Germany Day 2

On Day 2 in Germany we had our breakfast in Finningen before checking out.  I was surprised to find out that breakfast in Germany seemed more like lunch in America.  We had a lot of bread (my favorite rolls were covered in poppy seeds), meat and cheese.  We also had drinkable yogurt and the most wonderful chocolate croissants!  Oh they were heavenly!  I also was a big fan of the blood orange juice.   The oddest thing I saw during breakfast were the huge pieces of cheesecake people were eating!  So strange!

We checked out of our hotel and headed into the town of Ulm.  It was beautiful there!  Our first stop was the Ulm Munster (catherdral). It has the tallest steeple in the world and we decided to take the 768 stairs up to the top!  I will admit that I started getting dizzy on the way up, but the views were absolutely stunning.

Me looking awkward in front of the Ulm Munster

Tallest church steeple of the world

Door leading to the steeple stairs

I was getting dizzy so we stopped for a picture

About half way up - looking down on the church bells

Half way up

The last set of stairs up

View down from the top

 More gorgeous views from the top

Afterwards we headed back down and into the church itself.  We learned that it was built to be a church of many faiths  The stained glass illustrated this quite well.  We were lucky and were there while some beautiful organ music was being played.  It was beautiful!

Afterwards we headed around town -

Pretty fountain

I love how a lot of the buildings have painted murals on them

The "Leaning Tower of Ulm"

The old town wall - this opening proves that a bird can be smarter than some engineers

 The mascot of Ulm is a sparrow with a stick in its mouth.  The story has to do with the opening in the town wall shown above.  There was once a man who was driving a large cart of wood to the town of Ulm.  When he got to the opening, however, he found that the wood was too wide to fit through.  The town's engineer was called and they spent a lengthy amount of time trying to find a solution to their problem.  As they were still searching for an answer, they saw a sparrow carrying a twig in its mouth fly to

I love all the flowers throughout Germany!

The old fish district - I love the style of these homes!

So much greenery!

The beautiful Danube River - absolutely gorgeous!

Afterwards we headed to the Wiblingen Monastery just outside of Ulm.  The grounds were absolutely beautiful, and we were able to see the museum and also the gorgeous library.  

They had beautiful grounds

Inside the museum...not sure what it is because everything was in German, but thought it was cool

Entrance for the library

Stunning sculptures - each represented something different such as science, math, literacy, faith, 

I loved all the art and old books

Large mural on the ceiling representing different important religious and pagan events

Isn't it stunning!

 After spending a lot of time in the library listening to commentary about all the sculptures and murals we headed to the church itself.  It was so beautiful!  I absolutely loved it.  This monastery is considered a pilgrimage for many because the Holy-Cross-Relic - claimed to be a piece of the Savior's cross found during the Crusades - was hidden here for many years.

 

After we were done exploring the monastary we headed out towards our next destination - Nurnberg!