Saturday, June 7 – Ulm

A few of us started the day by climbing the steeple of the Ulmer Münster, the highest church steeple in Germany. Mary Ann and Miles had climbed it on our last trip and shamed (OK, coaxed) Elizabeth, Ray, and me to join them this time. A couple of others were thinking about it, but gave up the idea in the end. It was 143 metres (about 464 feet), or 768 steps. Trust me, that is a lot of steps! Quite the view though. We started about 9:15, so it was not too warm yet and it was not crowded. Good thing, because there are sections where it was quite tight for two people to pass. Here is a view of the Saturday morning market in the shadow of the steeple.

Today we took in the activities around the Treffen, or meeting, of the Romanian Donauschwaben who are now in Germany. It began with traditional dancing in traditional costume at a platz in the walking district, followed by a procession to the Mayor’s office for a brief reception, and another procession to a ceremony on the banks of the Danube River. This is all to commemorate our ancestors who left from here by raft almost 250 years ago. It was quite a contrast between the cheerful music of the street dancing and the sombre music of the commemoration of those ancestors left behind in the homeland.

From the ceremony we walked to the nearby Donauschwaben Museum, and then back to one of our favourite restaurants. Here is a sample from there. 

We were back at the hotel by around 6, bushed from all the walking in the heat today. However, there was still work to do and several of us went to a nearby “waschsalon” to do some laundry. We were finally done for good about 9 PM.

 

Weather today was very warm and sunny, contributing to our tiredness.

Check out the June 3 installment for pictures I added today of Johannes backing out of our tight parking spot in Trier.