Blaubeuron to Gunzburg 8-17-11

Our gestehaus sign.  The only Italian place we stayed. 

View of the Blau Valley from a Russian castle ruins

Goldenseal along the River Blau

The choir of the Ulm Cathedral

Fountain outside the Ulm Cathedral

Fountain fish

fachwerk house in the fisher and tanners quarter

Lopsided house along the blau

House in the middle of the Blau

Metzger tower

Ulm Rathaus

Rathaus

Rathaus with Cathedral in background

Johanna having eis at fountain

Johanna feeding swan along the river

Gate at Gunzburg

evening dining in Gunzburg

We went to the Monks bath in the morning before we left.  It's the only surviving bathhouse of its kind in Germany.  We followed the Blau river till we got to Ulm.  The Cathedral spire is the tallest in the world, 162 meters.  I suggest you go to google earth to look at it because I couldn't find a place to get the whole church in one picture.  The picture of the choir doesn't do it justice.  The church is gothic and has a lot of reliefs of people being dragged in Hell.  It was under renovation as are about half of the churches we saw. 
One of the cuter sections of town is the fisher and tanner's quarter.  The houses sit in on on the Blau and have tilted or sunk.  The one pictured is used as a hotel and has dining tables almost at river level.  The Metzger's tower leans and legend has it that it started to lean when the local butchers met there to plot how they would deny accusations that they were making their sausages smaller and smaller. 
We stopped at the rathaus for a beer and flammkuchen.  The whole rathaus is painted in murals with saying or stories underneath.  The church in the background shows the size. 
We left and rode on to Gunzburg to the gestehaus Munz.  That night the whole street was full of diners sitting along side  market place.  This is common and I don't think we had a meal indoors unless it was raining. 
Ulm is where we leave Swabia and are back in Bavaria.  J couldn't wait as we were getting tired of spatzle.  We had had it 3 of the last 4 dinners.  She wanted to get back to kartoffel knodels.