We were able to sneak away to Germany to visit family living near Stuttgart. We traveled in early October and were there during a beautiful, unseasonably warm twelve days. During the last week, we were able to travel down to Garmisch-Partenkirchen in the German Alps and then over to the Schwarzwald or the Black Forest.

The Black Forest wasn't very black as the deciduous trees were aflame in fall colors. I imagine later with all those beautiful leaves gone, the remaining conifers could look black indeed under a leaden winter sky.  In the town of St Blasien, we saw a lovely building covered with flowerboxes all overflowing with geraniums.  Geraniums seemed to be the popular choice for many flowerboxes in Germany. I can understand why, beautiful, tough and easy to care for.

The last day of our trip we visited Tubingen, a university town. We saw many of the sites including their town hall built in 1435. The thing that impressed me most about this town were the flowers. There were flowers on the bridges, there were flowers on the buildings and there were flowers on the lamp posts.  These plantings were more like bouquets, beautiful combinations of colors, shapes, and textures. They had a more modern look especially with the addition of tall grasses which added movement.