Germany
Dennis is back
In the summer of 2022, the Camino Brothers walked on home ground - for two of them, at least. This time it was Mike who crossed the ocean, joining Nicki and Dennis in Germany to walk the Rheinsteig, the great trail that follows the Rhine. And this time, Dennis was back in the crew: all three brothers, together on the trail.
The trip began the way any good German hike should - at Dennis's house, where Mike spent the first night. From there the three set out from Biebrich Castle in Wiesbaden and followed the river to Sayn: ten days of hiking, 195 kilometres of castle-topped hills, steep vineyards and wide river bends, through the gorge country of the Lorelei.
One night they slept in a castle: Burg Gutenfels, high above the river at Kaub - the reward at the end of one of the trail's hardest days, 35 kilometres of ups and downs, with talk along the way of shortening it by boat. Another evening ended in Rüdesheim's famous Drosselgasse, where Mike found a bar called the Quetschkommod and reported back, pleased with himself: "I think I am in the famous street."
And because a trip to Germany shouldn't end the moment the hiking does, the journey finished with a couple of days in Hamburg and a night at Nicki's house - before Mike headed back across the Atlantic to Canada.
The trip's last drama was small and perfect. At Nicki's house, Mike couldn't find his money belt and was quietly convinced he'd lost it in Hamburg. Nicki, unbothered: "In the kitchen." It was.