Ulm, Germany
The following post dates for Tuesday, July 3rd.
Today was less eventful, but altogether a great day. Very rarely will you find me having a bad day. I just don’t have them. I’m awesome.
So this morning we woke up and had breakfast in our hotel in Friedrichshafen. High quality breakfast per usual. Seriously, when I get a good internet connection I’m going to rate the crap out of this place. It has been amazing here.
Then we went to go get ready. Bryan and I listen to music now when we get dressed. It’s usually the Scientist by Coldplay on repeat. The guy loves the song, what can I say. We walked back to the train station to catch the next one to Ulm, Germany. I really don’t want to leave Friedrichshafen, I love it here. It’s so relaxing and the people here are great. I don’t think I would run out of things to do either. I wouldn’t mind just lounging around all day. Plus we could easily take another ferry ride to Constance or go back to Switzerland to go to Zurich. There are lots of possibilities. But we booked hotels and we must go.
What do I know about Ulm? Einstein was born here. That’s about it.
So we bought our tickets to Ulm, it ended costing about 27 Euro for both Bryan and I, which is pretty fair I think. So the ride to Ulm didn’t take long at all.
Trying to find the hotel this time proved to be much more difficult. Well, when I say that, I don’t mean for me, I mean for Rebecca. I just follow. So while she was trying to figure out the bus route, because our hotel was about 7 kilometers out, Bryan and I were taking pictures of this HUGE cathedral they have in Ulm. Rebecca says that this church has the tallest steeple of all the churches and cathedrals in the world. Wow. She wasn’t kidding, it was tall. 
I couldn’t fit the entire thing in a picture, which is basically my definition of being really tall. We didn’t go inside right away because we would be coming back, and Rebecca figured out the way so we left. So getting onto the bus was an interesting experience. We bought a day pass for all four of us, which only cost 3 euro a person. Nice. Getting onto the bus was a bit crazy. Everyone piled at the door and pushed. I owned this little punk kid who kept trying to push past me. I think they were still in the school year or something; a lot of the kids had backpacks. I’m not sure of their schedule.
Other thing I noticed. I hope I’m not out of line when I say that Germany, well Ulm has some very pretty girls. Bryan agrees. They are everywhere. End Tangent
So the bus ride took us way out of the city into the more rural area where we got off to look for our hotel. We got off a little early and had to walk, but we found it with relative ease. So Hotel Engel. I’m curious to see how this place will compare to Friedrichshafen. They definitely have their work cut out for them.
They advertise a sauna on their hotel sign, so we might check that out. So we got up to our rooms. Not bad at all. Double beds pushed together and a couch. 
Rebecca and Clair had like a love seat so I guess our room was the hangout room again. Bryan and I seem to get the couches. So we dropped off our stuff and packed for the day’s activities. Rebecca has heard from people that we can kayak on the Danube, which sounds awesome and I’m really excited about that. Rebecca and Clair both brought swim suits, Bryan and I did not. But I have a pair of basketball shorts that will have to do. Then we were off back to the bus stop.
Our first order of business again, as usual, was food. It was close to 3 pm and we haven’t had lunch yet. So we wandered around and found this place called the Wirthaus Bretzel. They advertise pretzels as one of their trademark foods.
We ordered some water from them, with the intention of getting tap water. Instead, we each got .5 liter bottles of Evian water that cost 3.70 Euro a piece. Are you serious. That’s so expensive. CRAP. Bryan got one of the beers they had on tap and it cost less than half of what the water did. No wonder everyone here drinks beer.
So for our meal, we all had this white type of sausage that comes with a salad and 2 pretzels. First came the plate with salad on it. It consisted of a couple leaves. Then came the pot of sausage. The sausage is white in color. Then came the pretzels. They looked delicious We got some type of sweet honey mustard with the pretzels. So we feasted. Well not exactly, afterwards I was starving. During lunch though it was funny. This pair of women to our left kept looking over at us and laughing. I was like, well that’s kind of rude. I was like, “Clair on three lets stare back at them.” She said ok. “1, 2, ..3” Clair gave them a stare down and I chickened out. Then the lady approached us and asked us if we spoke English. We said yes. She then proceeded to tell us that we were eating the sausage wrong. Apparently you are not supposed to eat the skin; you are supposed to peel it off. Nice lady actually. So we heeded her advice. From the restaurant, we headed back towards the church with the really tall steeple. Open the doors and here are the people.
