To Ulm and Augsburg: markets and angels

Ulma

Wake up at 5 and before 6 we leave by car from Varese.

We buy at customs the annual sticker for the Swiss highways (just under 30 euros).

We cross Swiss territory in the dark and under constant rain.

We go through the St. Bernardino tunnel fearing snow at the tunnel exit but we're lucky and it doesn't snow.

A technical stop at one of the rare service areas in Switzerland, we enter and exit Austria and here we are in Germany.

Before 11:00 we're in Ulm.

We waste some time looking for our hotel located, on a canal, in the fishermen's quarter Fischerviertel.

A few words about our hotel because it deserves them.

It's called SCHIEFES HAUS; it's not a simple hotel but the historic building par excellence of Ulm. It dates back to 1500 and is in the Guinness Book of Records as the most crooked house in Europe.

It has an incredible charm. Even the rooms, with very old exposed wooden beams, but modernly renovated, have a slanted floor. Our room, perhaps the one in the prime position, overlooks the small canal itself and a gentle sound of water accompanies us throughout the night.

Groups of tourists stop in front of our windows taking photos and we are all proud and pleased to lean out, as if to say "we're staying here".

The price is medium-high but for just one night, it's doable.

We park the car in the hotel garage and begin our visit of Ulm.

We're lucky: it's sunny and the temperature is quite warm.

We start the visit from the quarter where we are, the Fischerviertel (fishermen's quarter) with ancient half-timbered houses, canals and small bridges.

We reach the center and photograph the decorated Town Hall (Rathaus).

We visit the interior of the cathedral (Munster) and obviously we scout the Christmas market that is located right here and consists of about 130 stalls.

We buy a ceramic house (which obviously reproduces our hotel) for our collection, some sweets, and the traditional mulled wine in the market's ceramic mugs.

At the end, we wander through the surrounding streets and related shops.

We look for a restaurant for the evening, but we discover that in Ulm there aren't many.

Fascinated by the building, we decide to book at the Bistrò/Cafè ALEXANDRE located right in the Town Hall building.

There isn't much choice of dishes, no typical German dishes or almost none, but we spend very little.

Augusta

Careful breakfast at the hotel, where the "savory" part is favored over the sweet one and then we get in the car heading to AUGUSTA.

The distance is short. About 77 km, so in 1 hour we're already in the city.

This time we reach the hotel without any difficulty.

The directions they provided us in the booking email are extremely precise.

Our Hotel is called AUSBURGER HOF and belongs to the careful ROMANTIK HOTEL chain. As the word itself says, all the hotels belonging to this chain are particularly romantic, located in buildings of particular charm and very careful in the details. It's not the first time we've stayed in hotels of this chain and we've always been very satisfied: a suggestive hotel leaves a particular memory of the vacation, helping to make it memorable.

Unfortunately today it's raining and it will rain all day.

So we visit the beautiful city of Augusta with the umbrella. Fortunately here, unlike Ulm, there are quite a few interesting buildings to visit inside.

We start the cultural visit from the Cathedral, which is near our hotel.

It's a large building, very complex, perhaps a bit austere, with an adjoining cloister.

Then we move on to the visit of the town hall (Rathaus) where you visit the beautiful golden hall.

We then walk along the central Maximilian Straat and here we visit the Schaezlerpalais.

It's the city art gallery, with also important paintings (besides the German artists there is also a Canaletto, a Tiepolo and a Veronese). But the best thing about the palace is without a doubt the festival hall, a splendid Rococo salon.

Finally we visit the church of St. Ulrich and then we go on to scout the streets with the numerous shops.

We then return to the Town Hall building in whose square the Christmas market is held.

If the city of Augusta is certainly more interesting than Ulm, the market instead is slightly smaller and the stalls are also less original.

In fact, we buy almost nothing. We only drink hot apple juice, in the Augsburg mugs.

In the afternoon we go to visit the Fuggerei: a characteristic complex of social housing, to be precise, the oldest in the world. Inside the village of yellow houses, it's possible to visit the church and the museum, with the original furnishings of the Fuggerei houses.

After a short afternoon nap at the hotel, we go out punctually for 18:00 to attend the "Angels" show at the windows of the Town Hall.

24 Angel figures, complete with blond wigs and wings, appear from the illuminated windows of the Town Hall. A small group of musician angels performs a short concert from the balcony of the town hall and so, the play of lights, the evocative music, the dreamlike clothes of the angels, create a truly suggestive atmosphere.

After the short show, we do some shopping in the stores (which stay open until late) and then we go in search of a restaurant. Here too the undertaking is rather difficult, the restaurants are truly few; but where on earth do these Germans eat? From what we see, their preferred situation is eating sandwiches with wurstel standing up, at the market!

We instead look for a traditional Bavarian restaurant with typical dishes of the German tradition.

Following the advice of our Green Touring Guide, we dine at Zum Weissen Hasen (always remember to book).

The menu is only in German (never in English) and so, trusting a bit in intuition, we order a couple of dishes blindly.

All in all it went pretty well for us! We manage quickly and at low prices.

For dessert we return to the market in search of something truly special. We find it and order 2 Dampfnudel: it's a sweet bun drowned in a bowl of hot vanilla cream and topped with sugar and cinnamon. Remarkable and abundant!

After this, all that's left is to head to our hotel for a night of well-deserved rest.

Landsberg am Lech

After a breakfast, also today not at all disappointing, we take the car parked in the convenient hotel garage and head to the nearby Landsberg Am Lech.

Unfortunately we arrive too early and the town is still sleeping.

We discover alas that the Christmas market only opens at 13:00. What can we do to pass the time?

We decide to visit the town, street by street.

The town is colorful and nice, but on a Sunday morning it's perhaps a bit sad!

We notice the pleasant Mutterturm (it recalls the turret of a witches' castle), the nearby weirs that create many small cascades on the river, we walk to the colorful Bayertor (symbolic entrance gate of the city itself) and then we stop in the Town Hall square with the beautiful facade (you can visit it, but not on Sundays).

We also visit the numerous churches of the city, a good 3 of them, one more beautiful than the other. In particular, in the main square there is the Pfarkirche Maria Himmelfahrt, in Baroque style with a magnificent organ. Also nice is the small covered wooden bridge, over the little river that crosses the town.

While waiting we enter a beautiful pastry shop (Konditorei in German), where we order two big cups of hot chocolate and buy an assortment of sweets to take home.

We then quickly visit the market, very small but nice, and then return home

The last stop to mention is the stop at the service area in Switzerland, near Chur. The service area has a name, it's called HEIDILAND complete with Heidi herself appearing from the turret at set times.

The interior is all well cared for, beautiful bathrooms, even a fake mill.

Well-stocked minimarket where it's possible to buy every kind of chocolate (obviously) and Swiss souvenirs. Dani and Max for more information, visit our website:

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