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.

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.

Van Gogh and Amsterdam

The 2nd largest collection of van Gogh paintings is at the Kroller-Muller Museum, that is situated in a very large park about 1/2 hour from where we stay. Within the park, are various pieces of art that we know little or nothing about, structures of some sort that look impressive, and an area for kids to play  and eat.

And lots of trees. They also have a large number of bikes which are provided to more easily get around the park. You pick up one, ride it to where you want to go, leave it there, and then when you're ready to return, just pick another and ride back to where you started.

Here's an example of a piece of art that we know nothing about. But that doesn't keep it from being impressive.

We thought this figure looked a little like Alfred Hitchcock, but it isn't.












Once inside, we walked from room to room looking at van Gogh and much more.

We think this is an almond blossom tree. Linda liked it because it looks like a cheery blossom tree. Van Gogh.


This painting was a practice to get ready for "The Potato Eaters".

Keep in mind that these paintings are the originals.

Back outside, we walked around the pond and saw more art. 

This piece, called "56 Barrels" was done by Christof who has done large exhibitions around the world. He draped parts of central park in New York City in curtains.











On another day we had scheduled a free walking tour of Amsterdam and took the train to the city. This tour was advertised as visiting some places the tourist usually don't get to.

Our tour guide was this young man who was born and has lived his entire life in Amsterdam. He interspersed his talk with comments about his younger years when he and some of his chums did some crazy stuff. Amsterdam is not as crazy as it was in the 70's. Smoking pot is unlawful, but tolerated. They have various laws that don't get enforced unless there is abuse.

Here is a classic view of the city. There are more than two bicycles per person. And they are stolen regularly. Outside the clubs, the homeless will steal the bike and then sell it back to you at a reasonable price. What a deal.


After three hours, we were tired and hungry and just happened upon this restaurant just down the street from the end of the tour.  We sat outside and had a very enjoyable dinner: I had a huge serving of mussels, Linda was going to order a Dutch dish called hotchpotch but decided on goose, and Lynda had a steak. It was all good, we should go back.

The food and setting was so good it put us in a romantic mood.