Ulm - from disaster to fantastic

We made a good start towards Ulm this morning, getting away just before 11 am. After changing our minds, we are travelling towards Stuttgart along the motorway. This one is still being built and we often are turning into re-directed lanes that snake from one side of the road to the other. Then as if to laugh at our decision to take the fast route, we find ourselves coming to an almost screaming halt about 40 minutes into the trip and for the second time in a few months, we are being held up by a burning truck. It is about 800 metres from where we are and there are about 40 cars between us and it. Everyone rushes to pull to the outer edges of the lanes leaving space for the emergency vehicle (that we know will come) to travel down the centre between us. They do come eventually, but are travelling down the other side of the barrier.
This time the truck is carrying palleted goods, and boy, do they burn. The smoke starts thick and black and for a while we can’t even see the traffic lined up in the other direction. Then the smoke clears to white before a very loud explosion signals the petrol tank going and again the smoke turns black. The roads workers have a back hoe and they are trying to pull the burning load off the truck bed, but every time they move it, it allows more air in to the fire and up she goes again.

One police car,
1 fire truck, 2 fire truck, 3 fire truck, 4.
5 fire truck, 6 fire truck, gosh, do we need more?!
1 fire chief, 1 ambulance make up the score!
And foam, lots of foam seems to be the answer.

An hour after we first stop, the traffic in the opposite direction is led slowly past us by the fire chief. We however are still at a dead stop. They will need to clear some of the debris and much of that foam before we can move. The traffic from the opposite direction has now cleared and there is no more coming passed so we can only assume that they are diverting the traffic at the next junction. Behind us, the traffic stretches for kilometres – as far as we can see. Too bad there is not a spot to turn and re-trace our steps back to the last exit, although that was miles back.

It is 1¾ hours before we move. Once we get near the mess that was once a truck, the roads crews have forced open the barrier between the traffic lanes so we can cross to the other side and then a little later cross back in again. We reach the next exit about 3 kilometers further down the road and see that they are indeed diverting the traffic in the other direction. It is crawling at a snail's pace - much slower than we are going because they are being forced onto much smaller roads. And even though it is moving, the queue is a further 8 kilometres long!

We finally arrive at Ulm at 3 pm after crossing the Danube River. There is quite a haze covering the whole city and I guess that where there are industries, by the end of the week there is going to be some build up of pollution. Its a real pity because the countryside is lovely and green and the autumn leaves colour the landscape with a kaleidoscope of colours that is so different to the myriad of greens we saw here in the summer. We had come through here in July and had a very quick look at the Ulm Cathedral – just long enough to know that we wanted to come back and see more. Once we find our way into one of the underground car parks we head first for the Town Hall just off the main square.

This is one impressive building! Part is set with gothic windows and the surrounding walls are decorated with sculptures. But the north and east facades are covered most wondrously with paintings depicting human virtues and vices. The south east corner has a magnificent embedded oriel window and there is a pulpit of homage and an astronomical clock - and it dates back to 1491. Well sort off. It was destroyed by bombing in 1944 and rebuilt to the original plans and decorations in 1951.

There is the impressive 'Syrlin Fountain' of which we can just glimpse the top as is has been shuttered over for winter. We later find another in the courtyard of the police headquarters that was once the 'Neu Building' where the Swabian circle sat. (regional council)

The Cathedral too is an amazing building and boasts being the world's tallest church. We have seen some tall ones including Notre Dame, Cologne and Salisbury but this one really does take the cake. Check it out here. Michael is determined to climb the 768 steps to have a look today. When he comes back down, he tells me that he actually counted 772 steps.

Begun in 1377, it grew from small cathedral to grander and grander until all works were halted in 1534 with the arrival of the reformation. Work did not start again until the 1840s and the cathedral was not completed in its present form with the spire and twin towers until 513 years later in 1890! It is filled with stained glass windows from across the centuries, a 15th century tri- polytryptic altar and the most amazing carved choir stalls. And the views out over the twin cities of Ulm and Nue-Ulm from the steeple are fantastic as you can see!

