Month in review April 2023: Encounters, magical flowers and memories

April has a special meaning for my family and me, as both my mother's birthday and the anniversary of her death fall in this month. It is important for us to spend time together on these days and share beautiful memories.

Overall, this April was a month full of Stirring events, new experiences and inspiring encounters. From an exciting blogger event to the magical magnolia blossom in Maulbronn Monastery, I would like to share some special moments with you. In addition, I have taken on the challenging task of writing my longest blog article to date.

May promises some nice experiences: I'm going on a short trip to Heidelberg with a friend, and from the end of May I'll be touring Germany again - until at least mid-June I'll be on the road from Weimar via the Harz mountains to the Baltic coast near Lübeck.

This Post's Content at a Glance:

1. The Content Society (TCS): Blogger Event in Stuttgart

Since January I am part of the Blogger Community The Content Society (TCS) by Judith Peters' and was very excited about the live event, where I met Judith and the other bloggers of this community "in real" for the first time. On the evening of 4/21, we met for a warm-up dinner at Sophie's Brauhaus in Stuttgart. I immediately felt welcome in the cheerful group of about 60 business women who have a common denominator with blogging. Business coach and mom of four Julia Mack was an interesting and inspiring conversation partner for me in the really noisy Brauhaus.

The next morning, the seminar began at 9 a.m. in the rooms of the Design Offices in Stuttgart. Actually not my time at all, because I had to get up at 6:30 a.m. to be there on time. On this productive day, we developed ideas for new blog posts and worked on our own offer. Especially valuable for me was the collaboration with five other TCS bloggers in a Mastermind GroupIn each case, we gave each other feedback on a topic of our own choosing and within a set time frame. A big thank you to Bianca Blatz, Friederike Lehnert, Gesa Oldekamp, Kerstin Sander , as well as Lorena Hoormann.You were a great team and your ideas have brought me a lot further in the search for my claim 🤗 🧡.

It was such a surprise to see Maren Schmidt at the TCS event, with whom I worked in the same team over 20 years ago. Life is full of surprises!

Inspired by interesting ideas and new contacts, I arrived at home in the evening and first needed some time to digest my many impressions. This jam-packed day will continue to have an effect for a long time!

Group photo TCS Live-Event Stuttgart on the roof terrace of the Design Offices - angiestravelroutes.com — 60 bloggers in good mood at the TCS live event in Stuttgart.

2. Spring Excursion: Magnolia Blossom in Maulbronn Monastery

Already last year in April I had visited the UNESCO World Heritage Site Maulbronn Monastery which is just an hour's drive from where I live. And because it was so beautiful there, I repeated the trip this year. The monastery garden is particularly enchanting in spring, when an ancient magnolia tree unfolds its flowering splendor. The fountain from 1794 in the monastery courtyard is decorated every year by the "countrywomen". On the meadows and stone terraces of the landscape shaped by the Cistercian monks, nature explodes in all the colors of spring. Since I had already taken part in a guided tour of the monastery last year, I could visit the monastery museum and take a walk around the monastery grounds and through the vineyards this time. For my excursion I had chosen probably the most beautiful day at the beginning of April and could even enjoy coffee and cake in the monastery beer garden in glorious sunshine.

The Easter decorated fountain in the monastery courtyard in front of Maulbronn Monastery - angiestravelroutes.com — The countrywomen decorate the fountain in the courtyard of Maulbronn Monastery every year at Easter.

3. UNESCO World Heritage in Germany: My Most Comprehensive Blog Post to Date.

My visit to the Maulbronn Monastery gave me the impetus to take up a blog suggestion by Judith Peters from a few weeks ago and create a Listicle to write. It was about the UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Germany. As is often the case, I had no idea in advance what a mammoth task I had set myself. There are 51 UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Germany,. I have already visited some of them, but about some others I knew next to nothing. That meant a lot of research - and then I wanted to present my findings in a form that was reasonably easy for readers to digest. In short: I worked for almost a whole month on this article, in which I describe all UNESCO World Heritage Sites per federal state in a relatively compact way.

If you have always wanted to get an overview of the UNESCO World Heritage in Germany, this post is for you!

4. commemoration with the family:
the 7th anniversary of my mother's death

As every year, April was marked by the Memory of my motherwho died completely unexpectedly seven years ago. Both her birth and death anniversaries fall in April. On her birthday, my father, sister and I always get together to spend the day together and visit her grave. This time we had planned to go for a walk at the Max-Eyth-See in Stuttgart, where my parents liked to spend their Sunday afternoons already in their youth. Unfortunately, the weather didn't cooperate, so we changed our plans without further ado and went to a cozy restaurant there for lunch instead. Afterwards, we went to the cemetery. My mother loved flowers, so we picked out a basket of beautiful spring flowers at the nursery and placed it on her grave. These special moments of remembrance and togetherness on her special day help us to look back not only with sadness but also with gratitude for the beautiful experiences we shared together.

Mom and dad at the book launch of the text workshop Sindelfingen - January 2016 - angiestravelroutes.com — The last photo of my parents together in January 2016, three months before my mother's sudden death.

5. Outlook May: What I'm Looking Forward to

With my friend and ex-colleague Judith I am going to Heidelberg for three dayswhere we meet up with Elvira on the last day. All three of us used to work in the same team and went away together for a few days every year until Corona threw a spanner in the works. But now we're going back to the old days!
Finally travel again! Starting on May 26, I'll be on a big tour of Germany for at least three weeks. First it goes for four days to Weimar for four days - one of my absolute favorite cities in Germany. Then it's on to Quedlinburg and the Baltic coast near Lübeck, where I spend 8 days each. On this tour there are some UNESCO world heritage sites to discover, which I am very excited about. Stay tuned for more in the May and June review.
On one part of the trip one of my best friends will accompany me. Jutta lives in northern Germany and we usually see each other only once a year, but then we spend a few weeks together.