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.