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AMAZING CITY!!! This place was awesome! I was a little leery at first since the only thing I was able to find on Wikipedia was about the Cathedral, but Ulm has so much more to offer than that! I guess the best way to handle this entry is to begin from the beginning when I got on the train to go to Ulm. Well, that was pretty much uneventful b/c it's getting on the train, I mean come on, nothing exciting there. However, upon our arrival in Ulm (yes I know I just skipped 5 hrs of the day) it began to get better. First of all, you could totally see the Cathedral spire from the train as we approached the city since the thing is SOO tall. As soon as we got out, we got something to eat since we were all hungry, and then began our journey to the Cathedral.
Upon the arrival to the cathedral, we pretty much all decided that we were going to climb up to the top of the spire. I mean for real, if you're going to be at the tallest church spire in the world, you might as well climb it, right? So we went into the cathedral and looked around for a bit taking fotos and whatnot, before deciding as our last act to finally go and climb to the top! We went to the cashier and paid our €2 to go up the spire, and we started our climb. First off, the staircase was SOO small. My first thought was that I hope nobody decides to come down as we're going up because if they do, I'm in trouble, that's how small it was. As we climbed, I, as the fat American that I am, quickly got winded and my legs began to hurt, but I was bound and determined to get to the top of that danged Spire, so on I climbed. About half-way up, there was a halting point where you had to walk out and find the other stair-case..Here is where I took my rest. I told Isaac and Jessica to go ahead on up and that I would just meet them there when I got there, but that I was taking a break b/c I was tired and out of breath. After resting for about 5 minutes, I began the ascent again. This time, I got winded and tired much faster, but luckily there was a shorter distance to climb before hitting the second of the three levels of the tower. In this level, one can look directly up the spire, and be amazed of it's beauty, without climbing fully up of course. However, not going all the way up was not an option. So, I found Jessica and Isaac and made my way to the smaller staircase to begin the ascent to the tip-top of the tower. Oh, but wait. In this staircase, there was only one exit and one entrance, so as I was climbing people were coming down. OMG! It was horrible! There was hardly any room, and I really thought people were going to fall when they passed. However, because I was the one ascending the tower I could hang onto the wall as I was climbing, but because the staircase was circular, the people descending weren't so lucky. They just kinda held onto the curve of the staircase and slid around it as though sliding down a firepole....did I mention there were no handrails...I think this is important b/c there was no outside help, it was all leg power baby!! Anyways, by the time I reached the tip-top I was nauseous from the climb (a fact I try to forget) and I just looked around with minor apathy. Finally it hit me that I had just climbed the TALLEST CATHEDRAL IN THE WORLD, and that was cool. I got Jessica to make a foto of me while at the top, and then I decided to descend again to sit and rest before I got sick and threw up over people. But ah, I forgot about the single staircase, and this came to bite me in the ass. Going down I seemed to run into more people then I did when I was coming up, and believe me, there was NO ROOM to get around, and it wasn't fun doing the whole "firepole" thing. Though, I finally got all the way down, and I just walked around the second level catching my breath and calling my parents to greet them from the tallest church spire in the world. It was cool. Finally, after what seemed like forever, Jessica and Isaac came down and we descended to the ground level and left the cathedral. All in all...AMAZING EXPERIENCE!
After leaving the Cathedral, we walked to the Rathaus, which was BEAUTIFUL! It's probably one of the prettiest Rathaus's I've seen. Then onto the Metzgerturm, and then to the Danube River. The Danube was a little smaller than I anticipated, but then again, so was the Rhine, so I'm not sure why I was surprised...wishful thinking I guess. In any case, the Danube was cool, and I'm glad I got to see it. After seeing the river we wandered back to where the Hbf was, which is also where Albert Einstein's house used to be before it got destroyed in the war. Now, there's nothing more than a cool little monument saying Albie lived there and such and such, but the house is gone....very sad I know.
So, we then headed back to Mainz, where I'm sure we all crashed into bed and slept since we had done SO much that day.
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