.eu
After almost ten years on the way, I drew an interim balance for dokdoc.eu in 2025: an archaeological test excavation of Europe on foot – the geographical, historical, religious, social and personal layers of my route from Berlin to Toulouse. Europe reveals itself not only in treaties and summits, but in landscapes, border regions, family histories, open churches, mairies, associations and at the tables of hospitality.
- 🇩🇪 “Ausgrabungen: Mein Camino von Berlin nach Santiago” (German version)
- 🇫🇷 “Fouilles : Mon Camino, de Berlin à Saint-Jacques” (French version)
2016/17: Berlin/Brandenburg
In the beginning there was a lot of “patch way” – step by step out of the big city. Berlin offered more surprises than expected: stealthy paths through backyards and allotments, industrial estates next to photovoltaic fields, the first scallop shells along the Berlin Wall Trail. In Potsdam, splendid palace landscapes met the quiet of GDR-era villas. In the rain, the way led me to the magnificent monastery of Lehnin – my first pilgrims’ refuge. Via Brandenburg an der Havel, Lori’s baptismal church, Plaue and Jerichow, through snow and snowstorm across the Elbe, I reached Tangermünde and Stendal with its wintry old town: 189 km, the first pilgrim stamps and the certainty that a large project had grown out of small stages.
2017: Saxony-Anhalt
The Way of St James is well prepared in this German state. From the monastery of Jerichow I crossed the river Elbe and reached Tangermünde, followed by Stendal, Magdeburg and westwards as far as Eilsleben: my longest stretch to date, with stages of over 40 km through the often bleak Magdeburg Börde. Impressive was the Magdeburg canal aqueduct, where the Mittelland Canal spans the Elbe. Magdeburg itself showed me a city risen from ruins – starkly drawn, but full of dignity, with the cathedral and St Sebastian’s as spiritual high points. After 129 km the stage ended in Eilsleben.
2017: Lower Saxony
From Magdeburg I crossed improvised “the Börde” to reach the old county of Brunswick, then Hildesheim and the Weser Uplands. My first longer hiking tour brought me to a first “real monastery” (Marienrode) and a protestant abbey (Amelungsborn). And quite incidentally I walked through three UNESCO World Heritage Sites: St Mary’s Cathedral and St Michael’s Church at Hildesheim, the Fagus Works in Alfeld – and the highlight at the end point, back in Westphalia: Corvey Abbey.
- My way from Eilsleben to Brunswick 2017 (in German)
- My way from Brunswick to Westphalia 2017 (in German)
2018: Westphalia
2018 took me through my home: from Corvey through the former Prince-Bishopric of Paderborn into the Hochsauerland – pure nature with half-timbered houses, wayside chapels and disused mines. In Paderborn I gathered the pilgrim traces of my childhood at the Paradise Portal, in the cathedral and at the Busdorfkirche. Monasteries, brass bands, open doors: exhausting, gladdening – and once again a great deal closer to Santiago.
2019: Bergisches Land & Cologne Lowland
From the Sauerland, the “Heidenstraße” led me through the Bergisches Land and across the Rhine into the Cologne Lowland – the Way of St James through a metropolitan region. Highlights were the view of the cathedral from Schloss Bensberg, the arrival over the Deutzer Brücke and the pilgrim stamp inside Cologne Cathedral itself. From Cologne the Via Coloniensis began: through Brühl and along the Roman aqueduct to Weilerswist. With 938 km since Berlin, one thing was clear: the Eifel was calling as the next great stage.
2020: Eifel/Luxembourg
On my “Tour Eifel” I walked from Weilerswist via the Luxembourg town of Echternach to the old imperial city of Trier – pilgrimage in a pandemic: lonely in Corona times, but carried by the open-hearted warmth of the Rhineland-Moselle people. Small wonders along the way: the hospitality in Gondenbrett, Kurt Meyer’s pilgrims’ garage in Ammeldingen and the mystical Fraubillenkreux standing stone on the Ferschweiler Plateau. In Trier: Porta Nigra, the cathedral, the Basilica of St Matthias – and in the pilgrims’ office, my first certificate. Another 236 kilometres.
2021: Schengen/Lorraine
From Trier the way led via Schengen into France and – with a personal detour via Boust and Thionville – onwards via Metz to Toul. Je suis arrivé en France. A moving detour led to Boust and the family on whose farm my grandfather had worked as a German prisoner of war in 1946: out of a post-war story, a personal Franco-German connection had grown across the generations. In Toul came the quiet crowning moment: the climb up the tower of the Cathédrale Saint-Étienne – only the pilgrim stamps are now called tampons.