By the time Michael gets down from his climb up the steeple it is 4:45 pm and the light is very quickly fading. We stop for a hot chocolate and coffee because with the dimming light, the temperature is heading south very very quickly! Then we walk around to the Fisherman’s Quarter. This quaint reminder of days past houses narrow little streets and crooked little half-timbered houses that were once the residences of local fishermen and boatmen who shipped goods and emmigrants to Hungary and other eastern Europe destinations.

Very foggy tonight and leaving Ulm I have programmed Kate to take us on the fastest route to 'home' - Steph and Felix's in Schwäbisch Gmünd. I though that this would have been motorway and major roads, but no, it is on back lanes through small villages, up hill and down dale - and all at a crawl - sometimes we are only going at 40 kph - all because of the thick enveloping fog. And it did not help that we climbed up and over the northern most tip of the Schwäbian Jura mountains in that fog - round and round the hairpins. Gosh, what a day!

Its great to see Steph again. She looks really well and a holiday in the States recently has given her a little colour. She has cooked a stir fry for dinner with VEGEs. Yum. We sit over a meal and shared bottle of red chatting about all that we have seen and done since re left here in July. Gosh it really has been a trip and a half. It is as cold as here - only 3 degrees outside. Thankfully, the heating is on and we warm up pretty fast.

Back to the future

Its so nice staying in a local building with windows that you can open for a fresh (and brisk) breeze! None of this 'locked-in-a-hotel-airconditioned-room-that-could-be-anywhere-in-the-world' if we can help it!

We wake with the city waking around us. The sounds of everyday life - a garbage truck, cars rushing on the cobblestoned street below. The building door shutting and a car starting - oh damn, he has forgotten something and rushes back inside briefly. And as we have our breakfast, a local resident is raking the leaves up from the lawn below our balcony. No matter where we are, life progresses just the same. Reassuring really!

First on the agenda this morning is a stroll through the Old Town. Once we manage to just drive into an empty parking space (thank you Frances), we first visit what is locally called 'the Parish Church'. Its full name is Kościół Farny Sw. Stanisława Biskupa (Parish Church of St Stanislaus) and it is known as one of Poznań's most impressive historic monuments. It was created as a Jesuit temple in the 17th century and has works of art by the best roman baroque artists. What is surprising is the interior space that although surrounded by typical heavy baroque works, retains its openness and airiness. And the colour is warmer than we have found in most of the baroque churches we have seen thus far - pinks and rich browns. And never ever believe it when a local tells you that their city is not a tourist destination - just as we arrive at the church, not one but two tour groups also arrive - one French, one German, with their respective guides trying hard to be heard over each other. And there are lots of smaller family groups too. And lots of locals inside, in reflective prayer. Yes, Poland is safely and staunchly Catholic.

Next it was over to the market square. Now this is one really big square - but with a bit of a difference - there are a series of buildings in the centre of it! Right in the centre is the Town Hall with a highly decorated facade and a magnificent clock tower. We are told that there is a great show at 12 noon daily once the clock has struck, so we will be back to have a look. Around the perimeter of the square today you find cafe after restaurant after bar. All have tables under large market umbrellas set outside their shops so that the square is ringed by people at tables looking inward to the people in the square. Many of these buildings are covered with intricate sgraffito and many too have fancy shingles hanging from their walls. We have enough photos of shingles to dedicate a whole book to them!

Beside the City Hall there are a couple of other buildings in the square centre. One must have once been the market hall as it is surrounded by an arched arcade. Maybe the buildings above these once housed the merchants. Michael demonstrates just how narrow some of these houses are. Bit too cramped for my liking I must admit!

And the Square is filled with statues and monuments - there are five fountains that house major statues - most of them from the classics. There are even elaborate statues on the top of the City Hall and a couple of the other buildings facing in to the Square.

So we wander, gazing into the shops and marvelling at the work of artisan craftspeople of days past. There is a Military Weapon Museum in one of the buildings in the centre of the square too. Unfortunately its not open today (whew I silently breathe!) so Michael must be content to look at the display boards set up that focuses on the Polish Independence Day declared in 1919 as an aspiration for Polish independence from Prussia at the time. The parade of the army camped nearby must have been stirring to say the least which was followed by a huge field Mass. The dislay also shows people of note from the Poznań area. As we walk back around to the face of the City Hall, we see one of those moments that belongs in some old slapstick movie - there is this building that is being renovated and on the scaffolding on four levels there are four workers, each identically dressed in dark blue overalls and bright yellow safety helmet. They all stand directly above one another, leaning on the railings, looking down. Ah, its ok - they are passing further scaffolding materials up each level to the top - but gee, it looked so funny!

