running (an dem schonen Donaufluss) 51:00 [3]
shoes: Asics GT-2000
Why, may you ask, did I choose to stay in Ulm? Well, because neither Stuttgart nor Munich are on the Danube. But as it turns out, we are staying in Neu-Ulm, which is not technically the same as Ulm at all. Dear me, no, it's the suburbs on the wrong side of the river; in fact, it's in Bayern (Bavaria). Apparently so was Ulm, once upon a time, but then the river became the border between the states. So half of this run took place in Bavaria and the other half, after I'd crossed the river, in Baden-Wuerttemberg.
The latter part included a detour through the old town; I have never seen so many nicely-painted Fachwerk-Haeuser in such close proximity to each other. One, which is on a bit of a drunken lean over the Blau stream, is apparently officially in the Guinness Book of Records as the crookedest hotel in the world (the Schiefes Haus), but I don't know what the competition was like. Also I did a bit of sparrow-spotting; sparrow statues are to Ulm what bears are to Berlin.
In the afternoon G & I caught the train to Blaubeuren and walked through the town to the Blautopf, a sinkhole from which the Blau stream wells up and from whence it makes its way 20km downstream and into the Danube. The lake was a beautiful blue colour, but absolutely tiny compared to the Blue Lake at Mt Gambier. We also climbed uphill to a limestone crag with a good lookout over the town and river valley. I'm pretty sure that Amber and Susanne, and possibly Fern as well, have all done the same thing about 10 years ago?