Danube Bike Tour Day 6: Ulm
Posted by Cassie, November 15th, 2009
Thursday, October 1, 2009
We spent the day exploring Ulm. We wandered around the old Fishermen and Tanners Quarter, which had lots of neat, old half-timbered houses. One of the houses was called the Schiefes Haus (Inclined House), and it was really leaning. It was renovated and turned into a guest house, but they preserved the lean of the house. They have special furniture to accommodate the lean of the house.
Schiefes Haus (Inclined House)
Schiefes Haus (Inclined House) leaning over Blau River
The best part of the day was climbing the tower of the Munster! It was 768 steps to the top of the tower, and they even had separate staircases for going up and for going down the tower. The view from the top was amazing! We could climb to a viewing gallery that was just below the top of the tower. It was a beautiful clear day, but we still were not able to see the Alps. We hoped we would be able see the Alps when we get closer to them in Austria.
Munster
Staircase to the top of tower
View from Munster
View from Munster with shadow of tower
View from Munster: The cool glass pyramid building is the library
View from Munster: Fishermen and Tanners Quarter
It was a fun day to walk around the Munster because they had a big festival for kids organized by the police and fire departments. There were tons of fun activities for the kids to do, and there were kids everywhere! They had cars set up to simulate getting into a crash, and they let kids be raised up in the ladder platform of the fire truck. They were also giving out balloons, so we kept seeing balloons going up in the air while we were on the top of the Munster tower.
View of festival from Munster
We went to the Rathaus to check out a replica of the first hang glider that was developed by Albert Berblinger. He tried to cross the Danube River with his hang glider in 1811, but he landed in the river instead. He did his demonstration in front of the king, so his failure ruined his reputation.
Albert Berblinger's hang glider
We crossed the Danube to go to Neue Ulm. The Danube is the border between the Baden-Wurttemberg province and the Bayern (Bavaria) province, so Neue Ulm is in Bavaria. There are great views of Ulm from the river in Neue Ulm.
Print