Before we got to the church I was distracted by this chicken stand. They sell roasted chickens whole. It was awesome. I bought half a chicken for 2.85 Euros. Oh man, it was so worth it. It really made me full. I made a comment to the girls that they didn’t find too flattering. But I love how this group can EAT. After we eat a meal, we usually have dessert always, or we go shopping to buy more snacks. Bryan and I eat an entire pizza after Chinese food, and I eat half a chicken after a lunch. Nice.
So Clair, Rebecca and Bryan went in before I did because I did not finish my chicken yet. After I licked my fingers and went inside. The inside of the church had some amazing stained windows. Some of them were entirely intact while others I think were destroyed. I think this because some of the windows were looked modern while others still have pictures on them. So after touring the church for a while, we decided to climb to the very top of the steeple. This was a big mistake. Well not mistake, but a life threatening situation.
So the staircase is a winding staircase, and I swear it literally goes on for forever. I kept walking up winding around and around going upwards and i literally thought it would never ever end. I did get scared. At one point I got separated from the group for some reason because I think I was taking pictures. Anyways I could hear their voices at one point, and then I couldn’t hear them anymore. Turns out they went through this breezeway to another winding tunnel.
So I kept walking upwards looking for them. At the same time, my legs were burning and I was getting winded. At the same time as well I was getting extremely dizzy. So dizzy in fact that I need to stop and lean against the wall. Except when I would do this, I would look out the window and be terrified. Background on me, I am absolutely terrified of heights. Terrified. Eventually I met them at like a base level near the top. Then they wanted to walk to the very top. Oh my God. The staircase was even more narrow and winding. But if they did it, there was no way I wasn’t doing it. Before heading up the narrower part up to the top, Clair and I were trying to talk ourselves into it. Then this family o like four kids, a mom, and a dad with an umbrella appeared. They looked at this part and the dad literally tapped his umbrella twice on the concrete and said something in German, and up they went. It was like the freaking Von Trapp family. Now, I definitely have to dio it if these four year old little kids are doing it. Why aren’t they afraid?
So up we walked. I think on this part I was even more afraid. The problem was there weren’t two ways down the staircase. So if someone was trying to climb down, then someone had to literally hug the wall and you would have to squeeze by. More never ending steps. Eventually we got to the top and in a way the view was worth it. The wind and rain was kind strong which made it less enjoyable. I just simply couldn’t believe how high we were. The entrance at the top of the staircase was literally a little bit smaller than the width of my shoulders. I barely squeezed through. Also because I’m just so massive. Then we started walking back dow. This was less tiring but way more dizzying. I cant stand getting dizzy. I almost fell a couple times and took out Clair and Rebecca. I’d say the fear of death factor was about an 8, with 10 being gun pointed to your head or swimming with blood lusted sharks. On the way down, I was thinking, the view was totally not worth this at all. This is torture. They should pay me to do this. At the bottom we snapped a couple victory pics. Then I was like, can I get my money back, and the girl who sold the tickets overheard me and laughed. She was like our age. Then Rebecca was like, James, speaks English. Crap. She laughed some more. We were curious how many steps it was. I tried to count them but I got messed up at around 25 from the dizziness. Bryan counted 700ish. Official count, 768. Ridiculous. I no longer could walk straight and my legs were like jello.
Then we walked around for a bit. We checked out the twon hall, which in German literal translation is Rat House, so Bryan and Rebecca tell me. Interesting. Then we checked out this museum, but didn’t go inside. Then we checked out this place called Einstein House. So for those of you that don’t know, Einstein was born here. Albert Einstein was born March 14, 1879 in Ulm, Wurttemberg, Germany to Jewish parents Herman and Pauline Einstein. But he moved shortly therafter. Yet Ulm like to lay claim to birthing arguably the world’s smartest human being ever.
Ok so Einstein house. It actually had nothing to do with Einstein. It was like an art school and there were people singing and stuff. This sucks. So we left. We saw these twin spires from where we were and decided to go check it out. It’s still raining at this time, so we decided to walk through this park/cemetery. I enjoyed it, it was nice. We eventually got to the twin spires, and it turned out to be a church/school. And we couldn’t get inside. Basically we couldn’t get in anywhere we went but the church. So we walked all the way back, a long ways. We split off and got our own dinners before catching a bus back to our hotel. I had some more Doner Kebaps, Bryan and Rebecca had Burger King, Clair had McDonald’s chicken nuggets happy meal. I refused to have food we could have gotten in the states. I can proudly say I didn’t eat any McDonald’s, Pizza Hut, or anything other fast food from America. Doner Kebaps baby. Then we all met at McDonald’s to eat it. First we sat downstairs because it was less crowded. Then they were shutting that part down so we went back upstairs. Then the manager tried to kick us out because we didn’t have any McDonald’s food. So we were like fine lets get desserts and he will have to leave us alone. I FAILED. I bought a McFlurry, sigh. But that doesn’t count. It wasn’t a primary meal. Then we sat back down, and since our entire meal wasn’t McDonald’s, he kicked us out anyways. So we went to eat at the Doner Kebap place. They would never kick us out. Nice. We watched fencing on tv for a while before catching our bus.
