pit head houses on the former mining plant amalienhöfe.
i have a friend in bingen, about half an hour away by car, that i visit from time to time. she is a pretty busy person these days with very limited time to offer, so unfortunately it rarely happens that we get to spend time together on little trips and explore her area. when she still lived in wiesbaden we had a lot more adventures together and we have created the most amazing memories, which makes me nostalgic a lot and also sad because we don't have that as often anymore. therefore it is always a delight to meet up with her and actually do something outside of just meeting up for a coffee. i mean, that's nice of course, too, but i really do miss our adventures out in nature, rubber boots on our feet, wading through streams, visiting castles, exploring caves and lakes, taking lots of fun and experimental photos. i really miss her being close by. i am always looking forward to meet her, because when we do, it is very special and always fun.
as you know, i am pretty much a loner and like to be on my own, but sometimes it's just nice when you know you have someone living very close nearby that you can hit up anytime to go on a day trip or do something special from time to time. i currently don't have anyone that close to me, i always have to hop in the car and drive at least half an hour to see my friends, and while that maybe isn't much, the distance still makes it more difficult to meet more often. and well, of course our jobs have all very different routines from each other, which limits spending time together even more. so... yeah, no matter how great i am at doing solo trips and adventures, the desire for human connection sometimes still hits hard. especially when what you see is making you happy and you actually want to share that with someone you know would enjoy it, too.
sometimes i am quite amazed by my longing for human connection, though, because to be honest, meeting up with people also makes me feel super self-conscious and limited and there's the aspect of energy consumption. for instance, it sometimes happens that i feel less than them, alienated by their mature life choices, their beauty, their accomplishments, their growth. i always feel like i am stuck in that one place and haven't moved forward as they have. i mean, i know it's not the truth probably, i reckon they might think the same about me and maybe envy my way of life, too, being unattached and free to do anything i please without having to adhere to a partner for example, or my courage to just leave the house on my own and go on solo adventures. but you know... it's still there, that feeling, the 'grass is always greener' emotion, something i already experience in a subdued way very often when i am on my own, but gets highlighted when i meet up with people or talk to them. i feel bad for feeling that way. and my go-to solution is always retreating back into my shell afterwards and recuperating from the anxiety and guilt, which means it can take a long while until i reach out again. which also leads to feeling more guilty, because it makes me a very inconsistent buddy, right? like i am always only reaching out if i feel fit to do so, and i guess for most people that's not called maintaining a good friendship through good and bad times, like they fore sure will end up not showing up for you when you finally feel the need to contact again or would not reach out themselves after not hearing from you for a while. many people's friendships are very close and they get to see each other almost daily, but for me, even the thought alone draws off a lot of energy. i guess it also kinda has to do with my everyday life, because i already have to deal with a lot of people on a day to day base and that's already an energy zap. in addition, i feel uncomfortable having people around me all the time, i always get the feeling they eventually get super bored of me or i of them and that problem is real, y'all. i don't really understand clinging to other persons every minute and every hour and every day. you know, people who can't stop being close to or adhere to their friends and partners and family's everyday routines, who need them around them like the air they breathe. for me, it's always felt suffocating, because i really need time to myself to feel like myself again eventually and breathe. i guess it's because of exactly the way i described above, being overwhelmed by my head comparing myself to them and wondering if i am too much or too less or too annoying or too boring or too anything around them. it is nice to meet up, it is nice to reconnect, and yeah, of course i long for those interactions from time to time, very deeply and very powerfully, but when it comes down to it, at the end of the day i am glad to return to my quiet space and process all the impressions by myself / level out my brain activity again.
which i guess is also one of those reason why some of my friendships and relationships fizzled out eventually... which is a whole different animal alltogether 😕 like it means that my commitment to people severely lacks profundity and endurance and that is something i actually have a hard time to accept, though it is something i have to, because what am i gonna do when human interactions will make me feel dizzy after a while and like i'm losing myself?
