Sunday 6th October

Friday may have been trousers and jumper day, Saturday was definitely hat and gloves day.

We were woken at 6.45am by the bells from the little chapel next door but laying there counting the strikes it could have been 237 o’clock. 

After listening to 154 o’clock just before nine we got up to another dreary day. Yesterday we had thought about walking into town but by the time we had our coats on and got 50 yards down the road the heavens opened and we had to beat a hasty retreat.

We knew that there was a market Saturday morning so stayed indoors cuddling cups of Spargel soup.

Into town and Ravensburg has the usual tower entry gates.

And the pretty buildings, here each window had a slightly different design. It also had an Environmental protest but the weather had put most of them off.

I didn’t find the jigsaw puzzle shop but did see a shop with jigsaws. The shopping centre was huge and the market was very busy, almost like Romford used to be. Not sure how to explain this, the town wasn’t very picturesque, it was just almost picturesque which made it not worth being on the tourist trail which made it more German and comfortable. I’d happily live here however, Mrs Boring wouldn’t let me try the beer.

We had a new destination and the last tick off point for this trip. Just as the weather is turning bad we have to start travelling north – doh.

I took the back roads, mainly because we wanted to restock with beer and get some diesel. At one point Lucy asked if we were going anywhere near the Erwin Hymer dealers near Wertheim so I said no, we’re 200 miles away from there… but will that do? We had just turned a corner and there right in front of us was an Erwin Hymer showroom and it was open.

I parked Frankie in the Hymer only stellplatz and walked in. The first one caught my eye, €250,000 Niesmann & Bishcoff, very nice, good layout with plenty of storage. I was just pacing it out to check that it would fit on the drive when I hear the call “Wir schliessen” and that was it. 2pm on a Saturday and they’re closing for the weekend. Leisure industry – closed weekends?

Just for that I refused to go to the Hymer museum.

Our destination was a park & ride stellplatz near Ulm. I’ve been to Ulm before but I had to show Lucy the highest steeple in the world. By the time we arrived it was drizzling again so we sat indoors, cuddled some Barlauch soup and planned to walk in to town in the morning.

I’m minding my own business and theres loads of shouting and horn blowing going on outside. A 12 seat table with peddles and steering wheel comes flying past. Someone was steering, hopefully the lemonade drinker at the back. Then the music starts, an Oompah band had started playing nearby with a rousing Win Prosit every 15 minutes. After lots of persuading I’m allowed to go out. We don’t normally go anywhere in the evening but the rain had stopped, I had beer vouchers and a late night pass. Hats, coat, shoes and we’re off trying to follow the music which suddenly stopped.

We found a huge marquee and young musicians were just leaving so we thought that it must have been a party for young adults and they had to get to bed early. Back to the van we walked admiring the park, got in, hats, coats and shoes off, sat down and the bloody music started up again.

The park and ride is on the tram route into town and we’re up and out by 10am. The first tram on a Sunday is at 4.50am if you’re interested. It’s not very hard to see where we need to be heading, it is the highest church steeple in the world after all. The streets were deserted, Sunday morning and not a sole to be seen. It was all rather eerie until we turned into the church square and were confronted by a large market, boot sale and hand made gubbins stalls.

Lucy was a little worried about going in the church but we had no alternative, it had just started pouring down with rain. We’d missed all the services but there were alot of people who had been celebrating Harvest Festival and were milling around getting freebies and bouquets of wheat, barley and oats.

I thought I’d take a photo of the lego model because to get an idea of the height of the tower you need to get far, far away. Or very close.

Lucy volunteered me for the tower climb, it’s only 768 steps (161.53m), you’ll be up and down in no time at all. This was taken half way up, I had to stop for the people in front to catch their breath. I was amazed at how much care was put into carving the stone that was all but invisible from the ground.

Another breath stop, not for me of course, I was hardly out of breath at all.

This is two thirds of the way up. From here it was a single spiral staircase which means squeezing past people coming the other way.

Did I tell you this is the highest church steeple IN THE WORLD? It took 30 minutes to get to the top and even though the weather was a bit naff, the views were amazing.

Thats the Danube flowing past Ulm.

Part of the market.

Back down the bottom I could barely walk and was feeling very dizzy from all the spiral stairs. Lucy had been getting frantic because I was gone so long. This was part of the harvest display.

I was stood right on the very top of that cross.

Strolling through the market we found a diy dentist stall with all the tools you need

I’ll let Stella know which way we’re meant to be going.

Luckily Lucy found a comfort stop, what a beautiful building dated 1540.

The windows were lovely as well, you can see some of the wall paintings below the window sill.

And a very well earned beer of the day. I learnt it so much I had to have another.

On the way back to Frankie we found a stall selling the soups that we like although this was a different manufacturer and they do send to the UK. We bought a tub of Pumpkin soup and have been sat nursing mugs as the rain starts beating down again.

We are heading off tomorrow but the museum we want to visit is closed on Mondays. The stellplatz we are aiming for does have electric so we might try and get some of that to recharge some of the batteries.