Ulm

We visited Ulm way back at the end of August. It quickly became one of our favorite cities in Germany. Being only an hour and half from Ansbach it is an easy day trip. I found the suggestion for Ulm on one of my travel Facebook groups and then did a lot of looking on Pinterest for ideas of where to go. There were several of these painted bird around the city and we had no idea why. They also seemed to sell a lot of bird items almost as a city mascot. I found out that the city sold them to raise money and then people painted or decorated them how they wanted. We thought it was very random but also a very cool activity while in Ulm, looking for the different birds.


One of the attraction to Ulm is the crooked house. The house is in the old fisherman's quarters and sits right along a little stream/ river. Since it is right next to the water it caused the foundation to sink. The house is still currently in use as a hotel and you can stay there. Maybe before we leave Germany, we will have a chance to stay in the crooked house.




The main draw to Ulm, in my opinion is the Ulm Minster. Many people call it a cathedral but it is technically not one. It is however, the tallest church in the world. The steeple is 530ft. For a small fee you can climb to the top of the speer for an amazing view of the city and on a rare clear day in Germany you can see all the way to the Alps but you have to know what you are looking for. We decided to make the climb to the top. We are very adventurous so are the kids so we will do things that other wouldn't because they don't seem kid friendly. Our kids are young enough that they were free. We set off on the roughly 768 steps to the top and the kids were troopers. Waylon, who was only 2 1/2, climb almost half the way up in the end. The climb wasn't too bad since there is a different way up and down so you didn't have to worry about passing people on the stairs. There were lots of spiral stair cases. When you get to what you think is the top you have a really nice view and then you realize there is another staircase up the final speer. This staircase is a very narrow spiral staircase and when you are carrying a child it makes it hard to pass people coming back down but we made it. It was windy and starting to rain when we made it up so the view wasn't of the Alps but still really nice. Going back down was almost more interesting to me then going up. The spiral stairs make going down a challenge when you have a child strapped to you as I was carrying Waylon in the Ergo at this point.

Once we were done with the steeple we went into the church and just admired the beauty that is the chapel. They had one of the most beautiful stain glass displays I have seen. After the adventure in the church, it was raining outside so we decided to head home. We spent a couple hours in Ulm and if the weather was a little better we would of stayed longer. They also have one of the most beautiful libraries in the world that we were unable to get to. Next time.