in the end though, i still am very glad for the people in my life that stay with me, even though i am such a fickle and unbalanced person, having a hard time with maintaining 'normal' interactions. i reckon it's not easy to call me a friend and to stick it out with me, with all my doubts and insecurities clouding my vision.
wow, this has been a rather fun way to start this post, much gloom in there ;)
time to lighten it up again and return to the trip i had with my afore-mentioned friend in her current home turf.
my parents were also part of the meet-up, my friend likes them a lot and invited them in to be part of our little afternoon stroll as well.
the binger wald in the west of the city of bingen has a short circuit with all kinds of fun activities and places of interest, and i always wanted to check it out, so we decided to do just that! the day was a rather warm summer day, at times even a bit gloomy and sweltering so walking through the woods was a rather fantastic decision, as it's always cooler and of course a lot more shady ;) before we checked out the circuit, though, we had a stop at an old manganese oxide and dolomite mining plant nearby, which greets you with the most beautiful pithead buildings i have seen thus far, designed in a neo-baroque way.
the buildings of the amalienhöhe mine were erected around 1916 by the darmstadt architects eugen seibert & georg markwort. they are said to be germany's most ostenatious mine buildings, almost seeming like a luxurious palace facility. the mine is not active anymore, the whole place is in private hands and is a place of residence, though some of the buildings are not used and are declining and deteriorating. which is a shame really. i feel like they should turn this place into some sort of visitor's mine and preserve the whole compound. we didn't dare to enter the facility, with it being private and stuff, though the gates were wide open and i can't remember any trespassing warnings. maybe i should check it out again and try to explore the periphery a bit more, maybe there's a better entry point into the less tended areas 😏
the old manganese oxide silo. i love ruins and all, but their neglect also really makes me sad and sometimes even furious, especially when they actually were real beauties! the yellow building in front of the silo was formerly a mine head changing house, where the workers changed their attire and washed themselves after a hard day of work - it was also not in a good state.
the pit head houses were quite well-kept, though, i felt kind of relieved that they at least tried to preserve these! i mean, what a cool place to live in?
in front of the property it still looked a bit wild, though. i wish they'd make the gate houses into tiny houses, i think i'd be interested in purchasing one of them 😍
the mine belongs to the city district of waldalgesheim, which you can have a view on when you walk down a small path next to the mine. loved this view! most prominent building here is the church, st. dionysius, which was built in 1962, after they had to tear down the old church due to lowering of the soil ( which was accredited to the mine activities ). in fact, the historic center of the village of waldalgesheim had to be built anew in a different area because of the goafs.
the bell tower looked super cool, perfect example of good brutalist architecture. i should probably consider a revisit to this area and take a closer look!
back at the mine we stumbled upon this earth creature, looking like it dug itself up out of the soil to curiously take a peek at what was going on above ground.
next we made it to the woods and had a quick stop at a picknick area. i found sweet-smelling elder blossoms and picked some, because i can't get enough of their odour. it's one of my most favourite smells in the world.
early june is always such an abundant, jungle-like time. everything feels so lush and full and juicy. it's the time when i still am okay with summer, because it's not as hot as july or august will get and things still seem alive and not dried out and dead.
wonderful oak tree! this felt like an altar somehow.
everywhere little sprouts were emerging out of spindly-looking twigs.
in the middle of the woods you will find some remnants of a roman villa rustica, built around 150 a.d. and inhabited until 420 a.d. it was erected along an important road, the ausonius road, which led from trier to mainz, about 118 km long.
the fundaments were overgrown with all kinds of plants, such as this gorgeous orange hawk bit. they also come in other varieties!
even woodland strawberries! it was around this time i forgot everything around me and solely focussed on the devouring of these, losing my mobile phone in the process. i didn't know that yet, though and happily munched these red beauties away...
