Today, Saturday we had the day off from tennis and since it was Pat Purcell’s last day in Germany, she planned the day…mostly.
We started with Robin, Pat and I grocery shopping at Aldi, Lidl and Rewe, which are all near each other…staples from Aldi, bread from Lidl, and yogurts from Rewe.
After shopping we headed to old Ulm to view the Cathedral and perhaps go to the top. However, a concert was going on and the cathedral was closed for a while, so we had “free time” for 45 minutes. There was a farmers’ market going on so I wandered around it for a while. Lots of nice produce, meats and cheeses and flowers were on display.
After looking at the market, I went shoe shopping at “Think Shoes” and got some sandals. I like their shoes and they are half the price here that they are at home, with a much better selection. Robin and Susan found me there and we went back to meet Pat at the Cathedral.
We were on the hunt for Flammkuchen, a regional specialty of Baden-Wurttemberg. It is rather like a very thin pizza, cooked quickly in a brick oven. We got a traditional one of speck (sort of like a cross between bacon and Canadian bacon), onion, leeks and creme fraiche. We also got a “pizza” variety which was also very thin and rectangular, but had tomato sauce and salami on top. Shelly & Scott Works, Willy and Fran Chandler and Mary Dailey of the USA walked in as we were eating and soon were eating a ham pizza themselves. Pat found out that a Pinot Noir wine in this area is more like a Pinot Pink.
After lunch we went to the Cathedral, Ulm Minster (technically not a cathedral), the tallest in the world, over 500 feet high and over 700 steps to the top. Pat thought there was an elevator to the top as she saw people being transported up on the outside but we later figured out that was probably construction workers being moved up mechanically. We got our 5 euro tickets and transported ourselves by foot up the church. Pat made it about 2/3 of the way before going down and we continued up. The last part is narrow and unlike the other staircases has 2-way traffic so going down was tricky. The view from the top though was very nice and it was a clear day. We could see the Danube, and fields and mountains in the distance. And we worked off some of our flammkuchen! We visited the inside of the church afterwards. It’s a beautiful gothic church, as so many are in Europe.
Tomorrow Pat goes back to the USA, Robin, Susan and I are practicing early after taking Pat to the bus station and we have one more free day before the tournament begins.
Draws for the individual world championships are here.