Bingen (14 June)

Today we went exploring the town of Bingen - which is a BIG town compared to Bacharach.

After finding a place to park (a little car would have been much easier) we walked up to the Klopp Castle. This castle is in the middle of the town and is now the residence of the mayor and the town's administration offices.

Today, there was a wedding taking place. We, in all our splendor of sneakers, t-shirts and shorts, walked through the crowd of gorgeously dressed people all ready for a summer afternoon wedding. We even got to glimpse some of the bride and groom's wedding photos.

The castle was considerably damaged during WWII, but it has been reconstructed quite nicely. It wasn't that long of a walk up to the castle, but there was a number of stairs to get to the top of the tower! I think Kaija counted them, but I've blocked it out ...

From the castle, we walked down more steps into the middle of town. It was a fun walkabout looking at all the shops an restaurants.

Our wanderings took us over the railroad tracks to the banks of the Rhein River following the Hildegarde Path ending at the Hildegarde Museum. I loved learning more about Hildegarde of Bingen. The museum had beautiful copies of the illuminations from her books, as well as snippets from throughout her life.  

Kaija also went through all the information about Hildegarde. Chayton and Nazeriah enjoyed playing in the kinder room.

After we went through the whole museum, which included an exhibit from two more modern-day photographers, it was time to go outside to the garden.

It was a small garden with plants and herbs that Hildegarde used and wrote about. The part the kids liked best was the water.

A little more wandering and it was time to head home.