... checked out some more fundamental details and was super enticed about the diversity of the growth.
i couldn't get enough of these blossoms, all fiery and blazing.
we also checked out the porticus of the villa, where the fundament was really well preserved and you got to have a better understanding of the layout.
this is what the villa rustica probably looked like, pretty stately, huh? i imagine it in a very quaint setting, looking down into the valley ( which was probably treeless back in the day and you could have a nice view of the rhine ).
we left the place eventually and walked a few hundred more meters until i realized i didn't have my mobile phone with me anymore. of course i panicked. i panicked so profusely that it was almost embarassing. okay not almost. it was. i ran around like a head-less chicken to find it and traced back ALL the places we had been to. i didn't find it. it wasn't in the car, it wasn't in my bag, it wasn't at all the spots i roamed around in. my friend and my parents went back to the villa rustica and found it lying in the grass next to a fundamental wall, somewhere i had looked before, but evidently was too panic-stricken to notice it myself. when i returned from another round of searching, my friend looked at me and held up my phone, and you can safely assume that i kinda broke down 😂 one of my favourite things to do when i fucked up something and did something embarassing is shooting self-reproaches at myself, and that is exactly what i did for a solid 10 minutes. which embarassed me even more and made everyone around me uncomfortable, until my dad told me to stop the bullshit and move on. after that everything was okay again and it was a laughable matter and running gag all day through.
i admit, it was not one of my proudest moments. and it was one of those moments that happen to me sometimes and where i lay bare one of my biggest vulnerable parts of my soul. usually i can hide these emotions really well, but when i do something wrong, it opens up a well of aggressiveness towards myself and my stupid ass, and it's so bad that it overwhelms me until i actually cry because of anger and frustration and shame.
after all the excitement we continued our path and ended up climbing this raised hide to look out for some woodland animals. there were some hidden all around us, squirrels in the trees, wild boars behind trees, or foxes and deer hidden in bushes. they were not real animals though, but all made out of a brown metal or wood? can't remember anymore. while i thought it was a cute idea, i totally forgot to take some pictures of them ^^; guess i was still kinda shell-shocked from my stupidity.
the woods were really gorgeous, big rocks lying around, roots growing out of the soil... i love me a good wild forest, especially when lots of woods in germany are managed and cultivated by human hands...
we met the biggest tortoise ever! ( and made a few group photos on it, which was fun, because i had to run back and forth between the adjusting the camera and sitting down and it created lots of cute memory pictures ^^ ).
throughout the woods you could find little gimmicks, little game stations where you could interact with several devices. you had to take a little ball here for example, go all up to the end of the course and then drop it. the ball would roll down the course and hit several obstacles that kind of triggered another movement, or a sound or would change pathways. it was really cool, especially when the ball hit some bells and a funny jingle would sound! i really do love little games like this, it makes a walk through the woods so much more enjoyable.
next, we ended up finding a rope bridge, spanning a little ravine where a small river, the kreuzbach, ran through. this bridge was an absolute highlight ( i really love walking high above ground! ). i was crossing it like a child, dancing and swinging, tossing and turning. i really dig the movement of rope bridges 😗
my parents finally reached the end of the brige, after carefully taking forward steps. my mom is afraid of heights, so i was really proud of her crossing this bridge ^^ only after they reached the other side i started to go wild 😂 me and my friend laughed and sang so much on this bridge, and all prior dark clouds were blown away immediately.
looking down. i think the ravine was about 20 m deep.
a bit further away you could learn something about tree roots. i have a thing for plants and their roots, so it was pretty neat.
passed by a very green little pond, which was hidden behind bushes and small trees. it kinda looked like a bog ( so basically a magnet for my witchy heart ).
💛💚 the light was magic.
before we said goodbye to my friend, we said hello to this little guy. he was happily crossing our path, but only after he emerged out of some enormous horse droppings, which was a real spectactle, i can tell you. such a tiny beetle, and then it can push away so much heavy shit, literally 😂 actually it's kind of admirable in a way!
all in all, despite the little freak-out over my stupid mobile phone, our little hike around the adventure path in the bingen woods was quite a lovely experience and i would totally visit again! BUT, until that happens we need to...
...stay curious 😘
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