So we’re wet and cold and someone decides that we should all go in the sauna to warm up. Not a bad idea, let’s do it. Bryan and I didn’t have swim suits, so I just wore boxers and a towel. I’ve never really been in one of these for a long time, and it was interesting. I almost died of fluid loss. So we first get in and I’m doing alright. Then came the sweat, and it came with a vengeance. I was literally drenched. FYI on me, I sweat really easily and a lot. But I don’t smell. So I looked around and no one else was sweating. I decided to lie down, because hot air rises, and it did not help. The sweat was dripping into my ears and formed a pool at my belly button. There was so much sweat everywhere. I had to take a break outside and cool down. I couldn’t handle the heat. I was losing a lot of fluids, fast. I went back inside for round two. The sweat was literally dripping from my face and body at the rate of like 2 drops per seconds. I was blowing it like mist off of my lips. People kind of got mad at me because I was throwing sweat at them. So Rebecca set her watch and we were in there for 20 minutes. Well they were, I was in there for like 17. After the sauna, we took freezing cold showers, it felt so good.
Thenwe went back to our rooms and took real showers. I didn’t have an extra towel, so I dried off in my sweat filled towel. Hey don’t judge. I don’t smell, remember? Bryan bought this Jack Daniels Chocolate, which we ate. It was literally chocolate with Jack Daniels whiskey inside. Pretty good actually. Ok Bryan loves candy. No matter where we are, he’s always looking for a candy store or like a coke. And for some reason he doesn’t like to save any for later. He will always finish it when first opening. But he does share a lot, so thank Bryan. Then we watched soccer on TV, USA was killing someone. Clair wanted to do pilates, so I had her teach me. It was kinda hard, I enjoyed it. Thanks instructor Clair. Then we stretched for a bit and I hurt my shoulder. Then I passed out on the couch and everyone left. I woke up and crawled into bed.
Good night ULM,
-James
The following post dates for Tuesday, July 3rd.
Today was less eventful, but altogether a great day. Very rarely will you find me having a bad day. I just don’t have them. I’m awesome.
So this morning we woke up and had breakfast in our hotel in Friedrichshafen. High quality breakfast per usual. Seriously, when I get a good internet connection I’m going to rate the crap out of this place. It has been amazing here.
Then we went to go get ready. Bryan and I listen to music now when we get dressed. It’s usually the Scientist by Coldplay on repeat. The guy loves the song, what can I say. We walked back to the train station to catch the next one to Ulm, Germany. I really don’t want to leave Friedrichshafen, I love it here. It’s so relaxing and the people here are great. I don’t think I would run out of things to do either. I wouldn’t mind just lounging around all day. Plus we could easily take another ferry ride to Constance or go back to Switzerland to go to Zurich. There are lots of possibilities. But we booked hotels and we must go.
What do I know about Ulm? Einstein was born here. That’s about it.
So we bought our tickets to Ulm, it ended costing about 27 Euro for both Bryan and I, which is pretty fair I think. So the ride to Ulm didn’t take long at all.
Trying to find the hotel this time proved to be much more difficult. Well, when I say that, I don’t mean for me, I mean for Rebecca. I just follow. So while she was trying to figure out the bus route, because our hotel was about 7 kilometers out, Bryan and I were taking pictures of this HUGE cathedral they have in Ulm. Rebecca says that this church has the tallest steeple of all the churches and cathedrals in the world. Wow. She wasn’t kidding, it was tall. I couldn’t fit the entire thing in a picture, which is basically my definition of being really tall. We didn’t go inside right away because we would be coming back, and Rebecca figured out the way so we left. So getting onto the bus was an interesting experience. We bought a day pass for all four of us, which only cost 3 euro a person. Nice. Getting onto the bus was a bit crazy. Everyone piled at the door and pushed. I owned this little punk kid who kept trying to push past me. I think they were still in the school year or something; a lot of the kids had backpacks. I’m not sure of their schedule.Other thing I noticed. I hope I’m not out of line when I say that Germany, well Ulm has some very pretty girls. Bryan agrees. They are everywhere. End Tangent
So the bus ride took us way out of the city into the more rural area where we got off to look for our hotel. We got off a little early and had to walk, but we found it with relative ease. So Hotel Engel. I’m curious to see how this place will compare to Friedrichshafen. They definitely have their work cut out for them.
