Ulm, Triberg & Stuttgart

My twin sister and I had an incredible weekend.  On Friday afternoon, Kim and I packed our bags and prepared to walk to the train station in Bayreuth so that we could travel to Ulm to see our friend, Mike, who is studying at Universität Ulm as a fellow DAAD RISE participant.  Luckily, we managed to find our American friends at Universität Bayreuth, who were going to Dresden for the weekend, and they convinced us to take a bus to the train station.  At the Hauptbahnhof, we took the 4:27 PM train from Bayreuth to Nuremberg.  Once we arrived in Nuremberg, we took a train to Donauwörth, and from Donauwörth, we rode to Ulm.

            When we got to Ulm, we found Mike waiting for us at the train station.  To get to Mike’s flat, we had to walk along a main road, which enabled us to have a fantastic view of the church for which Ulm is famous.  We were exhausted from the long train ride, so we decided to watch “Pan’s Labyrinth.”  I have seen this movie before but enjoyed it nonetheless, especially because I got to practice my Spanish (the movie is in Spanish with English subtitles).

            The next morning, we somehow woke up at 4:30 AM so that we could make it to the Hauptbahnhof for a 6:00 AM train to the Black Forest (German: Schwarzwald) in Triberg.  Though the scenery was beautiful and unlike anything I had seen before, I slept for a good portion of the train ride. 

            We arrived in Triberg at around 9:30 AM.  The Black Forest is essentially famous for three things: Germany’s tallest waterfalls, cuckoo clocks, and Black Forest cake, all three of which we were fortunate enough to experience firsthand.  Since it rained for about an hour or two, we had time to browse through tourist shops and admired the very intricate German cuckoo clocks.  Once the rain cleared up, we went to the “Wasserfall,” where we saw some of Germany’s most gorgeous waterfalls. 

            Mike, Kim, and I had dinner at a traditional German hotel restaurant.  I ordered ravioli with tossed salad and German potatoes.  After finishing up our dinner, we walked over to a different place to grab some dessert.  Of course, we had to try the famous German Black Forest Cake, which is basically made up of whipped cream, cherries, and chocolate bread with an alcoholic taste.  The cake was delicious.  I highly recommend going to the Black Forest to try it.

            Once we had finished our dessert, we took a train back to Ulm and walked through the inner city.  Here, we saw clowns making balloon animals for children.  Mike had to stop at a bank, and we were very surprised to see a dog in there, waiting on the side as his master took out money.  My favorite spotting was that of the “bier bike,” a giant bar on wheels being powered by men who were pedaling while drinking their beers.  The goal is for them to lose the weight that they gain in the process of consuming alcohol.  I took a pretty funny video of this crazy vehicle.  We continued walking and came upon the site where Albert Einstein’s childhood home used to be.  Now there is a marker commemorating the spot where Eintstein’s house once stood.

            The next morning, we woke up at 6:30 AM and caught the 7:00 AM train to Stuttgart.  Upon arriving in Stuttgart, we were somewhat disappointed by the fact that all of the shops were closed because it was a Sunday.  Nonetheless, after taking a few train rides within Stuttgart, we were able to find some livelihood.  For lunch, we ate at a typical American place: Subway.  We each got the combination meal; I had the tuna sandwich, a Coke, and a chocolate chip cookie.  The lady working at Subway was very nice and very tolerant of our lack of German vocabulary (she spoke English).  After going to Subway, we walked around the main plaza for a few minutes, where we saw several fountains.  There was a marching band performing under a gazebo, which created a pleasant atmosphere. 

            At around 2:00 PM, we took a train from Stuttgart back to Ulm.  As soon as we got back to the Ulm train station, we bought McFlurries.  I don’t usually eat McDonald’s food, but several people have told me to try the German McFlurry.  I had one with toffee pieces, which convinced me that McFlurries are ten times better here in Germany than the ones in America.  On another note, all of the McDonald’s workers in Germany have to wear signature McDonald’s jeans, which have the golden arch on the back pocket!

            We said goodbye to Mike at around 4:30 PM and got onboard our train to Crailsheim.  The ride was somewhere around two hours long.  The train was comprised of only two carts and was very old (so there was no air conditioning).  There were also many little kids running up and down the aisle every few minutes, so I did not sleep at all during the train ride. 

We had three minutes to transfer to a train that would be heading to Nuremberg.  On this ride, we met a twenty-year-old German student from Nuremberg named Martin.  We had a very interesting conversation with him, though a very difficult one because he knew little English.  We asked him to tell us his opinion of America.  He told us that he hates American politics, because “America started a war and George Bush is bad.”  He was under the impression that all Americans are fat, that they eat McDonald’s several times a week, and that American girls have numerous boyfriends at the same time.  He asked about the “bums” of New York and wanted to know what we think of Europeans.  He told us that American girls are “great,” but that he wants to stay in Germany because he is very much attached to the countryside here.

Martin explained to us that all of his stereotypes about American culture were based on the few American television shows that he had seen.  He had never actually met or spoken with “real” Americans until this point.  We corrected his misconceptions and he proudly stated that he could now say that American culture is different from the way that it is represented on television.  “Germans have it all wrong when it comes to their idea of Americans,” he concluded.  He promised to tell his professor tomorrow (Monday, June 29, 2009) that he had met two nice American girls and would recount our conversation to his German friends so that he might also correct their misconceptions of the American way of life.  Happy to be one of our “first German friends,” he allowed us to take a picture of him so that we could show our family and friends back home in the States.

After our train arrived in Nuremberg, we took one final train home to Bayreuth.  We had a pretty quiet ride and listened to our iPods for most of the trip.  The train got to Bayreuth at around 8:30 PM.  We walked home with our suitcases through the Hofgarten and got back to our flats at about 9:00 PM.  Thereafter, we made dinner in Kim’s kitchen (rice and pineapples) and then went back to our rooms and unpacked.  All in all, we had an amazing weekend visiting Ulm, Triberg, and Stuttgart and cannot wait to do some more traveling throughout Germany in the weeks to come.  Ciao!