After several weeks of gloomy early spring weather, we had a
beautiful Saturday and took advantage of the day to make a road trip to one of
our favorite places, the Cincinnati
Museum Center. We have had a
membership at the museum for several years and always enjoy visiting the permanent
exhibits in the Museum of
Natural History & Science and the Cincinnati History Museum. Even just touring the old Union Terminal building
with the art-deco architecture and beautiful murals is fascinating. Although there remains a working Amtrack
station in the building, most of the structure is dedicated to the
museums. When the museum center was
constructed, it was the central hub for all railroads having connections in
Cincinnati. Prior to the opening of Union Terminal, passengers
had to find transportation between terminals of different rail lines that may
be across the city. Like a modern
airport, Union Terminal provided concourses for the major passenger railroads
serving Cincinnati allowing travelers easier transfers between rail lines.
We had been telling our friends, Rex & Natialie
Dillinger about the museum for some time and we were thrilled that they could
join us for the day. We left Milton
before 7 am and had a pleasant drive down the AA Highway through Kentucky to
Cold Spring and on to Cincinnati. The
early morning fog was thick but disappeared once the sun came out.
The traveling exhibit that brought us to the Cincinnati
Museum Center on this day was the Dead Sea Scrolls. We were thrilled to be able to see some of
the most important documents in our culture up close. The scrolls were well displayed with clear
translations and interpretations. There
were also displays of jars that contained the scrolls as well as many artifacts
of life the area 2000 years ago including weighing scales, coins, jars,
building stones and ossuaries. Ossuaries are boxes that are
used to hold the bones of dead loved ones.
One set of ossuaries
held the names, Joseph, Mary and Jesus.
However, we learned that those were very common names in those times and
are unlikely to contain the remains of the biblical family.
The museum guides and the printed information accompanying
the scrolls and artifacts were very helpful in understanding life in the area
over 2000 years ago when the Dead Sea Scrolls would have been written. A short movie described how the scrolls were
found in 1947 and efforts that were made to locate, obtain and preserve the
scrolls in the years since. We were
especially pleased that the oldest known version of the Ten
Commandments was included among the scrolls on exhibit. We learned that this scroll can only be shown
for ten days then must return to storage in total darkness for a full year
before being shown again. We were
thrilled to be able to see them. We
spend about two and half hours in the exhibit from 10:30 am – 1 pm.
While at the museum, we also saw a display of beautiful wood turnings and
walked around the inside admiring the Rookwood Pottery tiles and the depression
era mosaics.
We left the museum around 1 pm and drove across the Ohio
River to Newport, Kentucky for lunch at Hofbräuhaus. That is one of our favorite places to
eat. We have been to the Hofbräuhaus
in Cincinnati, Pittsburgh and Munich. We have had excellent dining experiences at
all of these.
After lunch, we met Sarah & Greg at their house for a
visit then went to Findlay Market
for some shopping. Rex was interested in
getting some German sausages from one of the butcher shops there and had
success at Kroeger
& Sons Meats. We spent time in
the city, walking around the OTR (Over the
Rhine) neighborhood of Cincinnati and spending some time in the newly
renovated Washington Park. We also drove up Mt. Adams to the overlook near the Rookwood Restaurant at the site of the
former Rookwood
Pottery. We drove down to the Krohn Conservatory but they
were closed by the time we arrived so we walked around Eden Park for a while to
see the Capitoline Wolf
statue showing Romulus and Remus being suckled by the she wolf who adopted them
after they were thrown into the Tiber River.
The statue was donated to Cincinnati by Bonito Mussolini in 1929.
After leaving Eden Park, we took Sarah & Greg back to
their house and headed home after spending a great day in Cincinnati.
