Day 6
Day 6
Friday, August 18, 2006
Ulm, Germany
The first travel day, we got up, ate, packed and checked out of the hotel, heard our last “Charlottenplatz” song and got on a train to Ulm. I had to buy a ticket from that machine again because I couldn’t activate my Eurail pass yet. In Ulm we decided to forgo the bus and Just walk the short trip to our hotel, we crossed a highway, and wander through a park only to find that the bridge across the river had been torn down and was being reconstructed, so close but still on the otherside of the river. We walked up the river to the next bridge and back down the river to our hotel. We each got our own rooms in the hotel. After a brief rest we met back in the lobby where the candy bowls were promptly emptied as we waited for the stragglers. We walked up through the town and had a quick hamburger lunch along the way. We took a bus out to the University of Ulm and did some sketching of a ¼ mile long timber framed building designed by Otto Stiedler. The were some other interesting university buildings around, it is interesting how German University buildings are so light, almost temporary feeling compared to our red brick collegiate buildings. Back in town we visited the Ulm Cathedral its very tall spire, and pews which could be reversed to face backwards (a design we later encountered on Spanish trains). Across the plaza from the cathedral was a Richard Meier town center/museum building that didn’t fit into the context at all and seemed very bland. Its rooms were almost unusable for artwork because of the overabundance of glass. Every time he made a good move with the light in the building, he would counteract it. For example, in one room he placed a narrow skylight against one wall so that light could wash down it but he also made one full wall of this room glass so that the effect of the light was negated. For dinner we ate pizza next to a strange all glass modern library building with a peaked glass roof. We went back to the hotel for a little break and then Ian, Kent Josh and I decided to go hit the town. At first we couldn’t find any people hanging out. But we eventually ran into a bachelorette party, they were offering kisses, or marzipan mice for a euro, although by the time we figured that out with the language barrier they had grown board of the Americans and were ready to move on. Moments later we saw a bunch of fireworks going off next to the cathedral, we went to check it out and found that they were shooting them off of the Meier building, although we couldn’t figure out why. A couple more laps around the downtown and we ended up finding a really cool bar/dance club crammed into an old cellar with a brick vaulted ceiling. They played the best mix of 80’s music (everything from Joan Jett to House of Pain), finally the room was getting too packed and claustrophobic and I ended up leaving with Kent.
Friday, August 18, 2006
Ulm, Germany
The first travel day, we got up, ate, packed and checked out of the hotel, heard our last “Charlottenplatz” song and got on a train to Ulm. I had to buy a ticket from that machine again because I couldn’t activate my Eurail pass yet. In Ulm we decided to forgo the bus and Just walk the short trip to our hotel, we crossed a highway, and wander through a park only to find that the bridge across the river had been torn down and was being reconstructed, so close but still on the otherside of the river. We walked up the river to the next bridge and back down the river to our hotel. We each got our own rooms in the hotel. After a brief rest we met back in the lobby where the candy bowls were promptly emptied as we waited for the stragglers. We walked up through the town and had a quick hamburger lunch along the way. We took a bus out to the University of Ulm and did some sketching of a ¼ mile long timber framed building designed by Otto Stiedler. The were some other interesting university buildings around, it is interesting how German University buildings are so light, almost temporary feeling compared to our red brick collegiate buildings. Back in town we visited the Ulm Cathedral its very tall spire, and pews which could be reversed to face backwards (a design we later encountered on Spanish trains). Across the plaza from the cathedral was a Richard Meier town center/museum building that didn’t fit into the context at all and seemed very bland. Its rooms were almost unusable for artwork because of the overabundance of glass. Every time he made a good move with the light in the building, he would counteract it. For example, in one room he placed a narrow skylight against one wall so that light could wash down it but he also made one full wall of this room glass so that the effect of the light was negated. For dinner we ate pizza next to a strange all glass modern library building with a peaked glass roof. We went back to the hotel for a little break and then Ian, Kent Josh and I decided to go hit the town. At first we couldn’t find any people hanging out. But we eventually ran into a bachelorette party, they were offering kisses, or marzipan mice for a euro, although by the time we figured that out with the language barrier they had grown board of the Americans and were ready to move on. Moments later we saw a bunch of fireworks going off next to the cathedral, we went to check it out and found that they were shooting them off of the Meier building, although we couldn’t figure out why. A couple more laps around the downtown and we ended up finding a really cool bar/dance club crammed into an old cellar with a brick vaulted ceiling. They played the best mix of 80’s music (everything from Joan Jett to House of Pain), finally the room was getting too packed and claustrophobic and I ended up leaving with Kent.
posted by idiovoyager at 12:30 AM
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