Ulm

After a busy week, we decided to escape for the day and explore the city on Ulm. Albert Einstein was born there and is a little over an hour away from the house. I wasn't sure if the rainy weather would hold off, but it turned out to be a nice and cool day  which is great for exploring.

Our first stop was Ulm Munster or Cathedral which has the highest church tower in the world and is the largest Protestant church in Germany. A concert was happening in the church so we didn’t go inside, we opted to climb the 768 steps to the top of the tower instead. All I can say is that is alot of steps. The views from the top were amazing. I was feeling adventurous so I climb to the tallest point of the tower. The coolest part was while we were climbing the noon bells starting to ring and you can see them and they were super loud. I took a video but can't upload on here.

From there we saw the Tower Hall, then walked along the river Danube River to get to the area of town known as the Fishermen’s and Tanners Quarter. This area has tiber framed houses. One of the houses is the famous Leaning House which is a 14th century timber framed home which now houses a hotel but still leans over the river being supported by ancient beans. We then headed back towards the car but took a quick detour to see the rose garden which was still pretty but would have been nicer earlier in the summer.

Next on our list, was the Monastery Wiblingen which was about a 15 minutes from the  of Ulm. Wiblingen Abbey was a former Benedictine abbey which was later used as barracks. Today its buildings house several departments of the medical faculty of the University of Ulm. The big attraction was the Library Hall. It was so beautiful and the picture doesn't do it justice. We paid our admission and the photograph fee which was so worth it and explore. We didn’t explore the Church next door due to a wedding.

From there we travel to Blaubeuren which was about 30 mins west of Ulm on our way home. While searching on Pinterest one day I came across a city with a the blue lake so I wanted to check it out and glad I did.  In  German it is known as Blautopf because Blau is blue and topf is pot. It is a spring that serves as the source of the river Blau in the karst landscape on the Swabian Jura's southern edge, in Southern Germany. The Blautopf is 21 meters deep and one of the deepest and largest sources in Germany
While there a noticed a statue placed at the bank of this spring, so after some research here is the legend behind it.  The  story of the Schöne Lau, a mermaid and her husband, a male water-nix from the Black Sea, is told in great detail. Because the Schöne Lau could not laugh, the nix punished her by confining her to the Blautopf, and only allowing her to have still-born children. He would only allow her to return and give birth to a living child once she had laughed five times. In the end, the landlady of the inn Nonnenhof came to her aid. Legend info came from wikipedia