They advertise a sauna on their hotel sign, so we might check that out. So we got up to our rooms. Not bad at all. Double beds pushed together and a couch. Rebecca and Clair had like a love seat so I guess our room was the hangout room again. Bryan and I seem to get the couches. So we dropped off our stuff and packed for the day’s activities. Rebecca has heard from people that we can kayak on the Danube, which sounds awesome and I’m really excited about that. Rebecca and Clair both brought swim suits, Bryan and I did not. But I have a pair of basketball shorts that will have to do. Then we were off back to the bus stop.Our first order of business again, as usual, was food. It was close to 3 pm and we haven’t had lunch yet. So we wandered around and found this place called the Wirthaus Bretzel. They advertise pretzels as one of their trademark foods.
We ordered some water from them, with the intention of getting tap water. Instead, we each got .5 liter bottles of Evian water that cost 3.70 Euro a piece. Are you serious. That’s so expensive. CRAP. Bryan got one of the beers they had on tap and it cost less than half of what the water did. No wonder everyone here drinks beer.So for our meal, we all had this white type of sausage that comes with a salad and 2 pretzels. First came the plate with salad on it. It consisted of a couple leaves. Then came the pot of sausage. The sausage is white in color. Then came the pretzels. They looked delicious We got some type of sweet honey mustard with the pretzels. So we feasted. Well not exactly, afterwards I was starving. During lunch though it was funny. This pair of women to our left kept looking over at us and laughing. I was like, well that’s kind of rude. I was like, “Clair on three lets stare back at them.” She said ok. “1, 2, ..3” Clair gave them a stare down and I chickened out. Then the lady approached us and asked us if we spoke English. We said yes. She then proceeded to tell us that we were eating the sausage wrong. Apparently you are not supposed to eat the skin; you are supposed to peel it off. Nice lady actually. So we heeded her advice. From the restaurant, we headed back towards the church with the really tall steeple. Open the doors and here are the people.
Before we got to the church I was distracted by this chicken stand. They sell roasted chickens whole. It was awesome. I bought half a chicken for 2.85 Euros. Oh man, it was so worth it. It really made me full. I made a comment to the girls that they didn’t find too flattering. But I love how this group can EAT. After we eat a meal, we usually have dessert always, or we go shopping to buy more snacks. Bryan and I eat an entire pizza after Chinese food, and I eat half a chicken after a lunch. Nice.
So Clair, Rebecca and Bryan went in before I did because I did not finish my chicken yet. After I licked my fingers and went inside. The inside of the church had some amazing stained windows. Some of them were entirely intact while others I think were destroyed. I think this because some of the windows were looked modern while others still have pictures on them. So after touring the church for a while, we decided to climb to the very top of the steeple. This was a big mistake. Well not mistake, but a life threatening situation.
So the staircase is a winding staircase, and I swear it literally goes on for forever. I kept walking up winding around and around going upwards and i literally thought it would never ever end. I did get scared. At one point I got separated from the group for some reason because I think I was taking pictures. Anyways I could hear their voices at one point, and then I couldn’t hear them anymore. Turns out they went through this breezeway to another winding tunnel.
So I kept walking upwards looking for them. At the same time, my legs were burning and I was getting winded. At the same time as well I was getting extremely dizzy. So dizzy in fact that I need to stop and lean against the wall. Except when I would do this, I would look out the window and be terrified. Background on me, I am absolutely terrified of heights. Terrified. Eventually I met them at like a base level near the top. Then they wanted to walk to the very top. Oh my God. The staircase was even more narrow and winding. But if they did it, there was no way I wasn’t doing it. Before heading up the narrower part up to the top, Clair and I were trying to talk ourselves into it. Then this family o like four kids, a mom, and a dad with an umbrella appeared. They looked at this part and the dad literally tapped his umbrella twice on the concrete and said something in German, and up they went. It was like the freaking Von Trapp family. Now, I definitely have to dio it if these four year old little kids are doing it. Why aren’t they afraid?
