No, no we didn’t go to Strasbourg, we wanted a change of scene. Instead we decided to push on and head east, back into Germany. Sorry Strasbourg, we’re sure you’re lovely.
The weather was foul that day, it rained hard for hours on the way to the Schwasbishe Alb (Swabian Jura) mountain region, but we still enjoyed the scenery. We got the boat over the Rhine and drove through the middle of the Black Forest—we’ve visited before, so we didn’t stop this time—past the town of Rottweil, and to a small place called Tieringen, where we found a great spot to wild camp for the night.
After the glorious heat and sunshine we had experienced for the previous week, it was a bit of a shock to be cold again, but we were nearly 1000m up and the sun had not come out at all, so it was to be expected.
The following morning, the sun was back and it turned out to be a glorious day.
We got lucky with our camping spot, as unbeknown to us it’s the start of many hikes. We did a small 11Km (7 milles) walk through meadows covered in flowers and forests filled with ransoms. The views down to the steep valley below were excellent and we thoroughly enjoyed our walk.
We decided to stay another night as it was such a blissful spot, enjoying watching the Red Kites and Fieldfares flying around.
The next day, we stopped over at Ulm, Einstein’s birthplace.
Aside from that claim to fame, the other is that it has the tallest church/cathedral tower in the world (161m), and it is certainly impressive. You can climb to nearly the top of it by 768 steps, but we ate a wurst instead and watched as people climbed up the circular staircase that is on the outside cathedral.
Inside, the height of the ceilings are also some of the tallest we’ve seen. Basically It’s a huge Gothic cathedral inside and out and a very impressive one.
We went to try and see Einstein’s memorial which marks his birthplace, but sadly it was covered up as there was some building works in the area. Instead we found a strange fountain shaped like a rocket with a snail shell on top and Einstein’s head popping out of it, tongue out and all. Quite bizarre.
We pushed on east after this, a couple of over night stops on our way to Passau, not far from the Austrian/German border.
This is another sweet place with a small old town set on a peninsula where the Danube, the Inn (which starts in St Moritz lake) and also a smaller third river, the Ilz merge.
It was the first time we heard english voices for a while. Being on the Danube, this city is a stopover on river cruises.
Even though there were a few boats moored up, the place was relatively low on tourists.
The old town is mostly in the Baroque style, with some interesting buildings, but again it was the inside of the cathedral that blew us over. Such detail. It’s filled with statues, curved leaf-like plasterwork, and frescos all over the ceiling. It must have cost a fortune to build this place back in the 1600s.
Finally we climbed up to the castle-museum to get some views down below.
Well, the weather looks set to be pretty rubbish for a few days all around the area that we’re in, so we’re probably going to chill out in the Bavarian forest and do… not a lot, before we head off into Czechia.
Walking in the Swabian Jura
Passau
The weather was foul that day, it rained hard for hours on the way to the Schwasbishe Alb (Swabian Jura) mountain region, but we still enjoyed the scenery. We got the boat over the Rhine and drove through the middle of the Black Forest—we’ve visited before, so we didn’t stop this time—past the town of Rottweil, and to a small place called Tieringen, where we found a great spot to wild camp for the night.
After the glorious heat and sunshine we had experienced for the previous week, it was a bit of a shock to be cold again, but we were nearly 1000m up and the sun had not come out at all, so it was to be expected.
The following morning, the sun was back and it turned out to be a glorious day.
We got lucky with our camping spot, as unbeknown to us it’s the start of many hikes. We did a small 11Km (7 milles) walk through meadows covered in flowers and forests filled with ransoms. The views down to the steep valley below were excellent and we thoroughly enjoyed our walk.
We decided to stay another night as it was such a blissful spot, enjoying watching the Red Kites and Fieldfares flying around.
The next day, we stopped over at Ulm, Einstein’s birthplace.
Aside from that claim to fame, the other is that it has the tallest church/cathedral tower in the world (161m), and it is certainly impressive. You can climb to nearly the top of it by 768 steps, but we ate a wurst instead and watched as people climbed up the circular staircase that is on the outside cathedral.
Inside, the height of the ceilings are also some of the tallest we’ve seen. Basically It’s a huge Gothic cathedral inside and out and a very impressive one.
We went to try and see Einstein’s memorial which marks his birthplace, but sadly it was covered up as there was some building works in the area. Instead we found a strange fountain shaped like a rocket with a snail shell on top and Einstein’s head popping out of it, tongue out and all. Quite bizarre.
We pushed on east after this, a couple of over night stops on our way to Passau, not far from the Austrian/German border.
This is another sweet place with a small old town set on a peninsula where the Danube, the Inn (which starts in St Moritz lake) and also a smaller third river, the Ilz merge.
It was the first time we heard english voices for a while. Being on the Danube, this city is a stopover on river cruises.
Even though there were a few boats moored up, the place was relatively low on tourists.
The old town is mostly in the Baroque style, with some interesting buildings, but again it was the inside of the cathedral that blew us over. Such detail. It’s filled with statues, curved leaf-like plasterwork, and frescos all over the ceiling. It must have cost a fortune to build this place back in the 1600s.
Finally we climbed up to the castle-museum to get some views down below.
Well, the weather looks set to be pretty rubbish for a few days all around the area that we’re in, so we’re probably going to chill out in the Bavarian forest and do… not a lot, before we head off into Czechia.
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| Getting the boat across the Rhine |
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| Lunch stop in the Black Forest |
Walking in the Swabian Jura
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| Nice spot for a couple of days |
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| Caminos (JacobsWeg in German) are everywhere |
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| We walked the Hoch Alb Pfade (High Alp Path) |
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| That's a rather large snail |
Ulm
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| The very pretty Rathaus (Town Hall) |
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| You can see on the sides of the tower, the circular staircases |
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| Rocket, snail, Einstein... Of course! |
Passau
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| Follow the colourful road |
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| That Danube has certainly flooded the place a few times, in 2013 it was above the door! |
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| Another pretty Rathaus |
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