Germany (Lonely Planet, 6th Edition) - Andrea Schulte-Peevers [439]
High atop the Rochusburg (Rochus Hill), 2.5km southeast up Rochusallee from the tourist office, is the neo-Gothic Rochuskapelle, a pilgrimage church last rebuilt in the late 1800s. It has a very sharp steeple and a splendid canopied altar showing scenes from the life of Hildegard von Bingen. About 400m towards Bingen is the Hildegard Forum ( 181 000; www.hildegard-forum.de, in German; Rochusweg 1; admission free; 11am-6pm Tue-Sun), run by Kreuzschwestern nuns in black-and-white habits, which houses Hildegard exhibits, a medieval herb garden and a restaurant (buffet lunch €9.50; lunch 11.30am-2pm, cafe 2-5pm Tue-Sun) serving wholesome foods prepared just the way Hildegard liked them, including dishes made with spelt, her favourite grain. The area is linked to Bahnhof Bingen Stadt by bus 330 (once or twice hourly Monday to Saturday, every two hours Sunday and holidays until 2pm).
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HILDEGARD VON BINGEN
She’s hip and holistic, a composer, a dramatist and a courageous campaigner for the rights of women. She heals with crystals and herbs, her music frequently hits the New Age charts…and she’s been dead for more than 800 years.
Hildegard von Bingen (1098–1179) was born in Bermersheim (between Worms and Alzey), the 10th child of a well-off and influential family. At the age of three, she experienced the first of the visions that would occur over the course of her extraordinary – and extraordinarily long – life. As a young girl, she entered the convent at Disibodenberg on the Nahe River and eventually became an abbess, founding two abbeys of her own: Rupertsberg, above Bingen, in 1150; and Eibingen, across the Rhine near Rüdesheim, in 1165. During her preaching tours – an unprecedented activity for women in medieval times – she lectured both to the clergy and the common people, attacking social injustice and ungodliness.
Pope Eugene III publicly endorsed Hildegard, urging her to write down both her theology and her visionary experiences. This she did in a remarkable series of books that encompass ideas as diverse as cosmology, natural history and female orgasm. Her overarching philosophy was that humankind is a distillation of divinity and should comport itself accordingly. Her accomplishments are even more remarkable considering her lifelong struggle against feelings of worthlessness and the physical effects of her mysterious visions, which often left her near death.
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On an island near the confluence of the Nahe and Rhine is the Mäuseturm (Mouse Tower; closed to the public), where, according to legend, Hatto II, the 10th-century archbishop of Mainz, was devoured alive by mice as punishment for his oppressive rule. In fact, the name is probably a mutation of Mautturm (toll tower), which was the building’s medieval function.
The monumental statue on the wine slopes across the Rhine portrays a triumphant Germania (see opposite).
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Activities
Eight day-hike circuits, 1.9km to 9.2km in length, including several through the vineyards, begin at the vineyard-adjacent car park at the corner of the Hildegard Forum complex (look for a map sign hidden by a row of bushes). You can also explore the Binger Stadtwald, a large forested area northwest of Bingerbrück.
Bingen is the meeting point of two major long-distance bike paths, the Rhein-Radweg, which hugs the Rhine’s left bank, and the Nahe-Hunsrück-Mosel-Radweg, which follows the Nahe River to Idar-Oberstein.
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Sleeping
Inexpensive places to sleep can be found on and around Basilikastrasse.
DJH hostel ( 321 63; www.jugendherberge.de; Herterstrasse 51, Bingerbrück; dm €19.90; ) Totally renovated in 2006, this 121-bed hostel is a 10-minute walk from the Hauptbahnhof. Rooms, all with bathrooms, are for one to four people.
Hotel-Café Köppel ( 147 70; www.hotel-koeppel.de; Kapuzinerstrasse 12; s €45-55, d €65-78; ) In the heart of town across from