"The day on which I was fully initiated into the mysteries is marked by a white stone. It was when I put on a knapsack and started from Heidelberg for a march through to Odenwald. Then I first knew the delightful sensation of independence and detachment enjoyed during a walking tour. Free from all the bothers of railway timetables and extraneous machines, you trust to your own legs, stop when you please, diverge into any track that takes your fancy, and drop in upon some quaint variety of human life at every inn when you put up for the night... Walking is the natural recreation for a man who desires not absolutely to suppress his intellect but to turn it out to play for a season. All great men of letters have therefore been enthusiastic walkers... "