Burg Frankenstein sits quietly on the edge of the Northern foothills of the Magnetberg mountain range near Darmstadt, Germany, and were preparing for Halloween festivities when we visited.

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Rüdesheim, where Karsten and I visited the medieval Torture Museum and Siegfried’s Mecanische Musikkabinet  Museum, (right) home of numerous gargantuan motor-driven musical instruments.

One remarkable instrument there was an instrument plays six actual violins that accompany the piano. I didn't scan this picture, so the only way for you to see it is for either for you to go to the museum or to come over to my house and look at my photo album.

St. Hildegarde’s Abbey, above Rüdesheim and the Rhine river. At a time when few women wrote, Hildegard Von Bingen produced major works of theology and visionary writings. She was considered a visionary, seer, and prolific writer on mystical, medical and political subjects, and was born at Böckelheim, Germany in 1098.

She is called the Sibyl of the Rhine and was abbess of the nunnery of Diessenberg, Lorraine, where she was bought up. She founded the abbey of St Rupert, near Bingen. Under the directions of her confessor she recorded some of her visions. Her Scivias, divided into three books, containing 26 visions, also contains denunciations of the vices of the world and prophesies of disaster.

She exerted a wide influence in political and religious matters in her time, and was also a noted composer. 

Hessenpark is an open-air museum of real buildings from the state of Hessen located Taunus Mountains just north of Frankfurt. The buildings are the traditional Fachwerkhaus style.

Visitors to the Hessenpark can explore a variety of dwellings, houses of worship, mills and more from the past 400 years. The buildings, removed from their original sites in villages all over Hessen, have been meticulously restored and refurnished to give modern-day visitors an idea of what rural life was like before, during and after the industrial revolution.

An old brewery in Hessenpark. While in Germany, Karsten took me to several biergartens to sampletheir fine brew. I tried several kinds of pilsner, and was impressed by their freshness and taste.

And for some reason, people here keep asking if their beer was warm. No, it was not. Ever. It was always served cold. Warm beer sucks. Got it? 

Hessenpark.

See all the wonderful structures you can see at Hessenpark? You can't possibly tell me that you're not impressed. I could have very easily told you that I had traveled all over Germany taking these pictures. But instead, I was honest, 'fessed up, and told you that it was all at Hessenpark.