Ulm

This past weekend Shanna & I did some traveling.  Two friends of ours, Jenny & Chris, had invited us to go with them to explore a city nearby called Ulm.  We met them at Patch Base, got some deli sandwiches from the Commissary, and hit the road.  They have a Dodge Caliber, and one feature that I love is the glove box is air conditioned, so we could leave our drinks in there and they stayed cool.  Before we got to Ulm we stopped in Giengen at the Steiff World Teddy Bear Museum (click the link to read more about it).  Jenny wanted to get a souvenir for her niece whose birthday was coming up. We considered taking the tour, but decided 8 Euros to see a Teddy Bear museum wasn't worth it.  We walked around the town for a bit, then headed out.  

We had one thing we wanted to visit in Ulm...the massive church at the center of town.  It's the tallest church in the world at 161.53 Meters (530 Feet).  There are 768 steps that lead all the way to the very top.  When you see the pictures we took you'll notice how they progressively appear higher & higher...that's because while it's 768 steps to the top, there are "breaks" at various points along the way so you can catch your breath and see the view.  I'm definitely glad we did it, it was a neat experience.  When we got to the last "break" before the very top you could see for miles & miles.  At that point you were 143 Meters high (469ft).  Here's where it got tricky.  Up until that point there were two sets of spiraling stair cases, one that was for going up and one that was for going down.  At this point there was only one spiraling staircase, so people were going up & coming down at the same time.  It was narrow, so you had to turn sideways and slide by people.  I was the only one who decided to go the last 20 meters up.  I figured I'd come this far, I might as well go all the way.  It took awhile to get up because at the top there was not a lot of room.  You had to stand sideways, flush to the wall, to move.  The pictures & the view made it worth it, though.  

After we got back to the ground (which was MUCH faster then going to the top, I might add), we walked around the town for a bit.  There wasn't too much to see, so we stopped at a local tavern and had a few drinks.  After that we stopped at an Italian place that was right along a brook with a large turning water wheel.

The pizza was AMAZING there...if we're ever back in Ulm again we'll definitely be heading back there.  After that we headed back home.  It was a lot of fun, the church was neat, but mostly it was nice to spend the day with new friends.


Sunday was a relaxing day where we didn't do much, but one thing of note is we went to Stuttgart's Summer Fest.  That's right, another fest.  During the summer months they seem to have one fest or another every single weekend.  There wasn't anything too special about this one, it was live music, food, and drinks, but it was nice to walk around with the dogs downtown.  Normally we take the Ubahn, but it was a nice afternoon so we decided to walk there.  We had dinner at a Spanish food tent that was set up...it was good.  I had to laugh at how acclimated we've become to the price of beer here, though.  The place we ate charged 3.30 Euros for a 12 oz beer and we both had the same thought...wow, that's expensive.  We've really gotten used to the half liter (17oz) beers that usually cost between 1.50 to 2 Euros.  Afterwards we walked back home, put on some TV, and called it a night.  Below is a picture of Murphy sitting under the table while we ate.  What you can't see is Milo is under me, sitting down, so people would walk by, see them, and get a big kick out of it.  A few kids even came up to pet them.

One last thing before I post the link to the pictures.  If you look at the picture of the church I posted above (the larger one on the website I'm going to link to below) you'll see the design at the very top.  For perspective, I posted a shot that I took while looking straight up at the top of the church while I was on top...it shows you how high up we were off the ground.


Click here to see the pictures, or click any picture in the post above.