Many years ago i red The Christmas Mystery by the Norwegian author Jostein Gaarder.

The book is an advent-calendar with 24 chapters. It is about a lamb that ran away from a toyshop in a shoppingcentre in Oslo, because it was fed up with all the talking about buying presents, and the noise of the cash registers. A little girl who was in the shop, ran after the lamb..

This is the beginning of a pilgrimage through Europe and Asia Minor to Bethlehem. Historical view is combined with fantasy. On the way we meet animals and persons who are a part of the Christmas gospel. They join the group and travel together in history and time.

They arrive in Bethlehem when Jesus is born, ready  to take part in the Christmas gospel.

The book excited me. I red the book for my own children and for pupils I teach. I  red it several times and listened to a audiobook. The contents  made something with me and I  wanted to following the footprints of the lamb.

 June 2005 I started my long walk from the toyshop in Oslo to Bethlehem. I walk some hundred kilometres every summer. The first year I walked to Gothenburg in Sweden. Next year I walked from Gothenburg to Roskilde in Denmark. The year 2007 I continued to Hamburg. This year my plan is to reach Cologne. If  I walk at least one chapter a year, I will reach Bethlehem before my 75th birthday.

 The way will be made when I walk. Some routes are without signposts or guidebooks. During wintertime I make plans, make contacts, study maps, landscapes and history.

A dream through a lot of years will now come through. It will be a hikingtour on several levels, both inside me and outside, physical and  psychical. The tour will do something to me, and give me adventures and exsperiences for the rest of my life.

 Trond Muri