At the end of my last blog post, I talked about how our plans to travel to France for a few days fell threw, so we decided to travel around Germany instead. Because all of our planning was extremely last minute, we decided to spend an extra day in Kandern with the Liberti family so we could finalize some of our plans before we just jumped on a train. This ended up being a fantastic decision for a couple of reasons.
1. Jet lag. I think the exact quote from my last post was "I felt absolutely zero jet lag the entire day. Zero." Well, I lied. In my mind, experiencing jet lag just meant feeling really exhausted. For Theresa and I, jet lag hit us from about midnight to 4 a.m. and we just could not fall asleep. About 2 a.m., I started to laugh about something ridiculously unfunny and two hours later, Theresa and I were still laughing, squirming, crying, and gasping for air. We just couldn't stop laughing. At everything. At nothing.
2. We got to spend some more time with the Libertis. Theresa and I dominated Sophia and Bianca in Kemps. Our creative signal to alert each other when we had four-of-a-kind was to hum along to the song that was playing. This failed us miserably because a) I would forget and just hum along to the song before I had a four-of-a-kind. b) I would have no idea what the song was and be unable to hum along, and c) there would be NO music playing when I would get a four-of-a-kind. Despite these hurdles, we walked away with a victory.
3. We hiked to a castle. After another delicious dinner, we embarked on a 40-minute hike up a fairly steep hill. When we reached the top, we saw the ruins of Sausenburg Castle, a castle that was built around the 12th century. With the expert guidance of Steve and Sophia, we climbed to the top of turret where we took in breathtaking views of Germany, France, and Switzerland. Here are some pictures.
Views from the top of the castle!
Such an adventure!
Tree pose with the Libertis!
When we were finalizing our German adventure later that night, Theresa and I decided that we would try to couch surf in Munich and then find a hostel in Berlin. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the concept of couch surfing, it's a website where you can meet people living all over the world and request to sleep on their couch for free during your stay. It seemed like a great way to travel cheaply and to meet local people. In order to do this, Theresa and I had to make a profile so that our potential hosts could decide whether or not they would accept us. Since everything was so last minute, we tried to make our profile so great that whoever we requested couldn't say no. This ended up being more difficult than expected as we struggled to meet the minimum requirement of 100 characters to describe ourselves. 100 characters. Not words, characters. In disbelief, Theresa asserted, "we're not even cool enough for 100 characters!" This realization, in addition to the stress of all of our plans falling through, culminated in a mental breakdown of sorts with Theresa and I craughing. (Maria Nash's term for when hysterical laughing turns to hysterical crying).
After browsing profile after profile for a potential host, Theresa and I stumbled upon Marion, a recent college graduate in Munich who loved board games, conversations, spending time outside, and traveling. She seemed like the perfect fit for us. A few hours after submitting our request in which we were borderline begging Marion to accept us, we received word that we could sleep on her couch for two nights. With a rough outline of our adventure in place and our sleeping accommodations secured, Theresa and I were ready to take on Ulm, Munich, and Berlin.
We didn't know anything about the city of Ulm except the train number that would take us there. Once we arrived at the train station, we followed signs until we reached the tourist information building. We blindly trusted the woman working at the desk to circle locations of our map that we should visit during our 5 hour stay. We began by walking across the street and entering into a beautiful and massive church. When we sat down and started to read the English brochure about the Ulm Munster church, we realized that it was the world's tallest church with a spire of 530 ft. Here are some pictures!
World's tallest church! Us in the church!
Theresa and I then enjoyed a lovely picnic on the Blau River in the historic Fisherman's Quarter. After lunch, we pulled out our Ulm map and started to make our way toward a fountain dedicated to Albert Einstein because SURPRISE Ulm, Germany is the city where Einstein was born. The fountain was on the opposite side of the city, but we figured that if the woman at the tourist information desk circled it, it was important for us to at least see it. The map was confusing and when we arrived to where we thought the fountain should be, we were standing in the middle of an empty courtyard. For the next hour, we walked around a very residential part of Ulm searching for this grand statue dedicated to "Ulm's most famous son." Exhausted and frustrated, Theresa and I sat down on a bench in front of this statue...
Our initial conversation went something like this...
"Sarah, I think this is the fountain. It has to be."
"Theresa, I refuse to believe that this is the fountain. It doesn't even look like Einstein!"
After sitting there a few more minutes, we decided to search for just a little bit longer before heading back to the train station to continue our journey to Munich. We ultimately ended up in the same empty courtyard where we had started our searching. Defeated, we figured that we were missing out on some fantastic tourist attraction in Ulm. Suddenly Theresa shouted, "Wait! Is that it!?" To our utter dismay, we turned to see the backside of a ten foot piece of steel toward the far end of the "empty" courtyard. As we slowly walked around to the front of the "fountain," this is what we saw...
Now, I'm no fountain expert, but I would hardly classify this piece of metal with 6 inches of water flowing out of the bottom a fountain. I have no idea why the woman at the information center circled it as a "must-see" on our map because we were definitely the only tourists in that part of Ulm, but Theresa and I sure found some joy in the ridiculousness of the entire situation.
Us imitating Albert Einstein at the "fountain."
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