So up we walked. I think on this part I was even more afraid. The problem was there weren’t two ways down the staircase. So if someone was trying to climb down, then someone had to literally hug the wall and you would have to squeeze by. More never ending steps. Eventually we got to the top and in a way the view was worth it. The wind and rain was kind strong which made it less enjoyable. I just simply couldn’t believe how high we were. The entrance at the top of the staircase was literally a little bit smaller than the width of my shoulders. I barely squeezed through. Also because I’m just so massive. Then we started walking back dow. This was less tiring but way more dizzying. I cant stand getting dizzy. I almost fell a couple times and took out Clair and Rebecca. I’d say the fear of death factor was about an 8, with 10 being gun pointed to your head or swimming with blood lusted sharks. On the way down, I was thinking, the view was totally not worth this at all. This is torture. They should pay me to do this. At the bottom we snapped a couple victory pics. Then I was like, can I get my money back, and the girl who sold the tickets overheard me and laughed. She was like our age. Then Rebecca was like, James, speaks English. Crap. She laughed some more. We were curious how many steps it was. I tried to count them but I got messed up at around 25 from the dizziness. Bryan counted 700ish. Official count, 768. Ridiculous. I no longer could walk straight and my legs were like jello.
Then we walked around for a bit. We checked out the twon hall, which in German literal translation is Rat House, so Bryan and Rebecca tell me. Interesting. Then we checked out this museum, but didn’t go inside. Then we checked out this place called Einstein House. So for those of you that don’t know, Einstein was born here. Albert Einstein was born March 14, 1879 in Ulm, Wurttemberg, Germany to Jewish parents Herman and Pauline Einstein. But he moved shortly therafter. Yet Ulm like to lay claim to birthing arguably the world’s smartest human being ever.
Ok so Einstein house. It actually had nothing to do with Einstein. It was like an art school and there were people singing and stuff. This sucks. So we left. We saw these twin spires from where we were and decided to go check it out. It’s still raining at this time, so we decided to walk through this park/cemetery. I enjoyed it, it was nice. We eventually got to the twin spires, and it turned out to be a church/school. And we couldn’t get inside. Basically we couldn’t get in anywhere we went but the church. So we walked all the way back, a long ways. We split off and got our own dinners before catching a bus back to our hotel. I had some more Doner Kebaps, Bryan and Rebecca had Burger King, Clair had McDonald’s chicken nuggets happy meal. I refused to have food we could have gotten in the states. I can proudly say I didn’t eat any McDonald’s, Pizza Hut, or anything other fast food from America. Doner Kebaps baby. Then we all met at McDonald’s to eat it. First we sat downstairs because it was less crowded. Then they were shutting that part down so we went back upstairs. Then the manager tried to kick us out because we didn’t have any McDonald’s food. So we were like fine lets get desserts and he will have to leave us alone. I FAILED. I bought a McFlurry, sigh. But that doesn’t count. It wasn’t a primary meal. Then we sat back down, and since our entire meal wasn’t McDonald’s, he kicked us out anyways. So we went to eat at the Doner Kebap place. They would never kick us out. Nice. We watched fencing on tv for a while before catching our bus.
So we’re wet and cold and someone decides that we should all go in the sauna to warm up. Not a bad idea, let’s do it. Bryan and I didn’t have swim suits, so I just wore boxers and a towel. I’ve never really been in one of these for a long time, and it was interesting. I almost died of fluid loss. So we first get in and I’m doing alright. Then came the sweat, and it came with a vengeance. I was literally drenched. FYI on me, I sweat really easily and a lot. But I don’t smell. So I looked around and no one else was sweating. I decided to lie down, because hot air rises, and it did not help. The sweat was dripping into my ears and formed a pool at my belly button. There was so much sweat everywhere. I had to take a break outside and cool down. I couldn’t handle the heat. I was losing a lot of fluids, fast. I went back inside for round two. The sweat was literally dripping from my face and body at the rate of like 2 drops per seconds. I was blowing it like mist off of my lips. People kind of got mad at me because I was throwing sweat at them. So Rebecca set her watch and we were in there for 20 minutes. Well they were, I was in there for like 17. After the sauna, we took freezing cold showers, it felt so good.
Thenwe went back to our rooms and took real showers. I didn’t have an extra towel, so I dried off in my sweat filled towel. Hey don’t judge. I don’t smell, remember? Bryan bought this Jack Daniels Chocolate, which we ate. It was literally chocolate with Jack Daniels whiskey inside. Pretty good actually. Ok Bryan loves candy. No matter where we are, he’s always looking for a candy store or like a coke. And for some reason he doesn’t like to save any for later. He will always finish it when first opening. But he does share a lot, so thank Bryan. Then we watched soccer on TV, USA was killing someone. Clair wanted to do pilates, so I had her teach me. It was kinda hard, I enjoyed it. Thanks instructor Clair. Then we stretched for a bit and I hurt my shoulder. Then I passed out on the couch and everyone left. I woke up and crawled into bed.
Good night ULM,
-James
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