June 30, 2018

What an amazing Rest Day in Ulm. How I managed to pick only 35 pictures out of the 195 pictures that Ralf took today, I am not sure.

Ulm is a large busy City, it is actually two cities Ulm and New Ulm which is located across the River Danube. There are lots of opportunities for shopping (which we did) and sightseeing which we also did.

The Ulm Munster (Minster) has the tallest steeple in the world and is the largest church in Europe, it is absolutely stunning. Evangelical/Lutheran is equivalent to the Anglican Church in England, I think. The construction of the church began in 1377, it was consecrated in 1405. However work was continued until 1543. A three hundred year break and the work was restarted in 1844 and the final steeple was finished in 1899. There was a rivalry between the Ulm Munster and Koln Cathedral – Ulm won by 1.5 metres! The church is 161 metres high (530 feet). The final building was 10 metres taller than the original medieval plans.

When we arrived in the Munster square, the Saturday market was in full swing and the weather was very warm.

We entered the Munster to be told that there was a choir happening at noon and we would have to pay for the “concert”. However, we could climb the stairs of the steeple if we wanted to. We had to pay to climb the steeple E10.00 for the two of us. It was worth every penny.

At the second level we met J.J. (Joachim) his week-end job is the \”steeple keeper\”. The Steeple Keeper ensures that the place is kept clean and the tourists are well behaved as it is part of the church and respect should be shown in this area as in other parts of the church. He also gives information about the bells and a little bit of the history of the building of the church.

We were above the bells and there was a basket hanging over a large cover. I asked J.J. what the basket was for, he told me “It is used to lower little children to the bottom, if they were too tired to walk down all the stairs! That was a joke”, however, it is used to carry supplies to the Keepers accommodation.

J.J. spends 11 hours a day maintaining order and ensuring that if there are medical emergencies he can assist. Considering he is training to be a Doctor he is well qualified to assist in any medical emergencies. There are three prerequisites for the job as \”Steeple Keeper\” – physically fit, first aid training and to be a member of the church or at the very least be interested in the Munster. He spoke very good English and we had a great conversation with him not only about the Munster but also about his training to be a Doctor. The average wait to get into medical school, in Germany, is over 6 years – he told us he was lucky he only had to wait 6 years. The studies for G.P. are for six years and then depending on specialty another 4 to 6 years. The German tax-payer pays for his education. To be a Doctor costs approximately E180,000.00.

We chatted about the renovations that were started in 2007.  There are 23 craftsmen that work at the Minster full-time and they have apprentice stonemasons and wood-workers to replace the older craftsmen.  The Church requires 3 million Euro per year for its maintenance, that does not include any renovations that is needed.  The stone is quarried near Stuttgart.  Some of the stone is limestone and other is the softer sandstone.  They still have most of the original plans from the 15th Century.

After we had finished our conversation with JJ we headed up the final 120 steps to the very top of the steeple, and then returned down the 768 stairs where we met J.J. again on the ground floor.

We got a quick personal tour of the church.

The church survived World War 2 bombings relatively unscathed. They had removed some of the stained glass windows for protection, the remainder were shattered and replaced with brown or grey coloured glass. He also told us that the original plan was for one large nave and two smaller naves however a new builder in 1477 took over and made changes to the plans of the Munster but especially to the main tower and in doing so caused the church\’s first major structural problem the heavy vaults of the wide aisles and high nave burdened the columns with too much lateral force. Another master builder, replaced them with vaults of half widths, which afforded rows of additional columns dividing each of the aisles in two.

We exchanged emails and we hope to meet Joachim (J.J.) again.

After our two hour visit to the Munster, we carried on exploring the older part of the City and had lunch. 

We visited a sports store, I needed some more clothes washing concentrate, should have cost about E5.00, – 150 Euro later Ralf had bought a new windbreaker and we bought two new sleeping bag liners. I had bought a new windbreaker before leaving Canada. Ralf spotted the one that he had wanted to buy but couldn’t find it in Brockville, with zip off arms, his old jacket was over ten years old and rather raggedy.

We are eating dinner and breakfast in the room – Budgeting!!

Often it is the people we meet that make our day. J.J. was one of those people that made our day. When I gave him our email which includes the year 1985 – he very astutely said that is the year you were married. I laughed and said “I thought you would think it was the year I was born.” He laughed and said “I was born in 1986!” Yes there was an exclamation point in his comment.

Windmills. Still no more windmills. Running Total is Ralf 13 Jacky 6

These windmills do not count.