The World's Tallest . . .

Last Wednesday we journeyed south to a city called Ulm to climb the world's tallest cathedral. Last spring we saw it from a distance on our way to Munich, and Josh later learned that it's possible to climb to the top. After a little research we decided that driving would be the cheapest way to get there, so Wednesday we headed out in our trusty Ford C-Max from Hertz (complete with a wonderful navigation system, couldn't have made it with out it). Turns out, Ulm is a pretty long ways from Leipzig, about 4 hours each way, and although you constantly hear rumors about how there is no speed limit on the autobahn, there are plenty of places where there IS a speed limit. Ainslie slept almost the entire way there though, so we made pretty decent time. The drive was fun, and the Germany countryside is beautiful. Every little town you pass has it's own beautiful church. We passed countless sightseeing opportunities, but we were determined to get to Ulm. Totally worth it. . .
When we got into town we went straight to the cathedral to make sure we could get in before it closed for the evening. The pictures can't possibly do justice to how tall this church is. It's incredible. 768 spiral staircase steps spin you up toward the 161 m high top while the windows remind you just how high you are getting.
At the first stop on the way up:

It's hard to say whether it was the change in altitude or the constant rotation of the stairs that made us dizzy, but by the time we reached the middle platform we were all pretty thoroughly freaked out. Dad tried not to look down, Mom held on to Dad, and Ainslie blew a bubble.

("No, we can't turn around Dad. Don't be such a baby.")

The middle platform is almost like a church itself with the beautiful arches keeping you in. In the center the last portion of the stairs continue to reach heavenward.

Did we mention how tall this thing is? The top platform is 141 m (458.25 ft) above ground. Incredible. On top we held on tight, and we put the front up on Ainslie's carrier in case she spit out her binky. It might kill someone falling from that high.

You can see a long way from that high up.

It was amazing to see so much of the detail on the church, even 400 ft up where they might not have thought anyone would ever see.The trip down was a lot quicker, but no less dizzying. And we still held on tight.In the end, we all agreed that this church beats any rollercoaster we've been on. When we got to the bottom we looked around the inside of the church which is home to a set of 500 year old wooden choir seats that are amazing (and very hard to photograph in the low light). The church alone was worth the trip.

But, we also took a little bit of time to wander through the streets of the old Fisherman's Quarter. Some of the homes here are around 500 years old, and they show their age in the way they tip. Most of them have been rennovated to make sure they're structurally sound, and now there are quite a few hotels that offer unique places to stay and some beautiful photo ops.

The most famous is the cleverly named "Crooked House." It was built in the late 1400's.

We didn't end up pulling out of Ulm until around 8:30 pm, but our navigation system (wonderful) brought us home without any problems. Even with its help we didn't pull into Leipzig until a little after 2 in the morning, but Janae worked hard to come up with lots of conversation topics and questions to keep Josh from falling asleep at the wheel. She also got some great pictures of the moon. The next morning we took the car back to Hertz with 967 km on it, and the lady at the counter was pretty amazed when we told her that the mileage was correct. We definitely got our money's worth on THAT car rental. It was a long day and a long night, but Ulm was absolutely worth it. We've already decided that the next time we're in Germany we'll be making another stop in Ulm because this time we only scratched the surface.