The Lovely City of Ulm

September 6, 2011

Ken was excited today as one of the villages we passed was Dettingen. He is a great fan of Handel and about 1750 there was a battle between Britain and some local foe. England won and handel was commissioned to write the Dettingen Te Deum.which is one of his favourites particularly as it features wonderful trumpet parts. They don't seem to write such wonderful music when they win a battle any more.

We wondered if Ulm would be too big a town for us. It is the biggest town we have got to yet and is the biggest in Swabia which we leave tomorrow. We were quite wrong however as it was easy to ride into and we very quickly found the Tourist Information and this lovely hotel. It is in a half timbered building built in 1651. Our room is a supposed 'budget' room . All this means is that we have to walk out the door to go to the shower. Pretty good value too at 77Euros incuding a buffet breakfast that will just about feed us for the day.

The town itself is old and charming. Ulmer Munster is the biggest Gothic Church in Germany, with spectacularly tall steeples one of which is said to be the tallest steeple in the world. You can climb up the towers but I am glad to say we didn't. Instead after having a good look at all the beautiful carvings, stained glass and the soaring interior we went and sat in the square enjoying the beautiful buildings, drinking beer and watching the world go by. The murals on the buildings are a real feature and as I look out my bedroom window I see the Rathaus which features murals showing the barges that used to take goods to Vienna - it was too expensive to haul them back upstream so when they reached Vienna they were broken up and sold for firewood. Good for the barge builders.

It is two months until Halloween but these are the decorations where we had our morning coffee 1.80Euros

Many of the fountains in town squares have elaborate sculptures in them that remind me of Grims Fairytales

Detail of the mural on the Rathaus - it would have been a rough ride to Vienna

TThis is a very bike friendly city despite being on a hill everyone seems to be buzzying around on bikes

A very poor photo of Ulmer Munster - it is being restored

Today's ride: 75 km (47 miles)
Total: 1,748 km (1,086 miles)

Rate this entry's writing	Heart	0
Comment on this entry	Comment	0