Its now 11:40 am and if there was a single tourist in Poznań today, then they have all made a bee-line for the Square outside the Town Hall. Now, the show isn't until 12 noon, but no-one wants to be late! There are those French and German groups and they are joined by a smaller Japanese group, there are mums and dads with their kids, there are young lovers, and older couples too. The place heaves with people. Right on the stroke of twelve, everyone looks skyward to the set of doors just above the clock face. And once the bells have tolled the magical hour, those little doors open and two bucks (male goats) emerge slowly from their housing until they are fully on show, at which point they turn to face each other and promptly begin to butt heads - twelve times exactly! They then recede back into the safety of their little enclosure and just as quickly as it congregated, the crowd heads off to other places.

And then there is the guy who is just hanging around! From a huge bra!! I think it must have something to do with advertising the fact that the band Radiohead are coming to a festival in Poznań in a few weeks as it hangs between two posters. Hmm local curiosity I hope - doesn't do much for me, but as you can imagine it got Michael laughing!

Next, we are off to Biskupin - a drive of about 100 kms to the north-east. Both Chris and Gosia have told us that this is somewhere really worth a visit. And they were very right. We program Kate to take us off the motorways and so get to see a bit more of rural Poland. This is open wide and flat country and the farmers are busy harvesting and baling hay, ploughing the land and applying that stinking liquid fertilizer from the back of tankers pulled by tractors. And the towns we pass still exhibit the influence of the former socialist government in the form of those drab apartment blocks.
Once we arrive at Biskupin and park the car where the lass taking the money spoke no English, and us no Polish (it's OK, a hand holding up 5 fingers is easily interpreted correctly as 5 złoty), we decide to eat before exploring. Again, it was all dutch to us all, but shaslick is the same in both languages and they were good. Very delicious!

Now, Biskupin is one of those treasures that would have been lost for all time were it not for the keen eye and keener will of a local person. This is the recreation of an old settlement - a very old settlement. Discovered in 1939 by a local teacher who wondered what a regular line of poles sticking out of the marshes could be, Biskupin recalls the human habitation on this small peninsula that juts out into a lake system that dates back ten thousand years with the remains of a deer hunter's camp. Then there is a Neolithic Age house belonging to the first farmers - complete with a nearby inhumation burial, and an Early Bronze Age Kraal - a large settlement surrounded by a series of ditches. All these hae remnants remaining.

But by far the most significant site is a settlement from the early iron age. Fortifications, roads and buildings were incredibly well preserved in a form of peat which slowly built up over the settlement once the humans had left. It allowed for an amazingly accurate recreation of the a portion of the settlement to be done. After a range of dating tests over a period of seventy years, this settlement has been conclusively dated. The oak timber for the buildings was cut down between 747 and 722 BC but over half the trees were felled in the course of one winter - 738-737 BC! So yes, it is old.

The iPod audio guide is excellent and offers much more information. The reconstruction is amazing - using only simple tools as the original builders would have access to. Some of the features uncovered from the marsh included the original gates into the complex as well as remnants of buildings, part of the wall rampart and the road. The impression of the town remained buried deep in the murky earth - there were 13 long houses each containing between 3 and 9 seperated and identical dwellings and it is estimated that up to 1,000 people could have lived here at a time. Oh yes, our early ancestors were much more sophisticated than we give them credit for!

And in the museum attached to the settlement are relics found on site during the numerous excavations - including the skeletons of a number of people found in various burial positions. Yes, the actual skeletons, not moulds. They were a little shorter than us and probably died in the 40s to early 50s. There is evidence of weaving looms, and sewn clothing, of beautiful jewellery and religious icons as well as the anticipated arrow heads and cooking pots.
What a truly amazing site.

From here we head to Wenecja to have a look at the narrow guage railway museum. The museum itself was closed, and the rolling stock on show was fairly minimal and in desperate need of some tlc (tender loving care). But as Michael said, the cost of maintaining such is enormous.

