Bread Museum, and the Stairway to Heaven has 764 steps

Hi friends,

Today is my last full day in Ulm, Germany.  Helen and I greeted the day by chowing down on large quanitites of bread and cheese.  This led us to the desire to know and understand bread in a more deeply personal way, so off we went to the Bread Museum.  What, a bread museum?  Yes, the Germans love their bread so much that they want the rest of us to know all about it.  In case you were curious the Germans still believe in the old food pyramid of 6-11 serving of bread a day (I love these people).  You would think I would come out of there more important bread facts but the only thing I truly came away with was those who were in the Bread Guild (kind of like the cult of people from The DaVinci Code) sat in chairs with pretzel shaped backs so people would know how important they were.  Also, there are supposed to be 9 billion people in the world by 2030.  Completely unnrelated to bread, but I think the Germans were trying to make the point of if we are going to invite that many more people to dinner we are going to have to make some more bread.  Not so fun fact, the Bread Museum does not sell bread.  They are missing out on a small fortune.

From there Helen and I went to a cafe outside of the Munster which is basically a Gothic or neo-Gothic church.  We ate delcioius cake and coffee in preparation for climbing to the top of the tallest steeple in all of Europe.  Let's just say, it did not prepare me for what was ahead.  764 stairs is about 760 more stairs than I ever really want to climb.  However, the view was breathtaking.  I could almost see Flo and Sarah's house in Austria.  And by that I mean I could sort of see the Austrian Alps through the haze of clouds.  Fun factoid: after getting married couples climb to the top of the steeple and put locks on the bars surrounding the steeple engraved with their wedding date to symbolize their eternal love.  Pretty adorable.  By the time we reached the bottom of the stairs my legs were completely jelloid.

From there Helen and I found a biergarten to sit and drink beer in, cause what else would you do?  We talked about boys and strolled through a park just enjoying a meandering afternoon.  Lovely.

Tomorrow I go on another big adventure.  I arise at the crack of dawn to go on the "fast" train to Berlin.  I will arrive around 2pm and then I get to explore and go to some more museums.  I will have until about 10pm to explore all I want and then off to the airport because my flight leaves for Amsterdam at 6am.  Egads.  It should be a lovely night of sleeping in a chair on top of my stuff.

Doesn't really matter though!  I am coming home with buckets full of chocolate and am excited to see Bryan and my friends and family again!

I love you all.  If I get a chance I will post tomorrow night and again in Amsterdam!  I will be back in the States the morning of Wednesday!!!

Ciao!