Kloster Kreuzberg

This is perhaps my favorite photo of this trip so far.  It's so still and peaceful with a wonderful balance of white and black.  If you can believe it, this picture is in full color.  There are no black and white tricks or settings.  I have not even edited it; it's straight out of the camera.

This scene is from our trip to Kreuzberg, which is a pilgrimage destination for Catholics in the Rhön region.  Kloster Kreuzberg is an old Franciscan monastery that was owned by the Bishop of Würzburg.  It is also one of the highest ridges and is great for skiing.  We caught it on it's last open day for the season, and also on a snowy day, making it a perfect day to visit it's beautiful area.

Today's pilgrimages are more for the sights, skiing, and beer than the monastery itself.  It's brewery is a great example of how monasteries and monks supported the colony with beer brewing, as the monks actively brewed beer until 1992. Currently, the monks supervise a layperson as the Braumeister.

Kloster bier is sold throughout the Bischofsheim region today.  I've had it.  It's good.

However, it was a super cold and blustery day.  The kind of cold that froze my fingers as I tried to work my camera to take pictures of snowfall.  The kind of cold that this Southern girl does not know how to deal with.  So I snapped a few more pictures and then drank a warm cup of hot chocolate!  Good for the soul, that is!