Unterwegs — An Elegant Sufficiency

On our way to our next stop, we found it tricky to identify a worthwhile place to take a break. It was Monday and therefore most places of interest were closed and my Hero scoured all resources for a suggestion.

Actually, our primary concern to begin with was getting out of Stuttgart! The city is filled with an incredible number of road works and I think we did a tour of many of them on our arrival and again on our departure.

Eventually we escaped them all and drove through some pretty villages. No onion dome chuches here, but some interesting tiled patterns on the steeples.

We don’t really know this part of Germany, so enjoyed the drive on a fine morning without any holdups (so far).

Our destination was Ulm and we still hadn’t a plan for the day, though my Hero said he’d read about a place beginning with B…somewhere to look out for.

My job, then, was to keep an eye on the signposts. We’d not gone much further when I spotted Blaubeuren. Might that be the place?

Well yes, it was. Not only that but there was a parking space just inside the car park, almost as if it were waiting for us too. Across the road was the sign to the tourist-info and here we were in the “Pearl of the Swabian Jura” with “one of the best preserved medieval town centres in south western Germany”.

How lucky was that?!

We stepped out of the tourist office into the sunshine and counted our blessings!

One of the highlights of Blaubeuren is the Blautopf pool, a couple of km walk away. Though this would have been our focus, we’d not allowed enough time, sadly, so we’ll have to come back! We did, however, enjoy the walking tour suggested through the town to the Kloster where we understood there was a particularly fine medieval altar.

Along the way however, were so many beautiful buildings, my camera was kept quite busy.

The tourist office map was helpful and our only regret was that we hadn’t bought longer on the car park ticket!

A small pathway - which we’d refer to as a snicket - seemed to be a short cut between two gardens and emerged right there in front of the Kloster buildings.

Had we stayed on the road, we’d have arrived at the same place, but through the gatehouse.

A lovely collection of buildings, the Hochaltar was clearly signed to our left.

We bought our tickets and went inside, not really knowing what to expect. Of course, this had been a last minute destination, without any information or prior research. Still, so far, so good!

It seemed as though there was just us and another couple here in the cool, quiet cloisters. We had no guide or directions, so we simply turned right and went where the pathway took us.

I took so many photos of beautifully preserved medieval faces,

of small chapels along the way, feeling frustrated by the fine mesh netting to prevent pigeons here and there but which also stopped me taking photos - until I found a small hole through which I could point my lens!

Pushing open the heaviest, curtain lined door (further pigeon protection) we found ourselves in a small room filled with an interesting collection of memorials, including this one of Count Ulrich von Helfenstein (died 1361) and his mother, Agnes von Württemberg.

But what really caught my eye were the wall paintings, some of which were done inside niches, like the one above. the palette of colours was rather similar to those in the Lutheran church in Bad Cannstatt the other night - rich ruby red, a teal blue and shades of ochre. I imagine that these were the pigments available in this area at the time of painting. As usual, I particularly love those images which are fragments of the original, leaving my imagination to work out what they might have appeared when first created.

Each wall had several of these motifs here and there, seemingly randomly placed. Would there have been more of them in a regular pattern? Who knows? For now, they captured my interest and I was almost out of the door when I remembered to look up at the vaulted ceiling!

From here, we continued our way around the cloister, eventually reaching another of the heavy, velvet clad doors. We could hear music coming from within, so we opened the door carefully, not wanting to interrupt any proceedings.

First was a kind of ante-room, from where we turned right and saw

the monk’s choir, with the central winged altarpiece we’d come to see. Consecrated in 1494, it was magnificent and beautifully preserved/restored.

Remarkable indeed, but needless to say, I had seen something that interested me even more. The carved wooden choir stalls were similar to those we see in cathedrals of a similar era at home, with carved misericords and fine designs carved overhead. But here were some characterful carvings alongside, surely of particular people?

I chose my favourite to share here, though there were at least half a dozen and possibly more. (There’s another in the background of this photograph)

Here too were small “houses” for want of a better word, purpose unknown - more research needed!

How fortunate we were to have made it here - somewhere we hadn’t even heard of until a couple of hours ago. We retraced our steps and returned through the small snicket and spotted a tempting sign in the street…

It’s at times like this when we need to gather our thoughts over ice cream!

My Hero was eyeing his watch, because we really didn’t want to spoil such a fabulous day by getting a parking ticket! As we passed by this house I wondered about the pine-cone garlands. Do they have a purpose, perhaps against spiders?

But the best was to come. These houses had the river running in front of them and were inhabited by the tanners who were able to wash and hang the hides to dry beneath the overhang, so they’d drip into the river below.

We passed by several of these houses, though this last one featured something I’d not seen before. Look closely at the photograph for a watering can hanging from a rope fixed to a pulley on the top floor, where the flowers are looking so pretty. Of course, if one lives upstairs and has a window box, but the river flows right down there beneath the balcony, what better way to water the flowers than to fill the watering can with that fresh flowing water!?

Actually, Blaubeuren might have saved the best till last, for there on the right hand side is a house under renovation.

We stopped for a closer look, admiring the handiwork and the traditional woodworking methods being used.

How fortunate to have craftsmen with the skills needed to do such work. Meanwhile, a small angel looks on from that upstairs window.

Feeling pretty pleased with ourselves for “discovering” Blaubeuren like that, we set off on the last leg of today’s journey to Ulm.

We passed by several of these rocky outcrops which feature in descriptions of this area but about which we knew nothing. There are examples of ice-age art around here, designated a UNESCO World Heritage site, about which I ought to know more (but don’t!)