At least half of the time, we use Wiesbaden as a base for hikes and day trips. It’s a wonderful and central location for this. We decide to combine the first hike with a visit to the famous Monastery Eberbach. To do this, we have to take a packed train to Eltville, and then a bus from there. Once in Eberbach, we wonder where the hell the monastery is.
There it is, just around the bend. The Monastery was originally founded in 1116 by Archbishop Adelbert of Mainz. Unfortunately, that attempt pooped out. It was twenty years later that Bernard of Clairvaux, a co-founder of the Knights Templar and a bigwig in the Cisterian/Benedictine order of monks, got the Monastery really established.
We see what you would expect to see in a monastery: a cloister, a church, old statues and tombstones. What we don’t expect are the winery and the hog symbol.
A great deal of space at Eberbach Monastery is devoted to wine presses, vats, and barrels. It’s been in the wine business for over 900 years-first, for the monks, themselves; and, then, for a thirsty public.
The hog (or boar) symbol represents hospitality and luck…or it could represent male virility. I’ll stick with the hospitality interpretation.
Eberbach Monastery is famous throughout Germany. But it has another claim to fame: one of its dormitory doors was used in the film “The Name of the Rose”. They proudly acknowledge this fame with a cut-out character from the movie. Why the film only used the door and not the rest of the monastery is a question to be answered by movie experts. I don’t have a clue.
We are late returning from our tour of the monastery and expect to miss our bus. This being a holiday, missing the bus would mean big trouble. But there it still is! I guess the driver didn’t have anything better to do.
Our hike doesn’t truly begin until we reach the town of Kiedrich. Before we start off, however, we pop into St. Valentin Church and discover a hidden gem. The church, built in the 15th century, was named after St. Valentine-the patron Saint of people with epilepsy. Consequently, people with epilepsy came here from far and wide. Special stalls or carved pews were constructed just for them. This church in Kiedrich also houses two unique items.
The first of these is the oldest functional, or playable, organ in Germany. Built sometime around 1500, it has been repaired or restored umpteen times to render it still playable.
The second notable item in St. Valentin’s is the Kiedrich Madonna. This item, sculpted of wood and gilded around 1330, is even older than the organ. It is supposed to be French-influenced, and depicts a young woman smiling at her child. Touching.
It takes us a little while to find the start of our hiking path-the Rheinsteig. We climb up some steep steps and then follow a horse path and a creek.
Eventually, we reach the level of the vineyards. The Weinberg Vineyard is particularly well-known in these parts. It is called the “Vineyard of Marriage”, since that seems to be a popular thing to do. Grapes for white wines are mostly grown here.
Up another level is a picnic area of sorts and, yet on a higher level, the “Turmfalke”. That this is also the name of a regional wine is a coincidence (maybe). In this case, I refer to an actual tower that allegedly hosts a lot of kestrels-a falcon-like bird, also known as a turmfalke. We see nothing, however.
The Turmfalke is the highest point of our hike; and it is mostly downhill from here through various wooded paths and forests.
Perhaps my favorite part of this walk takes us through a fruit tree orchard. Each tree on both sides of the path is carefully labelled. Otherwise, intuitively, I would have no idea what kind of tree each one was. Pretty, though.
Although this hike is called the “Rheinsteig” (it starts in the Wiesbaden area and continues 320 kilometers (about 200 miles) to Bonn), there are no views of the river-at least on this part of the trail. Still, it is a satisfying experience.
Frankfurt & the Hip-Hop Exhibit
The train to Frankfurt from Wiesbaden only takes a little over an hour. My girlfriend is keen to see a Hip-Hop exhibition there and I tag along-although I am not too keen about Hip-Hop.
The exhibition is being held in the Kunsthalle and, although it is supposed to stress the violence out of which the genre came and that is still a part of it; the Hip-Hop exhibit comes off as overly commercial.
The trip isn’t a total loss, however. I get some good photos of the Kunsthalle, itself, and we stop at the Iimori Patisserie shop for some sweet stuff.
