Trip to Germany - Part 2

Our goal for today, our 2nd day in Germany, was to visit Bingen and use small roads to better see the countryside. Along the way we happened upon this church situated in a very small town. It turned out it had some connection with Hildegaard and lovely grounds.

Inside was surprisingly plain for a Catholic church, but still impressive.

This is the ceiling above the asp. Pretty good for a small country church.




The grounds contained two small cemeteries that were very well manicured. At each there was a water cistern and water cans for people to nourish the flowers.

And a grape grinding wheel. I guess they had a little wine business on the side. 

On another side of the church was this labyrinth that the girls walked around.

And in the rear was this cute house that looked like a spring house to Linda.

As we drove away from the church, we noticed this charming house across the street. Just a very nice looking private house.

After that, we drove to where Hildegaard lived in the monastery. It is situated on top of a steep hill. With not elevators available, we trudged up the rutted path for about 20 minutes, resting on benches along the way.

This is not a picture of Linda peeing on the tree - she's talking to  this very tall pine.

Afterward, we drove for awhile and found what we were looking for. This is a salt evaporating wall where the water from a salt spring is pumped up to the top 7 times to trickle down and the water evaporates. This process increases the salt content from 1.5% to about 20% and then can be boiled economically to render salt.

People also use the salty air for healing skin diseases and arthritis.

That night we ate dinner at a restaurant in Oberwesel, recommended by our host. 

The name of this family owned business was "The Golden Corkscrew".

We dined in the garden. I had one of the best schnitzels I have ever had, Linda and Lynda both had steaks that were beautifully prepared, almost like they ordered. 

This was a perfect ending for our very successful German trip.

The next day was spent driving back to Soest. Nothing much to report about that except for a lot of trucks on the roads and stopping to eat lunch in a lovely garden cafe that we mysteriously lucked upon.