6/25/2010

Today we took a day trip along the Neckar River, through Heilbronn and on to Maulbronn where there exists a UNESCO World Heritage site, the Maulbronn Monastery. The Neckar is a pretty river, and the valley rather narrow at the Heidelberg end, but widens as we drive south. We even saw barges on the river, and passed several locks. Heilbronn turned out to be larger than we anticipated, and we didn't find the old buildings we were seeking. We were ready for some lunch, so drove on; we stopped at one backerei (bakery) where one can get sandwiches as well as sweets, but it was closed from 1-2pm. So on we went and what a fortunate accident that was-- as we were pulling off into the small town of Gemmingen, I saw a sign for Toskana Cafe pointing away from the town. I jerked the steering wheel and we pulled onto a one lane road, thinking and saying, "this can't be right". About a mile down the road we pulled into the parking lot of a beautiful, brand new, contemporary cafe and gift shop. We were amazed, and went in, as they say in German, "gerne"... gladly. What a wonderful meal, wonderful service, and friendly atmosphere we encountered. But AAAARRRRRGGGGHHHH--- the camera battery died after Kathy took this photo of me in the cafe. Look behind me at the cafe, not at me. :) There are photos of the drive to Toskana in the Piccasa album.

After lunch we drove on to Maulbronn and the ancient monastery, dating back to the 1100's. It was an impressive structure and community. It had not only the church and quarters for brothers and laymen, but also a winery, barns, apothecary, bursar's office (financials) and more. During the Reformation, the ruling powers of Kingdom of Wurttemberg became Protestant, and eventually the whole monastery became Protestant. In the mid-1550's the monastery became a Protestant school, training boys beginning at ages 10-14 for religious work in the church. Among the better known students matriculating from Maulbronn were Johannes Keppler (astronomer and mathematician) and Hermann Hesse, German author. It was an inspiring afternoon, capped off with a nice glass of local Riesling at the Restaurant zur Kloster Katz, part of the entire complex. Here is a photo of the complex from the web:

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It's worth the effort to look at other photos at: http://www.archaeologie-bw.de/maulbron/mb_tab.html