After a disappointing arrival in Rheine, we woke up in our WiFi-free zone. It was a nicely priced hotel but the toilet was down the hall and the shower and sink were right in the room. Mom had her own room though and I got the best night sleep so far. The hotel is over a bar so in the morning we had breakfast downstairs in the bar area. It was all good.

We drove the short distance to the Kloister and walked up to the building where there was a very nicely dressed party of 30 forming up. We went in but you can’t get into the museum until it opens which is at 2pm on Saturdays. So we left.

We drove to Kalkar. Last visit we were accosted by the tour guide in Kalkar and one of the six little Predella flower boxes was out for cleaning. Very few of my pictures were useful to me. We arrived at the church in the late morning and found our way to the parking lot and then walked the two blocks to the church and went in the door. There were several other people in the church and one guy up on a ladder with some sort of vacumn machine. We started taking pictures – lots of pictures. At some point the guy on the ladder let us know that he was leaving and would be back in ten minutes and since we were the only people left in the church he was going to lock us in and we could continue to take pictures. And so we were all locked in the church until he returned which was closer to twenty minutes later.

But all of the little boxes were there and we could just snap away! We were so lucky. Lots of good pictures this time.

From there we proceeded to Xanten. Xanten was an old Roman town and parts of the old wall still stand. As faithful readers from the last visit will know – the church in Xanten was undergoing extensive renovations the last time I was in town. It looks lovely now as they did a great job and everything is back where it belongs. And so we hunted out the Kloisterarbeiten that I just know they have and I pointed out the only one we found on our last visit. Well they have an even better one! It dates to 1510 and has some very nice peacocks all out of silk. It was enough to make me go Squee!

What a fabulous day. We got in the car and headed for the condo but the condo address was misread by the GPS and we ended up in Luxemburg so after getting directions and driving another hour and a half we made it to the condo. It’s a one bedroom with a foldout sofa but surprisingly spacious with a full kitchen. Pretty peaceful but quite a drive.

After a large supper of very yummy food – we’re back at the condo and falling asleep, singing “I’m in heaven…”