Day 3, hot and humid, to Monzingen. 21.3 Kms

Today we were meant to travel 18.3 kilometres, but did we do that?  No!  We did 21.3 kilometres, and that was after a shortcut.  After a visit with Gaby, the very helpful tourist office staff member, we set off following the signs out of town, or so we thought!  We had entered the town from a different direction last night, and didn't realise that we were heading back the way we had come.  That was quickly discovered, but when we followed the signs as we should have the night before, we found we had done a complete circle and found ourselves, one and half kilometres later, back very near the tourist office!
On our detour
And more - another church not open.
One of the views from the skywalk 

Later, on our way to St Johannisberg, we took a short cut, foregoing, or so we thought, the skywalk.  It transpired that the skywalk is not up high among trees, but a massive platform jutting out from the cliffs, and so we didn't miss it at all.  We also got to see the exterior of the little church, important, in the life of Hildergard.  But as usual it was closed.  Thus far, since beginning this journey, we haven't found one church open.

St Johannisberg 


It has been hot and humid today, and because of our late start, we decided to try something new.  We still had four kilometres to go till we reached Monzingen and the day was marching on, and so we decided to stop in Weiler for dinner, and then go on.  Edith asked very nicely if we could have a meal at the only place that appeared open, but we were reprimanded for not being organised enough to book a table (we'd only decided 20 mins before).  The up shot was that we were fed a delicious meal of a sausage of some kind, topped with fried onions, potato and other vegetables.  We then headed off, wandering through numerous vinyards, and reaching our guest house at about 7.30 - far later than we would have liked, but boy - was the shower good.

We had the same surprise meal each, and did we tuck in!
Walking amongst the vinyards.

On this way we have had a constant companion - Hildergard von Bingen.   As we walk, we are often saying, either to ourselves, or to each other things like;  "where's Hildergard sending us?"  "There she is"  "Hidergard wants us to go this way", "we haven't seen her for a while" and so on.  Why, you ask?  Well the signs we are following are of a stylised nun, sometimes with a little black arrow, an unusual waymark to follow  - not a shell, not a large arrow - whether red, yellow or orange, just the head and shoulders of a nun.

We have also passed many signs where we have read about Hildergard, her beliefs and times.  She really was a woman ahead of her time.  Her passion for the environment, her interest in rocks and minerals, her medical skills along with her writings and musical  compositions, not to mention her administration skills as an abbess, help make her a remarkable woman

This styalised sculpture of Hildergard quotes "Be a true friend to your soul."

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