"Bensheim" a Bensheim Travel Page by Trillian2005

..."Ben's Home" and it sounds as if the town was founded by one of the 7 wanderers that left Beer Sheva (B7) in the desert in search of Kiryat Shemona (K8) in Northern Israel. However, that seems a bit too far out because even though some of those guys did get detoured, it is unlikely that they could have wandered off that far, especially with those few bottles of Eden Mineral Water they carried. I think one of those side-tracked guys actually founded a village, but it may have been the moshav Ben Shemen in Israel, and not Bensheim. Therefore, further research has been done with the result that documents have coincidentally been found underneath an old sofa at the nearby Lorsch Monastery, revealing that the town had been named after one Knight Basinus. Hence, the town's original name had been Basinusheim, which was later changed to Bensheim for speeding reasons, in the same fashion Los Angeles, whose original name was "El Pueblo de Nuestra Senora la Reina de los Angeles de Porciuncula" is now called L.A., which, in another 25 years, will probably be abbreviated to ..

So who was that ominous Knight Basinus and why and how could he afford to found the town of Bensheim in the year 765? The legend has it that he had some disagreement with the Lorsch Monastery, probably over a nun, and threatened to attack the monastery and to tear it down. In order to placate hot tempered Basinus, he was granted the rights to open a town in his name, which he did, and which kept his mind busy with other things and off his original idea to wreak havoc in the monastery.

Speaking of Los Angeles, the reason why Chris and I took that day trip to Bensheim was our friend Tony from Los Angeles, who was on a business trip in Bensheim. Among other things, Bensheim has accumulated a nice amount of mid-size high tech companies. We really had a fabulous time in Bensheim even though we did not visit one high-tech company, but apart from high-tech companies Bensheim is full of charming and picturesque old framework houses and people. And anyway, we didn't go to Bensheim to work. That was Tony's job.

...located in the German state of Hessen, 35 km north of Heidelberg. However, it is important to know that Heidelberg is not in Hessen but in Baden-Württemberg. Bensheim is on the edge of the Odenwald (Oden Forest Hills) on one side and on the Rhine plain on the other. With a population of approximately 39,700 it is the biggest town of the "Bergstraße" (Mountain Road) region along the A5 freeway.
Another interesting fact about Bensheim is that it borders the communities of Alsbach-Hähnlein and Seeheim-Jugenheim to the north.

...its surrounding region is one of the major wine growing areas in Germany. The "Bergstrasse" (Mountain Road) region, which, by the way, inspired John Denver to his classical tune Mountain Roads Take Me Home to the Place I Belooong, has one of the mildest climates in Germany and is therefore also known as the "German Riviera". It sure is a beautiful town and region. Just the Mediterranean is missing, but you can find homegrown kiwis, zillions of almond trees, fig trees, as well as peach trees that make up for the missing Mediterranean. Wonderful! Growing almond trees, e.g. in your frontyard, is subsidized by the town, and besides lower local taxes for the hobby almond tree growers, there's the added benefit that among its female population (of the almond tree growers, not the almond trees themselves), an Almond Blossom Queen is elected each spring. Once you're Almond Blossom Queen of Bensheim, you've got it made - fame and riches are yours for the rest of your life, and stories are written about you, stories that are published worldwide, together with your photos, in children's picture books, the text translated into 568 languages, and the books distributed as free propaganda material to lure potential visitors to Bensheim so they'll leave their money, their hearts, and other valuable belongings in that town. An all-time favorite among Bensheim visitors is the "Plant an Almond Tree in Your Neighbor's Frontyard" tour, organized by many travel agencies, locally and internationally.

I became Almost Almond Blossom Queen in 2000, almost because
a) I visited Bensheim in October, well after the almond blossom season that usually starts in March or, with global warming, perhaps in January or February now
b) I don't live in Bensheim and never have
c) I have never grown any almond trees, neither in my front yard nor in my back yard. The only tree I've taken care of was a lemon tree, but it was already fully grown at the time, and anyway, that was in Sacramento, California, which is a day hike, 10 sandwiches, and an ocean away from Bensheim.