Rapperswil to Einsiedeln, 17Km
I’ll try to be informative today because the destination is Einsiedeln, pilgrim HQ in Switzerland and second in importance to Le Puy on this walk. So I’ll skip over the unchanging breakfast and ask you to first imagine the beautiful town of Rapperswil on the shores of Lake Zurich with the sun shining and hardly a soul about. It’s Whit Monday and it’s a public holiday. And because it’s Whitsun, there was a Whitsun wedding yesterday. It was more Hollywood than Philip Larkin, a young bride resplendent in a white dress which flowed down the steps from the church to the Rapperswil town square. Walter, Eveline and I arrived during the photographs and we did our best to avoid treading on the dress or getting caught in the picture.
My body is a little bit confused. On sighting Rapperswil yesterday, it assumed we had reached journeys end and, like last year, we’d soon be at Zurich airport for the flight home. But no. I had to force myself in the direction of Le Puy with many a hurdle yet to overcome.
Eveline and I started today with a pleasant stroll across Lake Zurich on the low wooden pedestrian footbridge which hovers 1.5m above the shallow part of the lake. The Romans built the first version but the present structure dates from 2001. It’s made of solid oak and runs for 841m to the opposite shore.
Today’s climb started soon after we reached land. Einsiedeln lies about 500m above Rapperswil but we had to climb 735m in total. It wasn’t terribly peaceful because the path was shared with mountain and electric bikes and on the roads there were also big motorbikes, old classic cars and the occasional normal car with children in the back.
We met Walter by chance, sitting in a pleasant wooden shelter. His meditation broken, he had little choice but to continue with us up hill. All of a sudden we reached the top and found the lost world: singing birds, wild flowers and hay fields with a backdrop of snow covered mountains. And cows of course.
Quickly – a bit about Einsiedeln. It’s a Roman Catholic Benedictine abbey founded in 934 by a hermit and consecrated in 948 by Jesus Christ and St Peter among others, according to legend. Pope Pius VI confirmed all that in 1793 so now it’s a fact. The Black Madonna arrived in 1466 and is a centre of Marian devotion, like the one in Le Puy. It’s made of lime wood and the Virgin and baby occupies a large shrine near the entrance. The church itself dates from 1780 and is a spectacular example of the Baroque style. It has always been a major resting place for pilgrims walking to Santiago de Compostela.
There. That’s enough information for now
Pilgrimage 
Kia ora, Tim. Stunning photos as usual. The interior of the church is wonderful in its extreme decoration – not my taste but impressive in its composition and colours. Do you know how long it took from the first sod being turned until the church was open for business? It must have been decades. I must follow up on the source of the black Madonna. Keep on keeping on because I enjoy your travelogue. Kia kaha
Kia ora, Tim, all I can find about the black Madonna is that she is possibly blackened from the use of candles over the centuries. She is so uniformly black I think she was created black – evoking strength and presence.
I seem to remember the rebuilding of the church took about 60 years. The Black Madonna is something I don’t know much about but I thought it was the type of wood that is black. More research needed
Got to love a boardwalk…& doubling as a bridge, even better.
Didn’t do a runner with one of the little gnomes did you Tim? Or were they glued down?…(& if you know the answer, we all know you tried…!) 🤭😇
Me too it’s amazing walking such a distance on a wooden broadwalk. And I don’t carry gnomes intentionally!
Stunning pictures of the inside of the abbey – well done!