Blaubeuren – Germany Trip Blog Post #3

 

Late morning, on our first full day in Germany, after our walking tour of Ulm, we boarded the bus for Blaubeuren. 

The town of Blaubeuren is a half hour drive from our hotel in Ulm, in the Swabian region of southern Germany. Cities in this region which you may have heard of are Stuttgart and Augsburg. 

Blaubeuren is a small, quiet village known for its Monastery, which was founded in 1085 by the Benedictines. During the Reformation, it was taken over by Protestants in 1535, but monks returned for a while during 30 Years War. In 1817, it became a Protestant seminary with attached boarding school. 

Our tour guide spent a lot of time telling us about each of the pictures in these panels, which told the story of John the Baptist, as well as Jesus.

He also told us that all monasteries were set up using the same blueprint, such as where the chapel, the garden, the cloister, et cetera were going to be. Anyone coming from a different monastery would be able to find their way around. I never knew that before, and I also don’t know if this was something they did just around that part of Europe during those years, or if they have done this around the world for millennia.

 

The chapel was beautiful, with many wood carvings. I am sure that they all had a certain meaning. 

 But some of them were rather creepy.

Behind the monastery, was the Blautopf, the spring where the Blue River originates.

It was a serene, wooded spot, and felt so much like home to me.

We wandered up one of the streets of Blaubeuern for lunch at Restaurant Ochsen (or Oxen). 

We were treated to Maultaschen, which translates to “mouth bag”. During Lent, to keep church leaders from knowing that the people were eating meat on Fridays, the women put the meat, usually beef, between sheets of rolled dough to hide it. It is a traditional Swabian dish and was very good, with the meat mixed with spinach, bread crumbs and onions. Similar to ravioli, they are square or rectangular and three to four and a half inches across. This was served with a lettuce salad atop cooked shaved potatoes, pickled beets, shaved carrots and shaved cabbage. I ordered it for lunch another day, but it wasn’t quite as good as this first one we had.

I had cut it up for the picture, so you could see what's inside. 

Too Many Books

 

Love justice, you who govern the earth, turn your minds to the Lord in a righteous way, and seek him with an upright heart. For he will be found by those who do not put him to the test, and he will reveal himself to those who do not cease to have confidence in him. (Wisdom 1:1-2, New Catholic Bible)

Today is my mom’s birthday, by the way. She would have been 99. Holy cow! How is that possible?

And how is it possible that it’s been a month since I’ve written here about the Bible? Four weeks ago, I told you I wanted to learn more about the Bible. I know that life got in the way, so I’m not going to beat myself up, but here I am, with lots of other things to tell you, but I’m going to stick to that promise.

Okay, most versions of the Bible are composed of 66 books: 39 in the Old Testament and 27 in the New. These versions include the King James Version, New King James Version, Good News Translation, New International Version, Revised Standard Version, New Living Translation, the Message, and many, many more. Those are mostly considered Protestant versions of the Bible, but there is also the Catholic Bible.

There are also many versions of the Catholic Bible, but the biggest difference is that they all contain seven additional books in the Old Testament. They are referred to as deuterocanonical books, or the Apocrypha, and include Tobit, Judith, Wisdom, Sirach, Baruch, 1 Maccabees, and 2 Maccabees.

These were all in the original Bible, but during the Reformation, reformers like Martin Luther dropped those books. There is a long history of that, which I read online, but most of it was over my head. I would rather keep things simple, so I apologize to my Catholic friends. If you’ve never heard of those seven extra books, you can look them up on the internet.

The verse above is from one of those books, the Book of Wisdom. If you are familiar with the Bible, you may remember the Book of Proverbs, written by King Solomon. Bible scholars used to think he also wrote the Book of Wisdom, but they have since decided that is not true, and no one knows who wrote it.

And just in case your head is already spinning, there are other versions of the Bible with even many more books. I don’t have any opinion of them one way or the other; I’m just going to stick to my good old 66-book New International Version of the Bible, which I have had ever since I can remember. And which I have always counted on to speak God’s truth to me.

(The above picture is of the Central Library in Ulm, Germany. The glass, pyramid structure stands in sharp contrast to the medievel buildings around it, but it surely contains many, many books.) 

Ulm City Tour, part 2 – Germany Trip Blog Post #2

Our walking tour of the city of Ulm took us, in the rain, into the Fishermen's Quarter and the Tanners' Quarter. I’m not sure where one quarter started and the other ended, so I am going to dump that whole area together.

