Saturday, May 12, 2012

Day 7 - Suttgart to Ulm to Munich

Today we caught a train out of Stuttgart headed for Munich.  Halfway to Munich is Ulm, home to the tallest church in the world.  We stopped before lunch and hiked over to the church from the train station after securing our bags.  Once we got to the church, we headed straight to the top. 770 steps later, we were there!  The church is over 500 feet tall and the last section is very narrow and takes you close to the very top.  It was exciting to do, but my feet are definitely hurting a lot.  Andi and I ate lunch at a brewery on the square and had some great asparagus cream soup.  It is spargel (asparagus) season in Germany and we love the giant white asparagus.

We made it to Munich.  Our hotel is not as nice as in Stuttgart, but it should be fine.  We had a tour guide come and take us around town and most folks were not very happy with the tour.  It was hard to hear her and I think everyone is getting tired after going all week.  We ate dinner and headed home, leaving the kids to meet back up and head out but Andi and I realized that the getting from the subway to the hotel was very confusing so we got maps from the hotel and went back out to distribute to the students before they went out for the night.

We are lucky that we ended up going from Freiburg to Stuttgart to Munich.  Freiburg is a small little town, difficult to get lost in with a couple of trams.  It is a good place to learn a bit about getting around in Germany.  Stuttgart is much bigger, but the trains are fairly organized with both subways and trams but we did not need to do too much traveling there.  Munich seems huge and chaotic in comparison, having lived in Stuttgart and worked in Freiburg.  We mostly had a car during our trips to Stuttgart, so these days may be our most difficult getting around.  So far so good.

May 12,2012 - Activity Data Report

Ok... I am beginning to think that the flight back home will be the shortest I have had due to the fact that I may collapse in a heap and only awake when we arrive! But, it is all worth it...

We left Stuttgart, toured Ulm's tower and open-air market in the rain, arrived in Munich around 3:15pm, then took a two-and-a-half-hour walking tour...so, today we logged:

> 9.5 miles
> 21,200 steps
And > 50 flights of stairs