Bingen and Bad Kreuznach

After a few days of intensive travel we all needed a break.  We decided to spend this next day close by the Bad Kreuznach area and take a more leisurely pace to our sightseeing.  First on our to-do list was breakfast.  The very first day we arrived in the area Annette pointed out a particular restaurant that Jo would most definitely fit into our schedule.  True to form, Jo mentioned this place the first night we saw him.  This restaurant is actually a large cafe that serves all forms of breakfasts (Jo's favorite meal).  Since our usual breakfasts consisted of fruit musli and tea, we decided to go all out and get some of the fancier platters.

The one in front that Mike and I shared was called "The New Yorker Breakfast" and included bacon, eggs, potatoes, and various kinds of bread (maybe the bacon is what made it "New York" style?).  We also got an omelet made with Maultasche, a German (Swabian, to be specific) filled dumpling.  It's normally in served a soup, but this dish was absolutely delicious.  If I remember correctly, this particular Maultasche was vegetarian (spinach, actually -M).  Our entire table was covered with food – truly, everything barely fit.

The other noteworthy item about this restaurant is that the man who conceived it was inspired by, and a large part of his enterprise’s success was due to an American concept – refillable coffee. According to Jo, this was the first place (and still only one of the few places) that offers such a thing as refillable coffee.  Remember, more often than not, you have to pay for water when you go out in Europe (and refills -M). 

After our hearty breakfast, we went back down to the juncture of the Nahe and Rhine rivers.  Along the banks of the Rhine is a building that houses Bingen's historical museum.  One of its main exhibits is about Hildegard von Bingen, a name that anyone who took the survey of western music history course with David Crook would know. 

Basically, Hildegard is one of the first noteworthy female composers in western music history.  She was also made a saint and wrote books on spirituality, visions (specifically her own), medicine, and nature. 

 

This is an artistic representation of Hildegard von Bingen.  Her relics were elsewhere in the museum.

One of the other exhibits in the museum is a collection of surgical instruments that belonged to a Roman doctor from the second century.  They were very interesting to look at -- as Annette pointed out, not a significant amount of tools like scalpels have changed over the centuries.  At the same time, the instruments were a little creepy looking.

When we finished with the museum, Annette took us back down to Bad Kreuznach while Jo headed back to the apartment for some afternoon rest and a nap.  A close friend of theirs was having a birthday dinner that night at a Chinese restaurant in BK, so Jo would meet us later.  We bought a cake made of gummies for the occasion.

We spent the afternoon wandering the streets of Annette's old stomping grounds.  The city is beautiful with its old architecture, the Nahe River rolling by, and its hilly terrain. We had gorgeous weather again, so ice cream was a must.  Eventually Annette led us to a park along the river.  There was much loveliness to be seen.

Toward the end of the garden were some museums including one of Roman remains found in the area.  Out of doors lies the foundations of the villa.  Inside the museum were various artifacts including old tools, pottery, columns, statues, and tile mosaic floors that have been meticulously pieced together. 

A roman column.

Here is one of the mosaic floors the museum owns.  It is a scene of gladiators in the fighting games at the circus.

Every imagine is made of little 1 cm by 1 cm ceramic tiles.

 

This is the other mosaic, an ocean scene dominated by the god Oceanus.

Various fish and other forms of sea life decorate the borders.

The Romans also had a system for heated floors.  The picture below is of what it would have looked like beneath the mosaic floor of the gladiators.  Brick pillars hold the floor up from ground level so that slaves and servants could shovel hot coals underneath to keep the villa floors warm.

After perusing the museum, Mike was drawn to one of the activities put out for those with youthful souls -- giant jigsaw puzzles of the mosaic floors!  It was a good opportunity to rest from all of the walking and standing.

Completing the border first is a good technique for finishing any sized jigsaw puzzle.

Ta-da!

Then we did another one together.  Little did Annette know that she actually took on two more children when she took us in. 

Eventually we wandered back towards the main part of town and had ourselves a coffee before we met up with Annette's friends and their children (who are about our age).  Before heading to dinner, we all took a walk down the river -- in the opposite direction we had gone earlier.  Along the way, we came across a very strange scene.  

There were about eight of these vehicles lined up along the pathway.

It was a race for these Flintstone (Feuerstein auf Deutsch -M) inspired cars.  Instead of  yelling "On your mark, get ready, GO!" to start the race, we heard them shout "Yabba - Dabba - DOO!"  Oh, the random things we see in Germany.

We reached a nice place along the river where ducks and swans had gathered.  The "adults" stopped there to continue talking and catching up, so Mike and I sat and watched the birds.  There were quite a few ducks, but also a surprising number of swans.  Large swans, at that.  Initially, most of them were in the river, but after a while the swans started slowly wandering their way onto land and towards our group.  Then two adorable little girls showed up with their grandmother and a bag full of bread crumbs.  That really got the swans coming.

As you can see, the swans were huge -- especially in comparison to the girls. 

At first the girls were having a fine time throwing bread crumbs into the water and onto the ground for their fowl friends.  Then the swans started getting braver and approached the girls giving them tasty treats.  Eventually, one of the girls was a little too slow at throwing the bread on the ground.  A swan tried to eat the bread from her outreached fingers, scaring her and possibly biting her.  The girls were not so fond of the big white birds after that.

The little ducks were never brave enough to come out of the water.  They did, however, compete with the swans and with each other for what was thrown into the river.  The girls eventually took preference over the female ducks and would shout encouragement for them to be faster than the bigger birds and their male counterparts.  The very last of the bread was specifically for these female ducks.  Unfortunately, the girl's aim was a bit off and a swan swooped in for treat.  After her initial anger at the swan, she went close to the shore, stooped down and said, "Excuse me little duckies, but I have something to explain to you.  I wanted to give the last of the bread to you, but the swan stole it.  I am sorry."  Adorable.

From there we met up with Jo and the rest of the dinner party at the Chinese restaurant and had an enjoyable evening.  Chinese food in Germany is nothing like what you find in the United States -- real or fake.  The sauces are completely different and even the way the meat is prepared and cooked is different.  Of course, Chinese cuisine is altered to fit the taste buds of the whatever the culture the restaurant happens to be located in -- the differences just really surprised us.  

The most hilarious part of the night was towards the end of dinner when the waiter brought out dessert with a sparkling candle. (That and a translation of a German enthusiastic expression that may not be appropriate - directly translated or summarized - for this blog.  Suffice it to say, the expression means you really like something. -M)

In addition to the dessert, they turned on a CD of the birthday song -- the most ridiculous and obnoxious rendition you could think of -- and had it on repeat for the next half hour or so.  The CD played the birthday song in about three or four different languages.

It was a hilarious ending to our nice, relaxed day down in the Rhine Valley.  Now we were all rested up for more traveling!