The first entries on this blog are belated additions -a recollection of my MuVe adventure in 2017.

In case you haven't encountered the word "MuVe" yet, it is a shortening of Munich-Venice.

The whole hike - known as "Dream Path" - runs up and down over a distance of more than 500km and 25,000 height meters, from the Marienplatz in central Munich to the Piazza de San Marco in Venice. The route was established by Ludwig Grassler in 1977, when he published his trekking guide for a continuous hut throughhike through the Karwendel mountains, the Central Alps in Austria and the Dolomites in northern Italy.

Like most others, I didn't have enough holidays to hike the whole distance that is usually split into 28 legs, but my hope was to make it past all the "important" spots along the way. Some shorter days can be combined into one, but I was expecting to replace the one or other walk in the summer heat of the northern Italian lowlands with public transportation. Thus, my goal was to get as far as possible in 3 weeks while still enjoying the hike and to have at least a day at the Italian cost to cool my blistered feet in the Mediterranean Sea as a reward.

You might ask what brings someone to spend weeks lugging a heavy bag on their back across the mountains for no apparent reason. I could list all kinds of philosphical reasons, but the short and simple answer is, it's fun. It's fun to be outside, to experience nature and myself, meet other people, enjoy the simplicity and camaradery at the mountain huts, to keep moving, to overcome my inner chicken, to flee the world of computers and technical appliances for a while - there are probably hundreds such points that, together, like puzzle pieces, form one big picture that translates into fun, or even more precise, aliveness.

Even as a kid I enjoyed being in the mountains, back then with family and relatives, and we often a few days at a time in mountain hut. There were times in my youth when other things were more important, but I finally couldn't ignore the calling of the Alps anymore.

So my treks grew longer over the last few years, until I tackled my first real "project" in 2016. That also bore the label "Alpine crossing", but the distance was markedly shorter. That route went along the E5 long distance trail from Oberstdorf in the western German Alps to Merano in northern Italy, and I was hooked. After eight days of walking, it felt difficult to simply stop. My body had just gotten used to the height and effort, my feet had stopped protesting every evening, I had just started to experience moments where my walking was weightless, rhythm and balance perfectly in tune and my head was utterly engrossed in the here and now,  in a world of breathtaking beauty.

This blog is a smal travel diary.

If you have become curious about the Dream Path from Munich to Venice, you can read more here.