I recently realized with all my
gallivanting around Europe, that I haven't seen very much of Germany
in quite awhile. So last the other weekend I went with two friends,
James and Nina, to visit two sites in Germany. One was Ulm Münster, in Ulm, Germany. Now
this isn't technically a cathedral I guess, since it was never the
seat of a Bishop. I didn't know that, and apparently it's a pretty
big distinction. That aside, however, it is the tallest church in
the world (damn), and the 4th tallest structure built
before the 20th century. I'd say that's something worth
having on your resume. 
Since this was a Saturday, the local
farmers market was going on in the church's square. We wandered
around it for a little bit while we took pictures of building. Then
we went inside and were not disappointed by the interior. Like most
European churches, a lot of work had obviously gone into the design
and it was beautiful.
After admiring the stain glass windows and
architecture we decided to try our luck climbing the steeple.
Unfortunately, due to ice and the cold weather, we weren't able to go
all the way to the top of the steeple. 
However, after climbing to
the 3rd gallery it became obvious to me that the 5 flights
of stairs I take on a daily basis do NOT prepare you for stairs of
this magnitude. Not only where there an incredible number of stairs
to just the first level in the building, when I got to the level my
legs gave me that feeling of “I”m done, you can go the rest of
the way on your own.” The doors were open and it looked like we
could go a bit further up the stairs, but Nina and I decided we
didn't need too and waited for James to check out some more things
before we made our way down to reality. It was quite a beautiful
view. Maybe I'll have to try again after I get some more hiking and
stairs under my belt. The view from 160 meters with no other tall
structures around has to be fantastic. After the church, we stopped
at a side curry stand for a quick lunch before making our run towards
the next site, which was around an hour away. 
The second site we visited was
Lichtenstein Castle,
the one in Germany. Wouldn't think that would be in Germany, would
you? This, while not the largest castle I've seen, was one of the
coolest. I had found it by googling castles in Germany and found a
link to 7 most Beautiful Castles in Germany. The trait about this
one that you notice right away is that this castle is perched ON the
cliff. No room walk the walls, just a straight drop and with sudden
stop. The view is awesome, and the picture possibilities are pretty
good too.
To see the inside, we paid to go on the
German tour. While I didn't understand most of what was said we were
able to get a sheet with the English translation and that helped to
show me how much my listening ability to German had improved, which
was more than I thought. I learned the castle was named for the
light stone it was built on (lich == light). And the original
castle's location was actually 500 meters away, while this was was a
pretender that was only built in the 1300s. One of the neat side
notes was a room where there was a hole and cracks in a mirror and
wall. This was apparently caused when the allies shelled the castle.
Talk about leaving your impression in history... This was
definitely a small castle but quite beautiful, and definitely had a
claim to the neat factor. 
Before we called it a day and headed
home, we stopped for Coffee/Tea and Cake/Soup at the local restaurant
to the castle called Altes Forsthaus. A small snack before
the 3 hour drive home, really. It was quite good. The tea and
coffee hit the spot with the cold weather. The soup finished off the
cold with no mercy. While a delicious “Beef Noodle” soup, the
only disappointing thing was that there was no beef in the soup.
Just broth and noodles. Still I don't regret it at all. The cake
that Nina had was a cheesecake with fruit in it, and she claimed it
was very delicious. After tiding over hunger, we started our trip
home. All happy and content after the sites of the day. 
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