Trip to Germany - Part 1

Lynda Adamson is preparing to write a book about Saint Hildegaard von Bingen who lived during the 12th and 13th centuries. So, this trip was intended for us to visit some of the sites along the Rhine River where she preached and lived in multiple convents. Our first stop was at Trier where she preached. A very unusual thing to occur at this time.

Along the way were many, many grape vineyards. This is the Mosel River valley - where you get Mosel wine.

This is the church entrance where she preached. I guess there was full employment for all of the artisans in the area. This church was fully decorated.

Inside and out.

And around every turn, on almost every hill, and some of them steep, vineyards. One wonders how the workers tend to these vineyards without rolling down the steep grades. This is a shot of the old and the new. Our daughter loves Corvettes and Linda likes the color yellow.

Trier is an ancient Roman town, so we visited the ruins of a Roman amphitheater. It constantly amazes us how much of their architecture is still around after almost two thousand years.

We end the day at our AirBnB house just outside of Oberwesel. Nice two bedroom place but you had to climb 37 steps to get to the front door. And then a flight of 12 more steps to get to the bed. Not for the faint of heart.

The next day we headed out to Schonburg Castle, high above the Rhine. 

Its been converted into a restaurant and hotel which is being renovated to expand the number of rooms from 26 to 31.

The terrace of the restaurant looks out over the river.

The bathrooms are worth noting. Not only are they posh and clean, but have distinctive faucets. 

Here's the men's room.

And then the ladies room.

There were probably 10 or 12 rooms that you could wander around, sit and take in the decorating, and several with items for sale. I purchased a metal knight figurine. Lynda bought a miniature tea set for her doll house and my Linda didn't buy anything.

After the castle we continued down the river, past more vineyards on steep hills. The people who tend to these grapes must have one leg shorter than the other. How do they do that?

Around lunch time we found ourselves in Bacharch, a town all of us had stayed  at one time or another.

Its a charming little town with one main street and a couple of side streets.

We decided it was time to eat and found a menu we liked.

I ordered schnitzel, which is what I usually order when I'm in Germany. Linda had chicken noodle soup and Lynda had chanterelle mushroom soup. They're in season.

Later we stopped at Bingen, which was where Hildegaard was from, and walked around a bit and stopped for a coffee.

Returning to our house, we had snacks outside in the garden. No one wanted a real meal since we had such a good lunch.

On a side note: a friend who lives in Switzerland, sent us these pictures of cows coming down off the mountain where they graze during the summer.