Ulm, Germany: imagination come to life

Ulm, Germany from the New Ulm side of the Danube River. (Photo by Avery Cropp)

Ulm, Germany home to: the tallest church in the whole world, the birthplace of Albert Einstein and this awesome lady, Michelle. She's a friend of mine from college and I just spent a couple of wonderful days with her in her adopted hometown before heading to Prague. (Where I'm writing from now for those playing where in the world is Avery)

Now, when it comes to tourist offerings there's not a lot in Ulm, but if you're looking for a one day getaway from a the hustle and bustle of a big city, like Munich, it could be right up your alley.

Located just an hour and twenty minutes outside of Munich, and easily travelled to by train, Ulm fits every single idea of a small German town that you could think of: from the patterned houses to the cobblestone streets and the river walk along the River Danube. For an example to help you all picture it, Disney fans out there should think of Ulm as Belle's town from Beauty and the Beast come to life. Yep, it's that cool. And a fast fact for those Southern Minnesotans reading out there, it's New Ulm, Minnesota's sister city, and they have a great partnership with exchange programs. A special beer was also created especially for New Ulm by Ulm's local brewery during a recent Oktoberfest according to Michelle.

The top attraction in the city is the Ulmer Munster, or Ulm Minster, the aforementioned tallest church in the world.

The Ulm Minster in Ulm, Germany. (Photo by Avery Cropp)

If you want an intense workout and can spare a few Euro you can climb all 768 steps in the spiral staircase to the very top of the steeple. I guarantee the view is worth the climb just take a look for yourself.

The view of one of the steeples of the Ulm Minster



The steeple of the church.

The view of Ulm and the River Danube.

I'd highly recommend conquering the stairs in the early morning hours to avoid getting too hot.

 

Other than the Ulm Minster Michelle and I spent a lot of time walking around, snapping photos,  catching up and having a good time just hanging out. We did search for the fountain that is shaped like Albert Einstein's head but we didn't have any luck. We had found it on the tourism group's map but weren't able to find it, so if you ever go and you find the fountain let me know.

 

Food wise I'd highly recommend that you try Doner if you ever come to Ulm or Germany. It's a Turkish dish that was invented after many Turkish immigrants were hired in the area to help with rebuilding after the war. Think of it as a Gyro with tons of vegetables on really thick and delicious bread.

 

Other than that not much more to report. I'm going to turn in after this long  eight hour train ride that I just got off.  Good night all!

 

Until next time,

 

Avery Cropp  

  

Because T-Rex and tulips go together, of course

Yesterday was a gorgeous day weather-wise, so Jeannine and I spent most of it outside and at some attractions in the downtown Kaiserslautern area.

We checked on my ticket to Ulm, went to Lichtenberg Castle in Kusel, had lunch at this nice Asian place and visited two other places in downtown Kaiserslautern including the Japanischer Garten (Japanese Garden) and I went to a public park called The Gartenschau while she picked up the kids and took them to ball practice. The most fun part for me during the day was The Gartenschau because it's a little quirky.

Now, if you're like me and you're the type that likes a little splash of quirky in your travels, especially if you're travelling with kids in your group, the Gartenschau could be a good fit. It's a large public park with tons of playgrounds including some equipment that uses water, a skate park, and other fun things. There's a long walking path which has Dinosaur sculptures scattered throughout. The walking paths are very nice and there are some great flower landscaping layouts. It's a great place to take some time, put your feet up and enjoy some really nice weather.

There's also a little shop where you can buy drinks, food and treats, which is pretty affordable. And of course you just HAVE to take a selfie with a dinosaur. Because who else can say they've done that?

 

There is a small entrance fee, 6 Euros I believe, but it's worth it because you can spend so much time there.

 

Kusel Castle
The Lichtenberg Castle or Kusel Castle is about 30 minutes outside of Kaiserslautern. It's a very nice castle that is still mostly intact. It includes a nice little restaurant, a youth hostel and a great view of the surrounding valley which is very nice. Built in 1200 a family called the Veldenz owned it until 1444  it remains standing and takes a half hour to go through. It became a duchy seat, and then was taken over by the French and was turned over to the city of Kusel in 1971 when restoration on the building began. They've done a pretty awesome job and a museum of natural history is on the grounds as well.

