Ulm: Day 3 - Lazy Day

March 26th

Today was a lazy day.  I briefly wandered around the town our hotel was in and then met up with Jana to muck about Ulm.

The little church (left) and stork nest (right) of possibly Gögglingen or just a suburb of Ulm.  I'm not sure really. 

Random German Pinocchio?	Storks!  Storks....making babies.....

...and that's it for possibly Gögglingen.  

Onto the Museum of Brotkultur (it's a museum about bread, not the Bro-Culture museum.  I may have thought it was the latter at first.)

This is a Kleiekotzer or Bran-Puker.
 It was attached to mills to puke out the bran from the flour before people wanted to have bran.

This is called "Brot für alle" (Bread for All) and was painted by Arthur Segal.

It depicts the evolution of bread availability in Germany post WWI.  There was a lot more info about each cell in the painting on the audio tour, but I don't remember it and I can't find any info online.  It starts out fine and then around the 6th cell is when things go badly and the whole economy starts to collapse.  Anyway I thought it was cool.

A weeping willow budding and a view of a Danube offshoot downtown.

This concludes our adventures for today.

Ulm: Day 2 - Rothenburg ob der Tauber

March 25th

At the previous encouragement of our mutual friend Emily, Jana and I set off to explore the fairy tale town of Rothenburg ob der Tauber.   It's about an hour north of Ulm.

When we first got there, it was not terribly exciting.  Then we stumbled inside the old walls.

You can walk almost the entire length of the walls surrounding the old town.

Looking down the wall walkway.	A view over rooftops to the main church.

A look back along where we walked.  It's all covered and occasionally there are stairs leading back to the ground.  There was a geocache in a hole in the wall up here.  It was very cleverly disguised.  Jana found it, but thought she may have touched a dead animal instead so she made me put on one of Andrew's gloves to fish out whatever was in the hole.  It was pretty spectacular.

Looking down the main street.	A house decorated for Easter.

Look at this adorable house/shop! LOOK AT IT.
I mean some cobbler and elves or cute baker or something has to be going on in there.

Cobblestone streets, every doorway has a fancy sign, cute little buildings.....
Where are the carriages, singing peasants, and royalty?

Flowers!  Because I like flowers.  Also I'm attracted to bright colors.

This church is St. Jame's Lutheran Church.  It was built in the early 14th century.
The stained glass and wood work was pretty phenomenal.

This is a Christmas Boat  It is made of Ebony and is from Tanzania.  It is a symbol of the partnership between the parishes of Rothenburg and Hai/Kilimanjaro.  Neat, huh?

This is the Holy Blood altarpiece carved by the wood carver Tilman Riemanschneider of Würzburg.  Shout out to cousin Jill.   It was carved in five years from 1500-1505.

A lovely view through the wall out into the countryside.

Me being silly in one of the gateways.

Looking into the mini valley and to the south-west part of the old town.

Crocuses!
Fun fact: Saffron comes from these perky flowers.

Seriously, where are my fairy tale characters?

A view of the north-west part of the old town.

A quaint covered bridge.  I mean how cute is that?

I'm not sure what this structure was used for, but it was fun to walk around. It is at the south-western entrance to the old town.  It had some cannons in it.

The Rathaus (town hall).
You can climb the white tower, but it was closed today.
I was sad.

Buildings around the Rathaus.   They look fake, but they're not!	This white building has beer drinking figures that open the windows at noon.

This guy had his little cart in the Rathaus square; he was making on-the-spot fresh apple cider.
I had two glasses.  It was delicious.

More buildings around the square.
Jana got little Christmas village houses of some of these buildings.
They are too cute.

I haven't seen a single singing/dancing animal.
That is a stork's nest (complete with stork) on the upper left though.

The main tower/gate entrance from the modern town into the old town (south side).

A small church or something on the edge of the old town (north-east side).

This concludes our adventure to Rothenburg ob der Tauber.
Thanks for suggesting it Emily!


We went back to Ulm and met up with Dan and Andrew to get dinner and wander around.

Ulm Münster at night!

Ulm: Day 1 - Exploring Town

March 23rd-24th

Today we travelled to Ulm, Germany.  Don't worry if you've never heard of it, neither had I.  Dan has a conference for work and I am tagging along.  We are joining Dan's coworker and wife, Andrew and Jana.

March 23rd - Traveling

Leaving Napoli and Vesuvio behind.

Mountains peeking through the clouds.

We got into Ulm in the evening.  So this concludes the photos for the 23rd.

March 24th - Wandering around Ulm

Dan and Andrew had to go to their conference, so Jana and I walked around downtown Ulm.  It was very foggy for a long time in the morning.

Our first encounter with Ulm's Münster.   It was very foggy in the morning and we couldn't see the top of the steeple.  It has a VERY tall steeple.  In fact it's the tallest steeple in the world and also the tallest church in the world.  And you can climb it.  So naturally, I did.  

But not today.

Mini bronze map of old town Ulm.  The big blob in the middle is the Münster.  

You can see how it dwarfs EVERYTHING around it.

Side note not related to anything:  

Ulm is the birthplace of Albert Einstein.  Now you know.

One of the old gateways and the Mertzgerturm (Butcher's Tower) into the old town.  

It leans, that's not you.

More of the old city wall.  This area was the Fisherman's Quarter.  Behind me is the Danube River.

Not so blue Danube.

There is a path atop the old city wall.	Small waterways run through  most of the old town.

Ganstör Tower.	The Rathaus or the Town Hall. Also weird dog modern art coming out of the street.

Quirky sundial on the side of Ulm Münster.

Imposing Ulm Münster at night!

This concludes our adventures for today.

Too many adventures

I know, I know.  I'm the worst.  I haven't updated adventures since March.   

There have been too many adventures back to back.  

Here's the line up of adventures I will be trying to get up on the blog by the end of June:

March - Ulm, Germany

April - My parents visit and we go around Italy

April - Michael and Sam visit and we go hiking, a lot.

May - Bergen, Norway

May - Around Belgium

 Poor me, I know.  Life is so hard when travelling to awesome places all the time.

Sorry to keep you waiting on photos and whatnots.

Pi Day and Solar Eclipse

March 14th and 20th, repectively

March 14th of 2015 was the best Pi Day of our lives, so we had people over for pie. 

Unfortunately I cannot find my photos of all the pie, but believe me, there was a lot of pie.

Anyway good times and much pie was had by all.

March 20th we had a total solar eclipse, although we only got a partial eclipse.  A solar eclipse is when the moon passes between the earth and the sun whereas a lunar eclipse is when the earth passes between the sun and the moon.

Solar Eclipse: Sun -> Moon -> Earth 

Lunar Eclipse: Sun -> Earth -> Moon

Or you know, Google it to find out more.   

ANYWAY, I tried to take some photos, and they turned out pretty well.  Or at least, you can tell something goes in front of the sun.

Neat huh?