In 1974 Werner Herzog was informed that his close friend Lotte Eisner was sick and possibly dying.
Determined to see his friend the auteur director set off on a pilgrimage from Munich to Paris on foot.
He departed on Saturday 23rd November and finally arrived on Saturday 14th December. Everyday he wrote an entry in a diary documenting his journey.
The diary was published in a thin volume titled “Of Walking in Ice,” which I found in a used book store then began on 23rd of November and finished on the 14th December, reading each entry forty-nine years after it was penned by Herzog.
Herzog describes the various sights he seen on his travels which he sometimes lists vaguely and other times describes in vivid and poetic detail.
He tells us of the pains he suffers, the harsh weather, the grim landscapes of desolate road sides and decaying villages, the strangers that watch him with curiosity and suspicion and his almost hallucinogenic day dreams.
Over all Herzog provides us with an account of a unique experience that is poetic, dreamlike and memorable.