So much to see and do!!

 Over the past 4 days, the phrase which keeps coming up is "next time",  Yes, there are so many castles, museums, monasteries, gardens for the tourist to enjoy and then, there are the special family villages, houses, grave sites and, of course, people, that I truly hope there will be a next time for me in this part of the world.

Any of the places I mention have much better descriptions on the internet than I am going to provide.  Look them up if you are interested.

Maulbron Monastery is a huge complex started a thousand years ago for monks and lay persons for whom the Benedictines had become too lax in their religious practices.  The biggest surprise of the spectacular buildings was the remnants of colour on the walls and ceilings.  Those monks were not all grey and dull.

After the Monastery, we went to supper at a Besse.  Yes, that means broom in German and no one was able to give me a good reason why a traditional slaughter meal served in a barn at a vineyard, had that name.  All those sausages my Dad made when he slaughtered a pig were available, as well as Maultaschen.  Notice the similarity to the monastery name?  The legend has it that the pasta pockets filled with ground meat and spinach were developed there.  There is more to the legend which you need to read for yourselves.

I think every traveller in the world has heard of Neuschwanstein castle, but what about Hohenzollern?  It rivals the former in size, was completed where Ludwig's was not, and is still occupied by some of the Hohenzollern family.  For me, it is much more a castle to live in than the extravagance shown in Ludwig's 4 castles.  And what a lovely escape it would make!

Today it was a step into the past and a step into the future.  The Porsche museum showed everything from the first concept car to the latest racers and street machines.  Then it was about 1 km up the road to have lunch at Neuwirtshaus.  The building where I was born no longer stands, but in its place is another inn built in the same style and still serving great food.  Ok, the spaetzle were made by machine, not off the board as my Tante Dina would do for special guests.

Johanna and I have now landed in Berkheim where we will spend the next few days.  She went to school here in the Oberschwaben region (southern part of Germany just before the Alps) and will show me around.  Can't wait!