Hail and Ulm

(More pictures coming soon!)

Oy!  What a week!

Earlier this week, it hailed...again.  Since my time here, it has hailed over five times where we live.  I don't know if it's a Gulf Stream thing or what.  Fortunately, it has always been only a millimeter or two in diameter, but back in Minnesota, it would be rare if it hailed twice in one year.  In other nature news, the local hawks are not without sustenance.  One out of every five hawks I see here have a mouse or other rodent in their claws.  I'm very much looking forward to the Europe Bird Book that J and I got.  I very much look forward to starting up my birdwatching again.

This past weekend was the four-day weekend for the month.  We originally planned on visiting Munich, friends in Ulm, and a cheese festival in Bad Toelz, but too many house projects got in the way early on, so we trimmed it all down to visiting Ir and S in Ulm.

It was a great trip.  I have known Ir since college, but we've only done long distance correspondence as she was only in the states for a year or two as part of a study abroad program.  She married S soon after returning to Germany, and I visited them for a day or so as part of my trip to hike the highlands of Scotland.  It was great to see both of them again, for them to meet J, and for J and I to finally meet Ir and S's children, So and Ph.  Their children are absolutely darling!

First, we strolled along the Fluss Donau (Danube River) which divides Ulm into Ulm and Neu Ulm (New Ulm).  Here, the Donau literally is the border of Bavaria, starting with Neu Ulm.  It was a beautiful day for a walk.  Ir and S gave us a tour of Altstadt (old city) Ulm.

Here are some of the sights we saw...

The crookedest inn in Europe (note how the windows don't align and the significant bend in the second floor)

The leaning tower from the old fortifications for Ulm (S and J pictured)

The recently rebuilt Ulm Rathaus

They took us out to lunch for a sampling of Swabian cuisine (the area in Germany is known as Swabia, very good food by the way), and while the children and the ladies went for Eis (ice cream) afterward, S humored my desire to climb all the way to the top of the Muenster, the tallest steeple in the world.

It's literally too big to take into one picture!

The cathedral in and of itself was very impressive.  Not surprisingly, it took 500 years to complete and the only significant damage it has sustained is the loss of its original stained-glass windows due to World War II and nearly all of the interior paintings and statues which were removed when the Lutherans first took control of the church.  The steeple took three very long spiral staircases to get to the top...768 steps and 161 meters tall...roughly 400 feet high!  The extremely gothic exterior climb up made me feel like I was on the set of a horror movie at times.  Once at the top of the second set of stairs (Stueffen), S and I needed to take a breather, only to be laughed at by some American tourists by how sweaty we were.  Don't worry about safety.  All tourists are either completely encased in stone, iron bars, or a combination of both the entire way.  S joked about how it was Alcatraz relocated.  I've attached some pictures in an attempt to show just how impressive the view and the cathedral were.

After S and I got our Eis, we all then toured the interior very briefly.  Very impressive.  With only the few remaining wall paintings on display, it makes one easily imagine how colorful and impressive the church was in it's heyday!

Ulm reminded me of Colmar in some ways, in how the rivers ran through the Altstadt in Ulm similarly but far more prettily than Colmar's canal system.  Ulm used to be a great fishing city with a very large fortified wall by the river...some elements of it still remain.  The rivers running through the fishing village were used much like they are now in Venice.

Some of you may have noticed the sparrow statue.  Just like the Twin Cities in Minnesota have the Peanuts characters scattered around, Ulm has the sparrow, Kaiserslautern has the fish, and (at least) several years ago Zurich had a teddy bear.  All are tied to local legends, and all are usually purchased from the city by local establishments.

J and I also got a brief tour of Ir's university offices and labs.  Ir is part of setting up the Psycotherapy department for the genetic analysis of trauma in people.  Her research has shown very direct correlations between certain genetic alleles and high numbers of trauma experiences in people.  It really is neat to be able to see how Ir's professional career has skyrocketed in a very short time.  I also learned that S actually helped Ir with some of her publications.  I don't know many spouses that have worked on academic publications together.  All told, she is working in almost a dozen rooms spread over two floors at her university.  So cool!

On our way back home, J and I encountered more wildlife than usual...6 foxes, 1 mouse, and 1 deer!  It was Wild Germany out there.  Next on our list is to take a cue from J's sister S and see if by more tightly organizing our meals at home we can afford to take even more extravagant trips around Europe.  Oslo, Copenhagen, Vienna, Spain, and Greece are in our sights before the year is out.  We are going to make it all happen if we can!