Then to the Gąsawa to have a look at the Church of St Nicolas. Now, this is a true cultural gem. Built in the 1600's of larch wood, local officials asked the regional Prussian government to allow the church to be dismantled and build a new one when it was in bad repair in the 1850s. They only gave permission to overhaul the building when wall paintings were covered with a layer of reed and ordinary plaster, and forgotten for some 150 years. The interior of the church has been cleaned and today the beauty of the paintings is very obvious. The local custodian is very proud and despite us telling him English only, he chose to excitedly chat to us in - German! Still, we got the gist of what he was telling us!

The afternoon is barrelling along so we keep moving, going through Strzelno to have a look at the Church of St Prokopus - a round brick building that dates back to the 12th century on the hill next to the St Adalbert's Hill with its baroque Basilica where the 6pm bells are calling the faithful to worship. And come they do - quite a lot of them. They must get some big masses here because it is broadcast outside. I won't go in because we don't want to stay too long. We drive via Żnin before turning to head back towards Poznań. But there is one last stop we want to make at Gniezno to take a closer look at the Cathedral we had seen from a distance on our way out this morning. This twin-towered edifice can be seen for miles. Unfortunately it is closed by the time we get there, so we don't get to see the famous 'Gniezno Doors' - one of the most valuable romanesque monuments in Europe with their richly engraved bronze doors of 18 panels showing the life of St Adalbert (popular guy, huh!) dating back to the 12th century. Oh well.

And as we return to Poznań we see a new temple in the form of the Galleria Malta. Gosia reckons that it is a great shopping mall - the newest in town, but honestly, seen one, seen em all! You could be in any shopping mall in any city - although open for business, trade tonight is quiet. We buy some cakes and them stop at a chemist to re-stock on bathroom essentials. By now it is after 8:30 pm and we struggle to find somewhere to get dinner. We are both tired and can't be bothered cooking or going into a restaurant in town. We take a fruitless search for a pizzeria and end up with the dreaded Maccas. Oh well, predictable - we knew exactly what we were getting! It tastes just like their cardboard food at home!!!

Still searching for accommodation in Berlin - wish us luck.

The City of 100 towers - and we saw many of them

Prague - ahh, for those who have been here, just the mere mention of the name paints the most wonderful pictures in your head. And an apology right up front - there is no way I am going to be able to put enough photos on the blog today to really do this city justice.

Our room is incredibly hot. Although it opens onto a courtyard, it is enclosed, so there is no way for fresh air to come in to the room. We have quite a powerful fan, but it is too noisy to sleep with it going! Still, sleep we do - until after 9am. Then it is a rush to get to breakfast before it is cleaned away at 10 am. Breakfast is limited, but ok. We probably could have done without it seeing that we ate so late last night, but we need something in our bellies to start what will be a big day.

Another Skype video call from Amanda and Antony and Bella this morning. I love having them back home - we missed the contact while they were travelling. They are all very talkative and full of news! Bella is a delight the way she just chats on and on and on as though I am sitting there with her - gosh, technology can be wonderful! She has just had a bath and is one happy little chappy!!

We set off to cross the bridge back to the Old Town this morning. The sky has cleared from overcast earlier and now it is a beautiful sunny day with whispy high cloud promising a little breeze. As soon as we leave the front door of the hotel, we hit a wall of people. Gosh, there are so many tourists in Prague at the moment. We first go to the Touristika Information in the Lesser Town Bridge Tower seeking information on cruises, walks and a map. They are surprisingly unhelpful, can't supply a map in English and don't make tour bookings for private companies - gee they are missing out on a lot of commission here, judging by the number of people who walk our of their office dissatisfied.

And so on to Karlův Most or to the unitiated, Charles Bridge. Now only a pedestrain way, this important link between the Old Town and the Lesser Town was not all that long ago used by vehicles as well. This damaged the structure and today there are massive works underway to repair and strengthen the bridge and clean it up at the same time. In fact, if you type Charles Bridge, Prague into Earth Google, then the resulting image will show you the massive canopy that is presently over the work site!

