Journey Around the World: Saalburg, Wiesbaden

The Saalburg is a Roman fort belonging to the Roman Empire. Inside had many museums exhibiting weapons, coins, grooming tools etc used during the Roman time.

The porta praetoria (main gate), and circuit wall.

Main Gate: Statue of Antoninus Pius and inscription referring to Wilhelm II. Titus Aurelius Fulvius Boionius Arrius Antoninus Pius was Roman Emperor from 138 to 161. He was the fourth of the Five Good Emperors. The Five Good Emperors is a term that refers to five consecutive emperors of the Roman Empire— Nerva, Trajan, Hadrian, Antoninus and Marcus Aurelius.

Interior of the assembly hall, where soldiers used to assemble.

Side Wall with gate, double ditches clearly visible.

The Hessenpark is an open-air museum in Hesse, Germany. The museum showcases half-timbered buildings from the land of Hesse. As of 2006, there were almost 100 houses on display.

Hessenpark has the following sights:

the Village Church
the Synagogue
the Village School
the Post Office
the Market Place
the Bakery
the Windmills
the Water Mill
the Blacksmith's Shop
the Typography
Marketplace outside hessenpark.

The Old Blacksmith's shop

Here's the interior of the Blacksmith's shop. We witnessed him making some nails. He is obviously a very experienced nail-maker!

The windmill, one of the Hessenpark's attractions.

He was showing us how ropes were being made. He asked for volunteers to do skipping with the rope after he was done and ENTHUSIASTIC me volunteered myself=) It reminded me of my primary school days when I was in skipping CCA- all the competitions, skipping stuns and formations on the stage=) Apparently skipping helps kids grow taller, but it did not seem to work for me=)

We headed to Neroberg hill after dinner at the youth hostel. We rushed to the railway to catch the last train at 8pm but unfortunately, we missed it by 15mins. The railway, Nerobergbahn, is a funicular cable car driven by water ballast and it is considered to be a monument to technical culture. The railway route up the hill is 440m long and takes a 25% climb in its stride, the difference in altitude being 80m. It was a blessing in disguise that we missed the last train! The walk up was nice, relaxing and cooling! We only made our way down after the sunset and it was pitch dark along the trail! Fortunately Zec had a torch. After a while, we switched off the torch and we got comfortable finding our way in the dark. As we made our way down, we saw HEAPS of firefly! They were obviously horny and calling out to their mates=) It was a an exciting day! Here is what we saw after conquering the trek!

A round Neroberg Temple at the background.

Struggling to get back at the BIG bully=) haha.. couldnt reach him at all.. Shortly after, we had our daily dosage of soccer matches at a nice cafe nearby!