 






















The Japanese Garden is beautiful, very peaceful and great to see. Being able to spend some time there  and just relax for a minute in nature made the eight Euro worth it.  there were tons of different gardens, a gorgeous waterfall and huge koi in the koi pond.

Today we also went to another castle called Burg Eltz, about two hours outside of Kaiserslautern. It's very pretty and I'd highly recommend checking out the small towns around the area and making a full day of it, but I liked these other places mentioned above a little better.

That's all for today.

Until next time,

 

Avery Cropp

Hello from Germany!

Good morning all!

My internal clock is back on track (7 a.m. Germany time) and the Peterson kiddos are asleep so I'm able to finally give you a couple updates on my trip. It's been a pretty awesome week so far and they are certainly keeping me busy but I've had a great time.

The Petersons are great friends of my family. They're a military family currently stationed in Kaiserslautern, Germany and will be heading back to the states in just a few short weeks. Jeannine and Dave have four kids: Colby who is 15, and the triplets, Grant, Cooper and Ida who are 11. my mom and dad are Godparents to Cooper which means that by extension I'm their God sister. I haven't seen them since my senior year of high school and I've missed them terribly so it's  been wonderful to be able to spend some time with them over the past few days.

Cooper and Leo (right), me, Ida, Colby and Grant explored the Hohenecken castle ruins yesterday after school.
 (Photo by Jeannine)

I arrived in Frankfurt, Germany on Friday and hit the ground running pretty quickly. Jeannine met me at the airport and we went straight to the kid's school at the army base in Kaiserslautern. Grant and Ida got some awards for getting really awesome grades this last quarter. There was a little awards presentation from each of the classes and some classrooms did performances too. The highlight, in addition to being a proud sister, was a kindergarten class performing the song "Slippery Fish" which I sang in kindergarten, some of my other readers (shout out to Mr. Martin's fifth grade class) might remember it too, but correct me if I'm wrong.

After running some errands we came home, changed and went to a Good Friday service then came back, had some dinner and the kids went to bed.

Saturday: games and fun

The kids had baseball and softball games today so I spent a lot of time in the parks on base. They had a nice opening ceremony where all the teams were announced and walked around a track to kick off the season. It was Ida's first softball game ever so she was pretty excited about it.



There were at least 30 teams that participated in the march, and it's got to be quite an undertaking to organize it all.
Grant and Cooper got some awesome hits and Ida jumped in right away to play catcher like it was no big deal. I used to play softball so I know how scary playing that position can be, so for the first time out she did pretty well.  They'd want me to let you know that both of the teams won 18-6, they were super proud of that score.

Sunday: Easter

Sunday was Easter, and yes, the Easter Bunny did find me in Germany. Church was lovely, as was the potluck that we went to in the evening, but I think I might write up a separate post about Easter traditions in Germany later. It will take some research. I will tell you that lots of people hang eggs on their trees, I haven't found out why that is yet.

Monday: Castle trip

After school yesterday we took a trip to some castle ruins in Kaiserslautern.

Some quick history for you: The Hohenecken castle was built from the middle of the 12th century onwards and was responsible for governing the area and providing security for the area and the empire. The oldest stones in this place are from around the year 1200. The people who lived there were called administrative servants. It's been through three major battles: The Peasant's War, conquered by an earl, and completely destroyed by the French in 1688 during a war of succession, which means that people were arguing about who got the ruling power next. It's recognized as a cultural monument and is currently owned by the City of Kaiserslautern. Since that's all I really know about this place I figured I'd share some photos instead.

Just keep on scrolling down, I'm still working on finding a slide show making app somewhere for my tablet. If anyone has any suggestions about a good one let me know!

 

That's all for now! Hope that all is well wherever you may be!

 

Until Next Time,

 

Avery Cropp

Time to set off on my next big adventure

So folks, it's time to clue you in...two weeks from today I will be fulfilling a long time dream of mine to return to Europe and see my wonderful friends on the other side of the pond. I'll be back in June, so I'm not leaving the USA permanently, but I am taking an extended vacation.
I'll be taking 8 weeks, traveling 4800 miles and seeing friends of mine in 8 different countries: Germany, Czech Republic, Austria, Switzerland, France, England, Ireland and Sweden. Also, if you'd like to subscribe to my blog, feel free to enter your email in the box at the top of the screen and new posts should get directly to your inbox, think of it as a virtual suitcase you're stowing away in.
I can't wait to share my adventures with you! There's tons of fun things in store, I promise.