The River Blau flows thru this historic, picturesque district, which is filled with medieval half-timbered houses, narrow alleys, and small bridges.

The River Blau empties into the Danube River near this point and across the Danube is Neu-Ulm, or New Ulm.

Ulm was founded around the year 850. Isn’t that insane? Neu-Ulm was part of the original town until 1810, when the Danube River became the dividing line between the kingdoms of Bavaria and Württemberg. The left side became part of Württemberg and the right remained under Bavarian sovereignty. The handful of homes on the Bavarian side eventually grew into Neu-Ulm.

One of the truly fascinating buildings in the old part of Ulm is the Schiefes Haus or Leaning House. 

It was built in 1443 but started leaning in the 17th century. At some point the foundation was shored up, but it continues to lean.

It is currently operated as a 16-room hotel and passes routine safety inspection. The guest rooms still are on a slant and anything round you put on the floor will roll into a corner.

The oldest part of the building below was built in 1370 (but I don't know if this is that section or not). It was mentioned as a town hall in 1419. 

The walls on all sides are opulently painted in early renaissance murals. I’m going to guess that the paintings all tell a story, but I don’t know what it is.

 

The beautiful astronomical clock was installed around 1520.

The City of Ulm, part 1 – Germany Trip Blog Post #1

I never know how much you really want to read about, so please just skip to the pictures if all the details bore you.

My friend Brenda and I left for Germany Tuesday morning, May 5, and arrived in Munich on Wednesday morning. We were traveling with Gate 1 Travel, the same tour group I had gone to the Czech Republic with last fall. It was a two-hour drive from the airport to Ulm, and I won’t tell you about that ride. All that matters is that we got to our hotel, checked in, and explored a little on our own. But onto the start of the tour the next morning.

Our group of 29 met at 8:30 Thursday morning in the tiny lobby of our hotel for our first full day in Germany. It was around 50 degrees out, damp and rainy. Good thing I had my faithful Hippo umbrella from my trip to Cambodia. Was kind of disappointed that no one asked me about it. Perhaps they all thought I was nuts.

First stop was this outline in the pedestrian walk just behind out hotel. 

It’s the site of the house where Albert Einstein was born on March 14, 1879. He only lived there for about a year before his family moved to Munich. Unfortunately, the house was destroyed in bombing during World War II, as was 80% of the medieval city center.

The gothic Ulm Minster sustained only minor damage. But it still needs to undergo routine repairs and upgrades, which of course were going on when we were there.

Minster is Muenster in German and is a prominent church of historical significance.  

Building on this church began in 1377, initially as a Catholic one, but in 1530, while it was still under construction, the city decided to switch it to Lutheran.

Hard to grasp how high the ceilings are. 

Soaring to 530 feet, the steeple wasn’t finished until 1890, but at that time, and until just this past fall, it was the tallest steeple in the world. 

Just amazing, isn’t it? 

These last two pictures were taken from the rooftop patio at our hotel. 

Only Smiles - Remembering Judy

As you probably already know, my oldest sister, Judy, passed away on Tuesday, May 5. My nephew texted me the news just as I was boarding a plane to fly to Germany on a seven-day tour.

I had visited her three times over the previous four days. “Visit” is not quite an accurate word, as the only time she looked me in the face, with any sort of recognition, she exclaimed “Patti”, the name of our sister who had died in 1999.

Camping with Judy and Pat in 2013

So, we all knew she was dying and only had days left. She’d been in hospice for a few months, Alzheimer’s having worn out her body as well as her brain.

My immediate family has dwindled another notch. When our parents die, we say we are an orphan. When it’s our spouse, we are a widow or widower. What do we call ourselves when a sibling dies? Or worse, when a child dies? 

Me with Val, Judy, and my niece Paula, in 2024. How is it that only two of us are left? 

It’s been a rough thirteen months. It was in April of last year that we realized my brother’s mental capability had deteriorated to the point that he could no longer live alone. He’s been in assisted living since July 1, and who knows how much longer he has.

With Judy and Tom, in 2024. 

But that’s the life of the youngest child in the family, I guess. The life of a mother, a sister, a daughter. The life of someone who just wants everyone to be happy and at peace.

Okay, but . . . what else can I say? I’m doing okay. I really am. And on Wednesday I promise to start sharing stories and pictures of my trip to Germany. No more tears, only smiles.

This gem was from 1991, a Christmas present for Mom and Dad

Us girls with Mom at my cousin's wedding in 1981. Yikes!