Bing Bang, Bingen!

This week, our group went to Bingen to see the museum of the 12th century savant, Hildegard Von Bingen. We had already received an interesting lecture about her from Dr. Wasser, but as with the Neanderthal, we then went to see first hand the place of her legend, as well as some other cool stuff (like my surprisingly huge salad, suckas!). Bingen was a quaint town, small from what I saw when I woke up from my nap on the bus. Side note: I love the naps that come with bus rides that are more than 45 minutes, especially after getting a healthy 2 1/2 hours of sleep the night before, absolutely delicious naps. The museum had a lot of the same information that we received from Dr. Wasser's lectures, but some of the paintings that we had seen in his slides were MUCH cooler to see in person (like the picture of the man within a circle, within Jesus, who had God's head on top of his head, deep stuff). Also, there were some Roman remains of medical instruments, including a trepanation device that looked a little like making a hole with the top of a glass bottle (quite painful). Also, it was interesting to find out that a doctor that had been trained at a medical university in Carthage used to preside near the town of Bingen to treat sailors who had mishaps with their cargo.

Also, the catholic church is now considering canonizing Hildegard, a development that even Wasser wasn't aware of!

Now, lunch, was amazing. Earlier on the bus, a sheet that had four options for lunch, three things that were pretty much wiener schnitzel but with different sauces, and a salad. For some reason, maybe from the lack of sleep or a dysfunctional reabsorption of H+ ions in the kidney, I felt like having the salad instead of one of the other delicious meats offered, it just felt right, like a true gut feeling. Later on, Kristine thought that a salad would not be enough food for me, since I eat as much as a... cow(? I think that's how the expression goes), and a salad would not fill me up as some hardy meat would. I decided to stick with my intuition and hope for the best. Boom! When we were being served, some relatively small Wiener schnitzel came out and was served to my peers and then I saw it. Beautiful like a green mountain that is illuminated by the mist of dawn, the salad was piled high with lettuce, carrots, cucumbers, tomatoes (eh.. that wasn't great), ham, and three pieces of poppy seed bread, a personal favorite. Oh yea, and eggs, can't forget the eggs. After that meal, I was ready to challenge the world that day.

But then we got on a beautiful cruise, so that was a nice follow up to my amazing lunch. The cruise went from Bingen to St. Goar, following the part of the Rhine that is surrounded by Valleys of Vineyards and small towns. The countryside was truly beautiful to see. There were many castles along the river, remnants of the feudal age of Germany, when kingdoms were many, small, and apparently only a stone's throw away.

Beautiful Castle Rheinfels.

When we arrived in St. Goar, we hiked up a long hill to reach the Rheinfels castle, a remnant of the age of castles and knights. The castle was cool, but playing hide and go seek there was even cooler! I say that because not only did we run away to hide in places unknown to us, but we could explore the very picturesque castle. I'd like to brag for a second because when it was my turn to look for my peers, I only had trouble finding Yesenia, but everyone else thought that hiding in a huge opening with everyone else was good idea... No0bs.

Alright, until next time yall.