Kloster Maulbronn

The kids were getting restless this morning, and we decided to take a Stadtmobil out for a drive. Since this part of Germany is so scenic and so rich in history, even a short drive can be quite a fulfilling experience.

We went down Autobahn-8 (which goes along the northern edge of Schwarzwald - Black Forest - shown as the green patch at the bottom of the map), cut into the Stromberg-Heuchelberg Natural Park (the green patch in the upper right corner), stopped in Maulbronn (more later) before heading back to Karlsruhe. The ride was beautiful, particularly on the return leg during which we passed a number of idyllic towns and open fields amid vineyards on the hills nearby. This loop could be done in about 90 minutes without stopping.

Maulbronn is a small town. Its main attraction is Kloster Maulbronn (Maulbronn Abbey), a well-preserved monastery from the 12th century and one of the thirty three UNESCO World Heritage sites in Germany. Johannes Kepler, the great astronomer and mathematician, was once a student at the monastic school.

Visitors are welcomed by a vast open space once stepped inside the Maulbronn compound. Here are the pictures of the front gate and the wall, followed by a few structures of the monastery compound.




We bought the tickets (6€ for adults, 3€ for kids) to get inside the complex shown in the last two pictures here. The layout of this complex can be found here. We walked around its cloister, visited the adjacent halls (sans furniture) and the magnificent klosterkirche (church). It gave me a similar feeling of walking inside a small college in Oxford.


Before we drove back to Karlsruhe, the kids spent some time at a playground outside the complex. All in all it has been a fun day.