Walking Across Germany: Michael Lagacpanzer
Want to take solo travel to the next level? Try walking - and not just a stroll around the city square or hiking on the mountains. I met Michael Lagacpanzer, a Canadian veteran with a well-groomed moustache (like that guy on the Pringles can, in a good way) who walked ACROSS Germany.
This is a story about a man and a map.
Why walk?
It’s actually more personal but it’s from my military service experience in the Canadian army. I need to forget the past. Walking was like a challenge to restart. I wanted to challenge myself, to do something crazy to start my new life. So it’s kind of like a reset button. Exploring the country by foot, and meet people who live in there. I wanted to live in the culture and be with the people. I want to be on the little roads where nobody goes. There’s not many tourists and people are so so welcoming.
I want to be on the little roads where nobody goes.
2. What was the route?
Michael took out a massive map from his rucksack and proudly unfurled it to show his route.
Charles-de-Gaulle Paris > train to Lubeck > Plön (that has a castle over a hill) > Kiel > Laboe (there’s a navy memorial there - so that’s why I wanted to be in the North of Germany - the north of Germany wasn’t touched by the war compared to the south, so it wasn’t bombed and it’s all that) > Hamburg > Berlin (for the architecture and the impact of war for Germany. To see war and post-war. It feels like an open museum) > Potsdam (It’s really close to Berlin, maybe about 30km. There’s a port there. a lot of rivers and boats. Historical).
I wanted to walk in the northern part because it’s not not touched by the Second World War versus the bottom parts. It wasn’t really bombed so it’s pretty much original.
3. How did you plan your route? How did you even navigate? My life depends on Google Maps.
Follow the cycling road (road 2) on the map, used a website to find the walking route.
I use a physical map, maybe because of my military experience. But I use maps.me when I’m in the towns. But when I’m walking along the road or on a walking trail, I use a physical map.
4. Where to next?
After Paris, go back to Gaspese peninsula to visit my family, and then back to New Bronswick.
5. Place you always want to go to?
The Alps - the border between Swiss and Germany.
6. What do you say to those who are always itching to travel but don’t?
Don’t try to find an excuse, because whatever reason you have it’s only you restraining yourself. You are your own distraction. If you want to do it you will do it. Don’t think about the consequences, deal with it after! Don’t be afraid to jump jobs to realise your dreams.
7. Unusual thing you travel with?
A diary and the map.
A crab that I bought at an aquarium when I was in Hanover.
8. Like…a dead crab?
No no, like a stuffed toy! I also always have a pin from the Canadian Legion to show that I am veteran, on the right side of my baseball hat.
And I also have a little angel my mom gave me, made of crystal. I put on the shoulder straps of my rucksack. It’s like a lucky charm.
9. What book would you recommend that goes well with your travel or your current state of mind?
I recommend books from an astronomer named Hubert Reeves. He's a good writer. He would simplify complicated things. He writes a lot of books about astronomy, but it also goes deeper in the subject and you learn about yourself. It makes you discover the universe in a scientific view, but also a spiritual view. It’s like those moments where I’m walking and I’m the forest and it’s just nice to sit and absorb everything. In Japan or China, they call that a ‘tree bath’, where you bathe nature in. You don’t care about anything, just open your mind.
Interviewed by Nadia Pritta Wibisono in a hostel in Paris, 23rd May 2018. Conversations are condensed and some are translated to English.
Listen here for a recording of the interview: