In Ulm — An Elegant Sufficiency

In Ulm, um Ulm, und um Ulm herum as the saying goes. (Or, in English, In Ulm, about Ulm and around Ulm.)

Any mention of the city Ulm in Germany is likely to prompt an attempt at the popular tongue twister though the one place I never heard it spoken was, unsurprisingly, in Ulm itself! I did pick up a postcard (in the feature photo of this post) in the tourist office, which had all kinds of alternative interpretations including circular fridge magnets with the words going round and round.

It’s strange though. Whether it’s because it’s such a short name, or perhaps because the letters form a satisfying shape? For some reason, the name pops up all over the city in small souvenir cookie cutters, and in larger format outside the City Hall.

We were never in doubt where we were!

First glimpses through the window this morning didn’t look so promising, which was a shame because we’d planned to explore the city today. We grabbed our raincoats and umbrellas anyway and made our way into town after breakfast.

We began in Munsterplatz and after one or two quick snaps hurried inside the Munster and out of the rain.

However I edit this hastily snapped photograph, it looks wrong, so here it is. you’ll have to believe me that it’s not really on a slope and in reality it’s absolutely incredibly tall. In fact, it’s (arguably) the second tallest church building in the world, 530ft tall and if one climbs the 768 steps to the top, apparently on a clear day one can see the Alps. Guess what? We decided it was too cloudy to even try 😉

For now, we stayed happily at ground level and took it all in,

before hurrying inside.

Once inside, I was immediately taken by the sheer scale of the place…not only the height but the way in which there was an incredible sightline regardless of the way one looked.

I was also interested in all the memorials and coats of arms which were on every vertical surface. Just like the wall paintings and figures we’d seen in the Kloster in Blaubeuren, they seemed to be arranged in a haphazard way. No straight lines or artful groups here either.

And the stained glass windows…oh my. Wonderful modern designs, bright colours and incredibly difficult to photograph!

I tried different settings on my camera but still didn’t feel happy with the outcome.

We moved on into the choir, where a young man was polishing the wood. I think he might have a job for life there! I was delighted to see more of the figures we’d seen in Blaubeuren here too, so immediately found my favourites and had a word with them 😊

I’m not sure this gentleman was happy to be disturbed.

Meanwhile, these two seemed to be taking stock of each visitor who passed them by.

Whereas this young woman seemed to be in somewhat of a hurry. I wondered if these figures were based on real people? Members of the church or simply those who gave donations to be remembered in this way? More questions than answers today!

The High Altar was set in front of some colourful, but more traditional windows.

Though these were visible in part from the nave, the largest feature right now is some very complex scaffolding as the fresco of The Last Judgement is restored and some ceiling repairs completed at the same time.

Tempting though it would have been to have settled into a seat for the “words and music” we’d noticed was due to begin at noon, we knew we wanted to see more of the city. As we left, we stood in the square and listened as one campanile after another chimed twelve. It took a while but what a wonderful sound!

From here, it was an easy walk up the main pedestrian shopping street, though for me, it was somewhat scary: pigeons everywhere!

Taking refuge in a well stocked bookshop, I followed my usual habit of finding the hobby and craft section to see what’s popular here. In Ulm - and Germany in general, it seems - it’s crochet, and amigurumi in particular. Interesting!

We continued up the street, because we’d read there was a monument to Albert Einstein, who was born here in Ulm. It seemed a reasonable enough focus to aim for.

Until we saw it, that is.

Moving right along, then.

We stopped by the old town hall for rather longer than intended, because my Hero was happy to sit and watch the world go by as I ran to buy a few things on my list from a nearby branch of my favourite German drugstore!

Reunited, we went along one side of the Rathaus on our way to explore the old town area, but look what’s there on one of the window grilles. Grrrr!

As I stood taking photos from this side, I spotted something else…

An Ulm sparrow. Now, this is one of the collection of sparrows painted by local people as part of a charity project, but the link will explain the original story.

We were making our way towards the crooked house - or is it hotel? More roadworks here too -sigh- It’s really crooked though, isn’t it?

It’s lovely to meander through the small snickets and along the side of the various waterways that crisscross this area.

Just around the corner was the boatman’s guildhouse, now an inn. We were beginning to feel a little thirsty but our eye was caught by the other house in that small square, “The Beautiful House” as it said on the sign.

The sign explains that the house had been decorated by its owner in 1717 to mark the troops transferred along the Danube by boatmen. His son later brought the Kaiser Franz and his wife Maria Theresa from Vienna to Ulm - clearly something else to commemorate.

So, there’s a painting of Belgrade on the wall,

and the preserved hull of one of the boats beneath it.

It also has quite a distinctive front door.

The guildhouse across the square had one of the boats on their sign too, which I rather liked, though it’s hard to imagine how many of those boats would be needed to transport troops - it’s so narrow!

Aound the corner was another little curiosity with the title “the farmer meets the butcher”. Having “met” the figures in the Munster this morning, I looked closely at these two chaps.

Now, don’t you agree, these must have both been modelled on real people? so rich in detail and personality are they! Mind you, I think they could both lose one or two cobwebs!!

We were both feeling more than a little thirsty by now and were glad to see a few tables set out beneath the trees.

The menu had lost a little in translation however. Whilst “ein Flösser” might be literally “one who floats (a raft)” in German, a rafter is something completely different in English 🤣 Anyway, it didn’t matter and it gave us a smile!