Vacation #6: 5/15/10 Germany - Ummendorf, Füramos, Steinhausen

We left Ulm and drove to the village of Ummendorf to meet Dieter's mother, Anni Reisch. We picked Anni up at her home and drove to Füramos for lunch at the Rössle restuarant. We had the most amazing roasted 1/2 chicken lunches; and the French fries were about the best I have even tasted. After lunch we returned to Anni's home where she served us tea.

After leaving Ummendorf we drove to the small village of Steinhausen to see the baroque style Catholic church of Steinhausen. The interior of the church was totally covered, walls and ceiling, with art work, statues, and icons. I appologize for the poor quality of the photos, as the lighting inside the church was poor and my little flash didn't add much light.

Vacation #5: 5/15/10: Germany - Ulm and the tallest church in the world

Saturday morning we were off to the city of Ulm. As we drove into Ulm, Sabine pointed out the steeple of the Ulm Minster (Ulmer Münster) Protestant Church that we were going to see in a few minutes. Ulmer Münster is the tallest church in the world, with the steeple topping out at 530 feet (768 steps, which we did not even think about doing). The church, which is in the Gothic ecclesiastical architectural style, is amazing. The foundation was laid in 1377, with construction taking place off and on over the following centuries. Construction on the church was not finally completed until May 31, 1890. After looking around the church, we walked through the main downtown portion of Ulm, checking out the various shops and vendors who were out selling their wares. I also took a photo of a big blue bird, which is the symbol of Ulm.

Vacation #4: 5/14/10: Germany - Lichtenstein Castle near Honau

It's Friday and we went on a drive from Schopflenberg through beautiful countryside and quaint little villages in Baden-Württemberg to the Lichtenstein Castle near Honau. The castle was perched high on a mountain top (what castle isn't?) overlooking that portion of the Swabian Alb. It was a little windy and cloudy, with off and on light sprinkles, but that did not dampen our spirits or the fun that we had. We took a tour of the castle, which required us to go across a short wooden bridge to get to the actual castle entrance. Of course, everyone teased me about my fear of heights as we crossed the bridge to the big wooden doors and into the castle entry way.

Vacation #3: 5/13/10: Germany - Stuttgart

Our first day in Germany at the Reisch's home started with a fantastic breakfast: an assortment of rolls, jams, cheeses, thinly sliced deli meats, juices, and juice, tea or coffee, depending on one's desire. Then after resting up from breakfast, Dieter drove Sabine, Hanna, DeeDee and me to Stuttgart. We walked around a Protestant baroque style church built in 1618 and then went to the Mercedes Benz Museum. However, when we got there, found that the line to get in was VERY VERY long. So, we drove around Stuttgart for a little while and went to the Stuttgart Natural History Museum instead. The museum had wonderful exhibits, many with life size skeletons of dinosaurs, great geological exhibits of Europe and the local area in Germany, and more than could really be seen in one visit.

Except for all the little, teeny, cars zipping around all over the place, everyone speaking German, all the stores having German names and words on their windows and doors, and all the road signs and traffic controls making no sense at all to me, we felt right at home due to the weather - it could have been Scappoose or Portland, as they were having the same type of Spring there as we had here, cloudy, rainy, etc, with occasional blue patches in the sky.

On the way home, we were told we were going to stop at a restaurant for some "authentic German food". As we pulled into the parking lot, it looked a little familiar, since the name of the establishment was: BURGER KING. The food looked the same and tasted the same, but was a little more in price than back here in the States. The only thing we noticed that was different was that we kept our food on the trays that it came on and instead of taking the trays to a trash can when we were done, we put the trays into individual slots in a 6 foot or so tall tray holder type of container; and when all the slots in the container were full, a worker would just roll out out a new empty container take the full one away.