In Germany

Well, we made it!  We got into Munich early Tuesday morning after the 12 hour flight from Singapore.  We were welcomed by rain that turned into a tropical downpour after picking up our car and getting underway.  It sure made driving on the autobahn an adventure in combination with the heavy truck traffic so pervasive in Europe today.  The rain had eased by the time we reached our first stop, Wiblingen Abbey just south of Ulm.  Known for it’s Library which is the embodiment of rococo design, the church itself is equally elaborate and an example of monumental German construction of the period.  Then it was on to our ‘home’ for the next two nights, a lovely apartment in a private home in a little village northeast of Stuttgart.  The next day it was off to Maulbronn Monastery, a UNESCO World Heritage site.  It’s considered to be the finest example of a medieval monastery complex north of the Alps.  Complete with defensive walls and a moat, it was a self-contained village in its own right with stables, barns, mill, smithy, etc. in addition to the church and cloister.  The weather was great and the country setting made for a relaxing start to the trip.  Now on to the Alsace region in France.  More on that later.