by Thursday 31 May
Our second day in Ulm started fine and soon became hot. In fact the weather has been hot for our whole trip, while I was sketching today a nice family stopped for a chat and told me that Germany was having its hottest May in over 100 years.
We woke late and walked into town for a substantial breakfast. Gordon had the farmers breakfast, two fried eggs, an enormous potato and bacon hash, two bread rolls, fruit juice and coffee. Mine was the Canadian with three small pancakes, maple sauce, Bircher meusli, juice and coffee. Excellent!!
Next stop was the Ulm Münster, a massive cathedral with the tallest spire in the world. Inside it was restrained and really lovely with four aisles and a couple of beautiful small chapels either side of the altar. We strolled around with our mouths open the space was so lofty and there was great stained glass both ancient and modern.
The fisherman’s quarter down nearer the Danube is a maze of old timber framed buildings with narrow passages and two streams of the Blau river (which we followed yesterday) cascading through. So there are lots of little bridges and dead ends. We stopped a couple of times while I made quick sketches.
A visit to the Ulm museum was great in the middle of a warm day. The museum occupied an ancient building and a new, purpose built, structure grafted on, and had exhibitions ranging from the prehistory and archeology of the area through to some good modern art. One section showed excellent old models of the town as it was over the centuries.
After a break in our hotel we headed out back into town about 7pm for dinner. Our breakfast had got us right through the day.
