Ulm Munster

Took a little fieldtrip today, to Ulm.

Strangely, they didn't have a Marktplatz Mall with only a Herberger's open. Alas, also no Hermann the German. Perhaps most disappointing was Ulm's lack of a Target where I could shop with Gen for hours.

Oh wait, that's New Ulm. Ha. Ha. I'm so funny.

Ulm is a little over an hour away, to the southeast. Did I mention that the other day we dropped an obscene amount of money to buy a navigation system? Apparently it is of the utmost importance to have a navigation system in Europe. If I sound bitter, I'm not because our new friend, the navigation system, has already proven herself useful. I say "she" because it's a female voice giving directions, and most importantly--telling us when to slow down because there are traffic cameras forthcoming. We haven't come up with a name for her yet, any suggestions? She sounds middle-aged and very soothing, yet confident. And she's American. You can chose what language or accent you wish your nav to have. The only name suggestion so far has come from Josiah is "Chaka". It's so bad it almost works.

Nav brought us smoothly into Ulm and to the McDonald's. Nav shows us where all the McDonalds are...so very important to the De For family. We had some chicken nuggets and cheeseburgers and then took a short walk through a pedestrian shopping area to the Ulm Munster. Hans informed me that it is not a cathedral because a bishop was never there, thus the Munster, kind of like the "minster" in Westminster.

Oh, did I mention that NO one puked on the way to Ulm? Yay!!

We took the tour of the church and it was amazing. I know I shouldn't get overly excited about the first church we've visited because hello--we're going to see Chartres and Notre Dame and maybe even the Vatican. But Ulm Munster was beautiful in ways that can't be described. I don't really know anyway to quite describe these places. Lots of statues, lots of carving, stained glass windows soaring stories, beautifully stenciled ceilings, an amazing organ and a sense of peace and hush and serenity.

I lit a candle for Baby Kuehl, then Josiah and Annika both insisted on having candles lit for them too, so we ended up lighting candles for everyone. So E and Linz, there's a candle burning in prayer for the baby in Ulm, Germany in this amazing place. I hope it helps.

Now for the amazing part. We knew we wanted to climb the stairs up the spire. 768 steps or thereabouts. Are we crazy? Yeah, a little bit. Hans carried Annika on his shoulders and only scraped her head a couple of times as we circled around and around and around. Here's the amazing part. Brace yourselves:

Josiah did all 768 by himself without complaint.

I'm still in shock. He was a little nervous coming back down, so I carried him most of the way. The other part that I still can't believe is this:

Neither one of my children took the opportunity to check the acoustics inside the church. They were as quiet as...church mice.

Wow. Just wow. And this was before lighting the candles!

We have been home and had a trip to the commissary (I drove and yes, I went 120 at one point...the kids were asleep) and Josiah is still tearing around like a madman. If only a scientist could find a way to replicate this energy...

Enjoy all the pictures. I'm positive that they don't do Ulm justice. Sometimes I have to stop and think "Holy cats, I'm in Germany!"