Danube Bike Tour Day 5: Blaubeuren to Ulm
Posted by Cassie, November 15th, 2009
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Distance: 10km
We got up early for our 8am breakfast at the hostel, and we were on time to keep the cook happy. 🙂 At breakfast, they had a large selection of tea, and I found some tea called “Sweet Devil” with a picture of a devil on the tea bag. It was raspberry tea with chili powder. I tried it, but it was not as exciting as the picture on the tea bag implied. It mostly tasted like raspberry. I could barely taste the chili powder, and it was not spicy at all.
After breakfast, we said goodbye to Johanna and her father. We were planning to spend the morning exploring Blaubeuren, and they were riding on to Ulm. We went to the Blautopf, the spring that is the source of the Blau River. It is a beautiful deep blue color, and the water is crystal clear. The spring is really deep, and it has been explored down to 1200 meters. The spring generates a lot of water: 2000 liters per minute.
Blaubeuren Blautopf
Blaubeuren was in a mountainous area, and they had a huge, stone cross at the top of the overlook, reminding us that we were in Catholic country now. We hiked up to the overlook for great views of the city.
Blaubeuren
We had a short ride from Blaubeuren to Ulm. Along the way, we stopped at a bridge over the Blau River. While we were there, a couple came with bread to feed the ducks. All the ducks came rushing over, but a pair of swans leisurely swam over. The swans positioned themselves directly under the couple on the bridge and craned their necks up to beg for bread. The ducks were afraid of the swans, and they kept their distance from the swans and did not chase after any bread that fell near the swans.
As we approached Ulm, we saw the Munster, which dominates the city skyline. The Munster has the world’s tallest church steeple at 161.53 meters. We stopped at the tourist office to get a map of the city to find our way to the hostel because it was a long ways outside the city. We took the bike path along the Danube to get to the hostel, but then, we had to haul our bikes up a series of steps to get to the hostel. We realized later that there was bike path that goes from the hostel into town, but it was not marked on the map. The hostel was in a converted office building outside the city. The only double room they had available was in the basement. The room looked like it was an old conference room, and it had an opaque window over the door. We were glad that we could stay in the same room, but the door did not offer much privacy. Fortunately, we were in the basement, and there were not many people that went down there. The hostel was run by Hostelling International, and they make you pay extra if you are not a member. You have to pay for “welcome” stamps, and they put the stamps on a new membership card. Once you have 10 stamps, you have a yearly membership. However, it was bit insulting to refer the stamps as “welcome” stamps. It was not much of a welcome to be forced to pay extra for the room.
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