Return to Mainz
Mainz is even closed to Wiesbaden than Frankfurt is. You could easily walk or travel between the two-it’s just on the other side of the Rhine river. In fact, you could almost call them “twin cities”-if they didn’t hate each others’ guts. This is because some parts of Mainz are on the Wiesbaden side of the river, and Wiesbaden administers and refuses to return them, despite popular demand. Sounds like a good reason for a feud. My girlfriend grew up in Mainz, however; so, even though we had traveled there before, we use our proximity to visit the city again…albeit different parts.
We start with the Roman ruins, particularly the theater. At its time, it was the largest Roman theater north of the Alps and seated over 10,000 spectators. More of the theater is being found all the time, and it is said to reach over to the other side of the railroad tracks that brought us here.
Next, we take the upwards walk to the 17th century Mainz Citadel. The construction of the Citadel came about to correct one of the city’s defensive deficiencies. In the process, they flattened most of the Roman areas…but think of all the archaeological and digging jobs they created centuries later! In any event, they did leave several Roman walls standing, as they did the “Drususstein”.
The Drususstein (or Drusus Stone) is what is left of the cenotaph erected in 9 BC to honor the life of the late, great General Drusus…one of the founders of Roman Mainz. The Drususstein used to be covered with marble; but that is long gone. Only the stones remain.
Now, we wander over to the Stadt Park, which used to be on the border between the Roman Empire and the Germanic tribes, home to a Benedictine Monastery, the estate of a really rich guy, and a place of executions. Of course, none of that is still true today. The Stadt Park is yet another place modelled after an English landscape garden. There are a few statues here; but mostly lovely gardens-including a rose garden.
A highlight of walking through the Mainz Stadt Park has to be the pink flamingos and the bird enclosure-which includes several giant macaws. This setup was completed in the early 1960’s. The flamingos and the macaws look sad, however; and seem like they’d rather be somewhere else.
My girlfriend leads me to where she used to live as a little girl. They used to live in a ground floor apartment that was subsidized housing for railroad employees. According to her, not much had changed…even the crappy playground was pretty much the same.
We can’t go to Mainz without re-visiting the Rhine and the Rhine promenade. This is our last farewell to the city before heading back to the train station and (ultimately) Wiesbaden.
The Wisper Trail
Our second hike begins in the town of Lorch. Lorch is a burg of about 11,000 inhabitants that is located alongside the Rhine. So there is a good chance that we will actually see the river on this hike.
Our “Wisper” trail (named after a local stream) leads upwards, of course, past the vineyards of Lorch towards the tree line. Merchants used to use this route to move their goods along the Rhine when boats weren’t feasible.
This part of the Wisper trail is where you come to see castles and hear legends. First, there are the ruins of Furstenberg Castle. Built in the late 13th century, it was destroyed many times (the last in 1344) by Counts of the Mark.
Second, is Heimburg Castle. Erected at about the same time as Furstenberg Castle, it lasted longer since it was given to the Archbishop of Mainz in the mid-14th century. French troops finally destroyed it for good in 1689. Both castles are far away; but, with the zoom lens of my camera, they look to be close to the trail we are walking.
Now, we embark upon wooded paths with yellow gorse bushes strategically growing on each side.
Eventually, we rise to a large clearing. This place is called the Mandelberg, which translates to “Almond Mountain”. We see no almond trees here, although we see a dead tree-whose provenance we do not know. There must have been something almondy about this site at some point.
Whatever the case, this is a good spot to have some lunch. We climb onto a deer stand to have a few bites and to escape the persistent bugs.
Having finished eating, we head on down the Wisper trail through the gorse, following a muddy path with the gnats following us.
The Mandelberg was the highest point of the local trail, so we now encounter the vineyards again with the river views. They are beautiful and worth the bugs.
Wiesbaden was not only an interesting place to vacation in its own right; but it served as a base for many a satisfying day trip or hike-whether to a neighboring city or the middle of nowhere. One can’t ask for more than that.
Musical Finale: Underground Hip-Hop Wiesbaden-Gabriel Hermes