An der Spur Einsteins

It was a particularly warm Saturday in February (10°C = 50°F) so we decided to make a day trip within Baden-Württenberg. Baden-Württenberg is the state where we live and Deutsche Bahn, the national railway, encourages such trips by offering the Baden-Württenberg ticket: for 29€ ($40) five people can travel to any city in B-W and use that city's local transportation (S-Bahn, U-Bahn, and busses) for one entire day. Even though there were only two of us, it was still a deal, and we decided to visit Ulm.

Why Ulm? For one thing, it has the second-largest Münster (cathedral) in Germany (after Köln) and, for another, it's the birthplace of Einstein. Physicist-son Andrew is on a mission to collect relevant photos of European physicists this year, so we decided to contribute.

Of course, with any great deal, there's a hitch: the B-W ticket limits you to Nahverkehr (regional trains with frequent stops) rather than the high-speed, luxury ICs or ICEs. So we adopted the strategy of commuters everywhere (stuck paperbacks in our backpacks) and arrived in Ulm, some 122 km (76 mi.) away, a scant 90 mins. after stepping through our apartment door.

To American eyes the German rail system, both long-distance and local, is ein Wunder. Germans expect (and get) frequent, punctual-to-the-minute service. I remember standing on the Bahnsteig (platform) during rush hour when it was announced that the S-Bahn would be five minutes late. Even though they're fifteen minutes apart during rush hour, the crowd responded with a huge groan of disappointment. I can easily imagine a similar announcement made at Lincoln's train station about Amtrak's Zephyr would result in cheers of approval!

Just a few steps from the Bahnhof  (Bahnhofstraße 20, actually) is this memorial to the house in which Einstein was born. It gives his birthdate, Mar. 14, 1879, on which he zur Welt kam (came to the world). This phrase, evidently, isn't poetic as I've heard my colleagues use it to describe their children's birth.

Naturally we had to discuss the setup of the picture before taking it and, to our surprise, another group of Einstein devotees, parents and young-adult son, offered, in fluent English to take a picture of the two of us. We hear so little English spoken here that we were a bit taken aback. We quickly learned that the father was an engineering professor on sabbatical from Chile at Universität Karlsruhe, also in B-W. His Ph.D. is from UC Berkeley and they have an older son pursuing his Ph.D. in geology at UC Santa Barbara (to which Andrew was recently accepted). We mentioned we were interested in visiting Karlsruhe and expressed gratitude for their invitation to visit them when we did.

Here are some other spots where we "found Einstein."

India's tribute

Community College

Breakfast till 11 pm!

Of course, the Gothic Münster is the architectural star. Begun in 1377 and completed in 1890, it defied the odds (80% of Ulm's Altstadt, the old city surrounded by a medieval wall, was destroyed in WWII) and remained intact.

Because it has the world's highest church tower, it's visible all over the city. We had only one day in Ulm and passed up the 4€ "invitation" to ascend its 768 steps but would like to return to do so. Even though it was warm outside, the Münster was so cold inside we could see our breath!

Here are a few other Sehenswürdigkeiten (tourist attractions).

 Ornate Rathaus with astronomical clock

Ulm's own "Leaning Tower of Pisa"

Medieval wall on the Danube

Late in the day the afternoon light cast the church in a warm glow.

While Ulm isn't in every tourist book, it's a lovely city, rich with history. If you have a chance, visit it. Es lohnt sich.