2022: Lorraine/Champagne/Burgundy
In August 2022 I continued from Toul towards Dijon – my first pilgrimage year after the major pandemic restrictions: hot, improvised and surprisingly warm-hearted. In temperatures of up to 40 °C, through a beautiful yet partly structurally weak region with little pilgrim infrastructure, but with plenty of humanity. Spiritually, it was less James and more Joan of Arc who shaped this stretch. Highlights were the fortress town of Langres, the 40-km day’s march to Auberive and majestic Grancey-le-Château. Balance: 1,684 km since Berlin.
2023: Burgundy
In 2023, after Easter, my #berndscamino took me from Is-sur-Tille near Dijon to Cluny – through one of France’s most beautiful wine and monastery regions. In Fontaine-lès-Dijon, the birthplace of Saint Bernard, I experienced warm hospitality; at Cîteaux I immersed myself for two days in the Trappist life. Between the Grands Crus I reached Beaune with its Hôtel-Dieu, and in Taizé enjoyed a luminous day of rest. In a cloudburst I finally reached Cluny with its abbey ruins. At the end of this stage I stood at 1,903 km since Berlin – the arithmetic halfway point of my route to Santiago.
2023: Rhône-Alpes
In autumn 2023, I once again felt the desire to continue my Camino. From Cluny I went on through the green mountains of the Rhône-Alpes towards the Loire near Saint-Étienne: an astonishing 4,400 metres of ascent and descent, hardly any tourism, and the friendliest region of France I had encountered so far. Near Saint-Haon-le-Châtel I celebrated my 2,000-km milestone. Balance: 2,092 km since Berlin.
2024: Rhône-Alpes/Occitania
From Saint-Étienne, the route continued through the Massif Central toward Occitania, crossing wild, spiritual landscapes. The little-walked Chemin des Allemands led, with much improvisation and private hospitality, to Le Puy-en-Velay – the symbolic new beginning on the Via Podiensis, where for the first time in ages I was no longer walking alone. Across the lonely plateaux of the Margeride and through the wide landscapes of the Aubrac, I reached Conques after twelve days: one of France’s most beautiful pilgrim stations. 2,372 km since Berlin.
2025: Occitania/Toulouse
From Conques I deliberately took a byway to Toulouse in 2025: around 230 kilometres away from the Via Podiensis, with much improvisation, private hospitality and only a single fellow pilgrim, Laura. It became France beyond the postcard: coal and spa towns in transition like Cransac, medieval towns like Villefranche-de-Rouergue and Najac, the world of art and wine around Cordes-sur-Ciel and Gaillac. I lived off mairies, kitchen tables and donativo rooms – a Camino of the people, ending grandly: Saint-Sernin, a pilgrim stamp on St James’s Day and Coquilles Saint-Jacques for the finale. 2,611 km since Berlin.
2026: Occitania/Lourdes
In 2026 I did it: I walked from Toulouse along the Via Tolosana to Lourdes – 242 kilometres in eleven days, right across Occitania to the edge of the Pyrenees. It became a stage of extremes: heat above 40 degrees, poorly signposted paths, but in return the best pilgrim infrastructure in France. Between the Airbus factory site and the pilgrimage crowds, between laïcité and a living faith, between solitude and hospitality lay an incredible tension. Historic highlights such as the Résistance stele in the forest of Bouconne, the slavery legacy of L’Isle-de-Noé and Toussaint Louverture, the jazz village of Marciac and 3,000 years of history at the monastery of Saint-Lézer turned this stage into a new layer of my European test excavation. 2,867 km since Berlin – arrived in Lourdes, at the gateway to the Pyrenees. And only a few weeks after my arrival, Pope Leo XIV visited the Marian pilgrimage site.
- My detailed report “Before the Pyrenees: From Toulouse to Lourdes” 2026 (in German)
- My stages Toulouse – Lourdes 2026 on Komoot
2027: Lourdes – Puente la Reina (planned)
In 2027 I will cross the Pyrenees: from Lourdes via the Somport Pass to Puente la Reina – and thus, for the first time, into Spain, following the Camino Aragonés, where my way merges with the Camino Francés.
My next steps
- 2027: Crossing the Pyrenees (Lourdes – Puente la Reina)
- Navarre
- La Rioja
- Castile and León
- Galicia
- Santiago de Compostela
Overview
- My “Hall of Fame” – my supporters on my way! (in German)
- All my reports on the way from Berlin to Santiago (in German)
- My Stamp Collection (in German)
- My Way at Komoot
- 🎙️ My Camino in conversation: Franko-viel, episode 109 (in German)
- 🇩🇪 My European test excavation at dokdoc.eu – German version
- 🇫🇷 My European test excavation at dokdoc.eu – French version