Auf Wiedersehen Deutschland

What a sad day. Today, we must leave Germany and say good bye to Mrs. G. We had a wonderful vacation. Thank you Genie, Brian and Luis for being our tour guides. We look forward to doing it again...Tschüss.

Hiking to St. Hildegard's

We set out this afternoon on a hike to St. Hildegard's Church (Hildegard of Bingen). I had no idea the cool bird watching that existed right behind Genie's house! I wish we had discovered this hike sooner. We walked through the Bingen cemetery. German cemeteries are much different than American ones-they're filled with ornate, unique tombstones and landscaped gardens done by the family on each grave. As we proceeded up the hill, we came across a neglected Jewish cemetery. It was a moving sight, obviously a consequence of the war.

We finally made it to fire tower and looked out at Bingen. It was cool to see the confluence of the Nahe and Rhein Rivers. We proceeded to hike through the grapesvines to St. Hildegard's, visiting a sweet horse along the way. St. Hildegard's had an outdoor, amphitheatre-style altar with lots of seating for mass. I'd like to see an outdoor mass here sometime.

That evening, Mrs. G arranged for us to visit the well that is believed to be the starting point of a horrible plague in the Middle Ages. It was located in a basement in downtown Bingen. The original cobblestone street was still intact within the building. Afterwards, we went out for a delicious schnitzel dinner, joined by the lady that owns the building we visited! It was a perfect last evening in Bingen.

Shopping in Bingen

We spent the whole day shopping in Bingen. Of course at around 4 p.m. we had to stop for cake & coffee! We entered the bakery and proceeded pick out what we wanted. Clearly, Luis asked Brian to get him a traditional German pastry and what did Brian get for him? A big ole, American, chocolate muffin. Nice Brian.


Jules's cake

Dinner at Genie's!

Mrs. G made us so many outstanding meals while we were in Germany--potato pancakes (my favorite), goulash with spätzle, vegetable soup. On this day she made us a dish called Rouladen. As most nights, we feasted on lots of side dishes and drank much wine and bier with our rouladen! We cannot thank Genie enough for making us feel at home and feeding us so much good food!

Oberwesel & Bacharach

We slept in today and headed out around noon to two towns north of Bingen, Oberwesel and Bacharach. These towns still have intact walls around them. It was really cool to take a walk on the wall around a city. People have actually renovated the towers along the wall into homes. Wine festivals were being celebrated up and down the Rhein and we happened to stumble upon a parade in Oberwesel. The parade had a team of horses that nearly went wild on the crowd. Since Oberwesel was so crazy, we went to Bacharach to grab something to eat. 'Tis the season for Zwiebelkuchen! Yum.







Prost!

Köln

We awoke at the crack of dawn to catch the train to Köln. It's about a 2 hour ride from Bingen. We made sure to sit on the Rhein side of the train! We changed trains in Koblenz. The second train was packed so we had to stand for much of the trip. There were a group of men sitting near us who turned out to be vogel watchers. Brian had me tell them to "haben Sie einen Spaßtag".

Köln is incredibly big and busy. It's the 4th largest city in Germany. There were tons of shops and we walked around for a few hours before going into the Köln Catheral. The remains of the Three Wise Men are kept at the Cathedral. It is an enormous structure, by far the largest building I've ever seen. We planned to take a guided tour, but learned that the entire area around the altar was closed due to a choir practice and confessions. We weren't able to get very close to the altar, so we decided to walk around on our own.

After touring the Cathedral, we grabbed a few berliners and kaffee. Then we hopped back on the DB to Bingen. We came home to a heaping mound of potato pancakes. What a great day.




Jules buying berliners

Burg Rheinstein

Today we drove a very short distance north of Bingen and visited Burg Rheinstein. The Rhein is riddled with castles. Some are simply ruins and others are well-kept. According to Genie, whose visited nearly all of them, Burg Rheinstein is middle of the road. I'm told there are some that require you to wear slippers for your visit!

From Gronig to Trier

Juliano and I awoke today to total darkness. Barely able to see his hand in front of his face, Jules grabbed his cell phone and discovered it was 10:00 a.m.!!! We had slept for nearly 10 hours. Oma's shutter blocked out every speck of sunlight. We jumped out of bed and ran down to breakfast, ashamed at how late we slept! Oma walked into the bathroom while Jules was washing up to yell at him for getting up so late (or at least we think that's what she said :-) After grabbing some breakfast, we hopped in the car and headed to Trier. Thanks Oma for teaching us proper German pronunciation and for opening up your wine cellar and liquor cabinet to us! It was a fun, relaxing evening.

Trier is the oldest city in Germany, founded around 16 B.C. It is known for its well-preserved Roman and medieval buildings, including the Porta Nigra, Roman baths, Kurfürstliches Palais, a Roman amphitheatre, the huge Constantine Basilica-which Napoleon used to house his horses, and the glorious Trier Cathedral-which houses the holy tunic of Jesus. The tunic is not always on display. It is shown to the public at irregular intervals. I believe the next time it can be seen is 2010.

We raced around Trier and got to see most of its best sites. Unfortunately, it poured down rain and made for some soggy feet, but we stayed until dark with the $2 euro umbrellas Brian bought! Thanks Bri.

Porta Nigra


Trier Cathedral




Kurfürstliches Palais

Roman bath




Roman amphitheatre

Idar-Oberstein & Visiting with Oma in Gronig

We got on the road today. Final destination..Brian's Oma's house! On the way we stopped in Idar-Oberstein, the German capital of the gemstone industry. It's filled with shops and has the most amazing church built into the side of its mountain. After hiking up to the church and doing some shopping, we got back on the road to Oma's. We arrived in time for dinner with Oma and Brian's Aunt Krista. We all stayed up very late laughing and talking with Oma. The best was when Oma opened her liquor cabinet, which came complete with a light that turned on when the door opened! Before going to bed, Oma came into our bedroom and lowered a mechanical shutter on the window. This shutter will play a large role in tomorrow's journal entry...




Jules and I at the headwaters of the Nahe

Jules, me, Oma, Brian and Luis