Ich bin dann mal weg

Hape Kerkeling

2 ideas

1. A comedian walks the Camino in 2001

   In 2001, after a sudden hearing loss and a gallbladder operation, German TV comedian Hape Kerkeling left his career and walked the Camino Francés from Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port to Santiago de Compostela, keeping a daily diary. He grumbled about blisters and dismal hostels, sometimes took buses or taxis, and often chose hotels over pilgrim dormitories. He also formed close bonds with fellow pilgrims, notably Anne and Sheelagh, and reached Santiago with a hesitant but real sense of having met God along the way.

2. One distilled daily insight per entry

   Kerkeling ends each day's diary entry with a single sentence stating what that day taught him. The discipline forces a messy, uneventful day of walking to yield a portable lesson. Over weeks these one-line insights add up to a record of inner change that the day-by-day narrative alone would hide.

Save and mark ideas in the app