Andernach

David speaking: ‘The LORD is close to those who are very sad, and saves those who have a feeling of deep regret or remorse for doing wrong. Good people often have things go wrong but the LORD takes care of them through it all.’ Sandy’s way of saying Psalm 34: 18,19.

Those wild flowers in my post Simply Flowers were from Andernach and here is a reminder of another place filled with plants. Andernache Historical Garden. The Romans were here in 12BC and this garden uses plants and original in-place foundations to show you how some places were. First here is a plan we can refer to.

Number 10 refers to four square vegetable plots, 11 to The Forum where there are grape vines growing etc

It makes for a community feeling to have the whole garden surrounded by apartments, where people tend pot plants or come down into the garden. A calming space.

Here are two areas of interest. At the beginning of the 4th Century the inhabitants on the Middle Rhine suffered from famine, due to a bad harvest. As a result a great quantity of grain was taken from Britain to Andernach and distributed from here. The ‘here’ is represented by eleven juniper trees grown as columns, these served as the fundanent of a ‘Horreum’ / Granary. Let us look at this.

A second area showing an outline with the use of plants is this.

An inner and then outer circle of lavendar shows where a cold water spa with steps is. The garden is well sign posted in English and German. Here is an example.

Then the vegetable and herb squares contained examples of food used by the Romans and some introduced by them.

I picked some herbs: sage, rosemary, lemon balm and curry balm. The plants were thick and thriving. There were padlocks on the gates to the vegetables. 🤣

The smell of these in the evening air made one hungry.

A town founded by the Romans by the name Antunnacum on the site of an old Celtic settlement probably called Antunnvac.

Present day Andernach has another treasure: The Andernach Geyser. It was added to the Guinness Book of World Records in 2009 as the world’s tallest cold water geyser. It reaches between 40-60m in height, and in 10-15 minutes produces 6-7m³ water and 200-250m³ carbon dioxide.

Because of CO 2 the water is light and frothy and it is very much like looking through some randomly made lace.

The water that collects below would fill nearly 1,500 standard bathtubs to the rim.

The Andernach Geyser is located on the Nameclyer Werth peninsula, which lies in an area of major tectonic discontinuity that crosses the Rhine River, and has thereby shifted horizontally. A strike-slip fault.

Rocks can melt, their mineral structure can be changed and crystalline slate can form. The Andernach Geyser’s borehole goes through several thousamds metres of slate.

Once off the boat, which is the only way to go and see this phenomenon, the town is pleasant with more planting to enjoy. Our Motor homes have a park up overlooking the Rhine.

A view from the modern museum dedicated to an explanation of the Andernach Geyser.

But back to the garden where a statue and lavender, now in full bloom, compete for attention.

We travel on and thank you for reading this post.

Sandy 🙂