There are 30 statues or groups of statues along the length of the bridge. While not the originals (which are safely housed in the Lapidary) these replicas certainly look old. As the bridge work progresses, they too are being repaired and cleaned. One task I set myself for today was to get a photo of each. Most I manage without the interference of people, but there are just a few that I had to take with some stubborn mutt or rudely 'oblivious' or uncaring git in them.

Eventually we clear the tide of humanity and get to the Old Town side, passing through the Old Town Bridge Tower. First stop is the St. Francis Church just over the bridge. There is an Organ recital here each night for the next few nights and so to get in to have a look, you must run the gauntlet of the ticket sellers. Still, they are not overly pushy and we get in to take a look. And now I am hit with the first of the serious hot flushes of the day - egads! The church is typically baroque, lots of art works and gilt. And did I mention hot?!! And just outside, we get the first of heaps of panoramic shots across the Vltava River to the Castle.

From here we mean to go to the Old Town Square, but in Prague it's almost impossible to walk in a straight line - and not just because the streets are twisting and turning, but also because you eyes are caught by new things to look at every few steps you take. So we meander to the left and in to the complex known as the Klementium and the Church of St Salvator (Church of the Holy Saviour). This space was once an old Jesuit college and today houses the National Library of the Czech Republic. Interestingly, the Order of the Knights of the Cross with the Red Star (see yesterday's blog) were also involved here! The church although decorated is much whiter and calmer (and cooler!) This complex is amazing with quite a bit of public art in here, including the figure of a little girl with a paper aeroplance sitting high on the corbels of one of the buildings! (That photo will have to wait for the book!) and even more so when we read a plaque that tells us that the Jesuits have been taking climatological measurements here sine 1 January 1775 - one of the longest unbroken records in Europe! This has been a centre of learning for so long.

And given that I am so hot, and I need to put something in my stomach to ensure that the codeine I took this morning doesn't eat into it, we stop in the next small square we come to and have yummy drinks at a Häagen-Dazş franchise. Ooh yeah - great on a warmish day. Thankfully though it is a little cooler than it has been for the last couple of days.

And so we wend our way through narrow back streets passed hundreds if not thousands of souvenir shops - crystal, marionettes, jewellers, and soon find ourselves coming in to the Old Town Square. We enter this impressively large square passing in front of the Old Town Hall that is almost 700 years old! It is an amazing building made all the more so by the Astronomical Clock that faces the street. Anyone who has seen my photos taken during our trip here in 2006 will know that this piece of artisitic engineering is so beautiful! I got a fantastic photo back then, and today too we get more!! By the time we get here it is 2:20 pm and the figures will not appear for another 40 minutes - and that explains how it is that we can easily walk past - the crowds have not gathered again yet. So we keep moving.

The Old Town Square is enormous with restaurants, cafés and souvenir shops all jostling for the prime positions looking out to the square. It is crammed with people and there are lots of groups 'following the leader' - that is their tourist guide, with umbrella or silly looking flower held high in the air. The Japanese particularly are funny to watch - they scurry along looking worried - as though being parted from their guide will result in some horrible torture! And people from all walks of life walk by us - from the Jewish rabbi to the Catholic monk.

We are starting to rack up photos of the 100 towers of Prague by now. In fact if you take into account the numerous towers on some of the residential buildings then I think that the true figure is closer to 1000. But if you want to see more of them, I have provided the link - just be warned, that once you start to look, you will need hours to work through them all!!! And sure, there are similarities between some of them, but overall it is amazing to be looking up and seeing such beauty. Michael is claiming a crick in the neck by now. Perhaps two of the more amazing ones (as if you could choose) are those on the Church of Our Lady before Týn, another of Prague's most recognizeable landmarks. Today, one of the towers is shrouded by scaffolding, but it cannot diminish the beauty of this edifice. And although it dominates the space, it is actually set back behind a row of commercial buildings.

And so we continue to explore. In and out of buildings and small streets and smaller alleys. And we have almost 600 photos from yesterday to lay testament! One place that I really wanted to see was the Jewish museum in the area known as Josefov or the Jewish Quarter. The stories of the Jewish people in Prague is one of those horror stories from our recent past. At the outbreak of WWII there were almost 94,000 Jews living in Prague. The Nazi regime moved almost all to a ghetto camp set about 45 minutes away in the former Small Fortress in Terezín and from here many were then transported to concentration or other camps. In all, 80,000 of these people died under the oppression by the nazis. In the Pinkas Synagogue built in the early 1500s, the names of all these 80,000 victims are incribed on the walls. How powerful a memorial. Done to ensure that these people without a grave will never be forgotten. It is a frightening thing to see all those names written. And shameful. Please God, that we never ever let something like this ever happen again. Obviously we cannot take photos here. But I will never lose the picture in my mind.

