77/365 Friday, 03/18/2011

Today was a fun day. In the morning Louisa and I did a little shopping in downtown Wiesbaden. We went to Hugendubel and I bought a book that a friend in the States had requested. (Cornelia Funke's Tintenherz=Inkheart). I also picked up the new book by Karen Duve called Anständig Essen, which looks like it will be a fun read--it's about how she tries out various different forms of "ethical eating" from Vegetarianism to "Fruitarianism" for a few months each. She is a very funny/witty writer. The title is a pun - on the one hand "anständig" Essen means to eat "properly" - i.e. along the lines of a "square meal" as opposed to just snacking or eating fastfood. On the other hand the word anständig also means "decently" -- in a moral sense.

In the afternoon Louisa and I drove with Martina and her son Colin, who just turned 4 in February to the Abbey that is located at (or near) the site where  Hildegard of Bingen  founded a community of Benedictine nuns in 1165. . In English it is referred to as Eibingen Abbey. The original abbey was dissolved in 1803 as part of the mediatisations that happened during the Napoleonic Era. (The lovely German term for this, that I did indeed make my students in my German history class learn is: Reichsdeputationshauptschluss). The church that is there now was built at the beginning of the 20th century and the artwork that adorns much of the interior is an example of the so-called Beuron_Art_School, which reminded me of the Jugendstil/Art Nouveau and the so-called Nazarenes. On the way there Colin, who is going through a "fish phase" (he loves them) showed and had me document his extensive collection of wood fish cut-outs.

After wandering around the church we went to check out the lovely gift store with lots of Hildegard-related goodies, plus a host of different food items, including many that use spelt (Dinkel). The nuns also have a vineyard and you can taste and purchase wine there too.

After our visit to the abbey we drove back to a very cute café in a little town just on the outskirts of Wiesbaden called Walluf. We fortified ourselves with coffee and cake before driving back to Wiesbaden.

We dropped Colin off and visited with his dad (Martina's husband) Peter before going out to meet up with two other girlfriends of Louisa and Martina for a "girls night out" in Wiesbaden. Our first stop of the evening was (briefly) my apartment--they just wanted to see what my "holiday-apartment" looked like. then we headed to a Vietnamese restaurant that was right down the street from my place where we enjoyed a scrumptious meal. 

We went for a walk through Wiesbaden and ended up at a Thai restaurant the girls used to go to a lot in their student days. We stopped in for a cocktail--which was very yummy too! It was a very fun way to spend my penultimate day in Germany.

Die Mädels! from left to right: me, Andrea, Louisa, Martina and Sabine.