Germany by rail. Destination #7 - Ulm
Ulm
Location of photos
http://img455.imageshack.us/img455/7008/ulmmapyi2.jpg
1. About an hour after we left Stuttgart, we arrived at Ulm. I honestly had never heard of this city until we began planning our trip!
http://img201.imageshack.us/img201/7937/ulm1ah8.jpg
2. In the Medieval heart of the city there was a cathedral which towered over everything else. We went inside and looked around. Magnificent! You can see what it looked like inside here.
http://img201.imageshack.us/img201/2679/ulm2qc2.jpg
3. We booked a room in a cute little hotel in the heart of the city. Once again, after doing so we sat at a cafe and enjoyed the scenery.
http://img201.imageshack.us/img201/3480/ulm3kh5.jpg
4. Since this was a smaller city we decided not to rent a car. We did, however, find a place to rent bicycles and began touring the city this way. Downtown was a mixture of some new alongside the old.
http://img201.imageshack.us/img201/802/ulm4ic0.jpg
5. North of downtown were some nice but unremarkable (by German standards) residential areas.
http://img404.imageshack.us/img404/4020/ulm5fo2.jpg
6. To the near-southwest of downtown was more of the same. I remarked to Hans and Franz that, areas like this which are considered nice but not-too-remarkable in Germany, would be considered quaint, priceless treasures in the US, swarming with tourists!
http://img404.imageshack.us/img404/9641/ulm6zy0.jpg
7. Across the river to the south was Neu Ulm, or New Ulm. It was, by my (American) standards, still quite "old," but we're talking about Europe here, where something 100 years old is considered to be new and modern.
http://img404.imageshack.us/img404/6027/ulm7gb4.jpg
8. To be quite honest, our main motivation for renting bicycles instead of a car was to work off some of the excess calories we had already accumulated in the previous 6 cities! We even ventured out to the far eastern parts of the city, where the city met the rural areas.
http://img404.imageshack.us/img404/6348/ulm8hh9.jpg
9. But all this biking around made us thirsty, so we bought ourselves some Cokes.
http://img404.imageshack.us/img404/5030/ulm9uc3.jpg
10. And then continued to bike around the southeast edges of the city.
http://img143.imageshack.us/img143/4461/ulm10wq5.jpg
11. As well as some nearby new residential developments.
http://img143.imageshack.us/img143/8055/ulm11wc6.jpg
12. It was already 5pm and we were only able to cover some areas around downtown and the southeast of the city, so we headed back toward town, passing through some residential areas on the way.
http://img143.imageshack.us/img143/4038/ulm12is6.jpg
13. The next morning we headed out south of downtown, riding through some residential areas. On the road at the top of this picture here, Hans almost got hit by a truck!
http://img143.imageshack.us/img143/2890/ulm13zq0.jpg
14. Here were some EADS facilities. EADS is, of course, the parent company of evil Airbus. Being a highly partisan Boeing fan myself, I contemplated bombing these facilties here.
http://img143.imageshack.us/img143/5364/ulm14pj4.jpg
15. But common sense got the better of me as we continued through some southwestern neighborhoods.
http://img143.imageshack.us/img143/8149/ulm15hl0.jpg
16. To the far southwest were some really new neighborhoods at the edge of the farms.
http://img109.imageshack.us/img109/7029/ulm16sq5.jpg
17. At one point we decided to catch a bus and head toward the northern parts of town. Glady, the buses had facilities to let us bring our bikes along. We got off near an IKEA and had lunch in an adjacent shopping center.
http://img109.imageshack.us/img109/6305/ulm17rq6.jpg
18. We headed west and passed by some large, modernistic facility.
http://img109.imageshack.us/img109/5435/ulm18re9.jpg
19. And then, once again, into some more residential areas. I continued to note the commonality of newer residences and other buildings with solar panels on their roofs.
http://img109.imageshack.us/img109/8697/ulm19zo2.jpg
20. We made our way to a far-northwestern town/suburb, then turned around and headed back east.
http://img109.imageshack.us/img109/3831/ulm20nd4.jpg
21. We veered off to the north-central outskirts of town and passed through a science office park.
http://img109.imageshack.us/img109/1863/ulm21yh4.jpg
22. Which included the University of Ulm.
http://img131.imageshack.us/img131/2198/ulm22kb9.jpg
23. At the far north edge of the metropolis (if you want to call it that) was a quaint little town. We stopped here for refreshments.
http://img131.imageshack.us/img131/3127/ulm23ow5.jpg
24. Off to the east we could see a large tower-like building piercing the sky. We were curious and decided to investigate. When we got there, we couldn't figure out what it was. It was just some big tower rising above some industrial building. Whatever it was, the views from the top of it must be great!
http://img131.imageshack.us/img131/4398/ulm24su5.jpg
25. Once again it was already late in the afternoon and we decided to head back to town, passing through some nice but mundane neighborhoods on the way.
http://img131.imageshack.us/img131/5792/ulm25sf1.jpg
26. And we also passed by some sort of educational institution nearby.
http://img131.imageshack.us/img131/5324/ulm26pv9.jpg
27. The next day we decided to head east. While passing by this park I got a flat tire. 
Fortunately there was a bicycle store nearby where I got it fixed. 
http://img131.imageshack.us/img131/5845/ulm27wh0.jpg
28. Most of Ulm was reasonably moderate terrain, but there were some hills. We continued northeast and worked up quite a sweat going up here.
http://img48.imageshack.us/img48/5298/ulm28xt3.jpg
29. At the top of the hill were some strange institutional-looking buildings. At this point we decided to take one of Ulm's cute yellow buses back down the hill, to save a little time.
http://img48.imageshack.us/img48/677/ulm29sq4.jpg
30. It was about 2pm and we figured we had just enough time left in the day to explore some of Ulm's eastern areas. Here was a typical residential area. We stopped in a restaurant here and had some beer and brats.
http://img48.imageshack.us/img48/3968/ulm30eo7.jpg
31. We continued a little farther east to a town called Pfhul - which I jokingly referred to as, "Fool."
http://img48.imageshack.us/img48/9567/ulm31ri7.jpg
32. And the headed south to the railroad tracks, where the city turned into country. Speaking of railroads, tomorrow morning was our train and it was time to head back.
http://img48.imageshack.us/img48/7669/ulm32wc7.jpg
33. We took one little detour to a close-in neighborhood north of downtown, but then headed back to our hotel and called it a day.
http://img48.imageshack.us/img48/2233/ulm33hh9.jpg
Yet another pleasant little city we must say goodbye to. Time to hop on the train again and head for Augsburg!
http://img403.imageshack.us/img403/7527/ulm34ow0.jpg
-----------------
Moderationshinweis: Bitte kein Hotlinking von Landkarten (Info)! Danke
Due to copyright problems no hotlinking of maps please. Thank you.