Once through this Synagogue, the tour of the Museum continues through the Jewish cemetery, the Ceremonial meeting hall, the Spanish Synagogue and the Old-New Synagogue that was built in the 1700s! We see all but the Spanish Synagogue. In fact, the Jews had always been encouraged to live in an enclave and so the cemetery is in face 4 and in some places 10 burial spaces deep - meaning that the tombstones are jammed in. And there are way more bodies buried than there are tombstones!

Now, I am not only physically tired, but mentally and emotionally too.
It is time to move on and we walk down the most expensive street in Prague (and 15th most expensive in the world) with the shops of the likes of Chanel, Prada and Louis Vuitton lining the footpath. Interestingly, the footpaths are not in as good condition here as in many other areas! Back to the Old Town Square we head. Its almost 4:30 pm and time we had something to eat, so we find a square-side table at one of the cafés - the Restaurant Kamený Stůl where Michael has a Sendvič hovězí, hrandky (Beef sandwich with french fries) and I have Hamburger Praha, hrandky (Hamburger Prague with french fries). They are surprisingly very very good. As we sit eating, the light of the day changes as the sun begins the slow downward slide towards evening. Ah, I could sit here taking photos forever in that changing light!!

So, what to do now? We had wanted to do a river cruise with dinner but too late realise that we should have booked earlier and have not brought the mobile phone with us today. Bugger. We decide to continue with a little more exploring and then go back to the hotel where Michael will do the Ghost Tour of Prague late tonight (10:15 pm!) So off we set again, still walking away from the bridge and our hotel. Hey yes!! There it is. I have managed to navigate around to the Powder Tower that I wanted to show Michael and beside it the Municipal Building with its beautiful canvas painting high on the external facade.
And so now we turn back towards the Charles Bridge and our hotel on the other side. We walk down past the ever present fast food outlets that I will not name (don't want to tarnish the blog!) in a street filled with beautiful buildings with sgraffito and even mosaic tiled murals. But what is this? We have come across another boat tour operator AND they do a combined mini-bus tour and boat cruise (like the other one we were interested in) AND they have spaces tonight AND they leave in 20 minutes - whoo hoo! So we buy tickets and walk back half a block to their departure point.

So at 6:30 pm we find ourselves on a mini-bus with other English and Italian speaking tourists in part of a convoy of 4 mini-buses and off we set. We do a tour of the city for the first hour, seeing many of the sights we have walked today, but others as well - such as Wencelas Square, the Dancing House, the Opera House and other buildings that house more government offices. And then it is on to board the 'Classic River' for our 3 hour cruise on the Vltava River. Dinner was almost totally forgettable - typical hot and cold smorgasbord, but believe me, the trip well up the river well and truly made up for it. We travel up past the weirs through the lock, past the second palace - or what remains of it after a massive gunpowder explosion in the 1800s. We see Prague from a totally different perspective - and it is lovely.

As the day faded and twilight sank over the city, the changing light gave the most beautiful colours to the buildings. And as it deepen, the silohettes became sharper. It is amazing for us two hicks from some little city on another river from across the world to be sitting here and watching this city take on a new life as the night closes in. There are people canoeing and paddle-boating, there are diners in riverside cafés and all around the population scurries to their homes. Absolutely magic. Tony our guide, who speaks four languages fluently and jumps in and out of Czec, English and Italian as though he is dancing some strange lilting dance, is a historian by profession, but his true passion lies in this, sharing the city of his birth that he has returned to, with its visitors.

Night has fully arrived. It is 10 pm when we berth again and on to our minibus for delivery back to our hotels. And we are the first off! So sad, too bad - the Ghost Tour will have to wait until tomorrow night! And I am so frustrated as there is so much more I could have told you about today - but I gotta stop so we can get back out there! See you again tonight!