Thursday, June 12 Ulm

This morning we toured the Schoenbrunn Palace. Some of us had been before, but it is interesting enough to do twice. It is fascinating to speculate about all the labour that went into crating and maintaining such an opulent residence in more primitive times.

We left Vienna at about 11:30, through Salzburg to Munich, where we dropped off Frank and Nora Ann, who are visiting Erich and family for a few days. We hit Munich at evening rush hour and paid the price. A couple of times we were slowed to a crawl on the highway for extended periods of time.


When we turned off the highway we got a little bit lost and had to stop and wait for Erich to find us. While we were waiting, Dean and Frank took the opportunity to examine a field of wheat. Like a St. Bernard dog, Erich came to the rescue with a cooler of water, soft drinks, and beer. He also presented us each with a map he had made of Banat with our tour stops all highlighted. What a kind and thoughtful man.

Then it was on to Ulm for the night. Since the tour is winding down and we didn’t have any closely timed appointments to meet, we let the timetable go to hell. We were more than an hour behind leaving Vienna and arrived at our hotel near Ulm at 9 pm, about 4 hours behind the plan. We grabbed a bite to eat and retired at about 10:30.

Today was probably the coolest day yet. High temperature was probably in the low 20s. Still comfortable, but not what we have been used to.