The morning of 15 April we went shopping in all the quaint little shops we had seen the evening before in Rothenburg ob der Tauber. We found several lovely handmade items to bring home with us. However our favorite shop was the toystore. It seems specialized plush toys are popular in the Rothenburg area, especially plush bears. Faywen and I first say “Wolfgang” on the shelf and fell in love with this rather odd-looking toy bear. Next we showed Seamus, then Liam, and finally Robert who swooped the bear from the dark shadows of the top shelf and said, “He’s the new family bear and needs a home!” The poor little thing is rather scraggly looking, but he has such a sweet and loving face!
Ornate corner window 
This tunnel runs through St. Jakob’s Cathedral 
Tower on the wall
The family chose to name him Wolfgang.
We grabbed some of those Sneeball desserts Faywen saw the night before and headed to the car to drive an hour south to Ulm, Germany. Ulm is the birthplace of Albert Einstein. It is also where Johannes Kepler lived for a bit, but it’s mostly known as the home of the world’s tallest church!
Ulmer Münster’s (Ulm Minster) spire reaches 161.5 meters (530ft.) tall. The main church building was begun in the mid 14th century and the spire was completed in the 19th century. The parish was originally Roman Catholic, but only loosely. The people of Ulm decided to build a church and Ulm Minster never had a Bishop. In 1530 the parishioners decided it was time to join an official religious group and chose the new Lutheran Protestant Church. It is still Lutheran today.
If you’ve been following my blogs then you know our family is just a wee bit OBSESSED with climbing church towers!!! So now we can say we’ve climbed the world’s tallest church spire! The 768 steps take you within 12 meters (60ft.) of the top! I won’t lie, it was pretty grueling, but well worth the climb. From the top you could see for miles across the red roofs of Ulm out into the farmland.
First steps in the South Tower 
Made it to the first viewpoint. Okay really it was a place to catch our breath!
About 1/3 of the way up there was a door leading to a little chapel. 
Cool gargoyle!
The wind whipped as we ascending the last 200 or so steps in the open spire itself. The stairs were very narrow, but well lit, since the spire was open and carved with ornate geometric and gothic arches. The top platform around the spire was only about 3 feet wide, but you felt safe with the metal fencing. While ascending the main tower the church bells rang the hour. They were below us and I just happened to be video recording our ascent. It was magnificent hearing the bells chime below us!
On the roof: From here we climbed the spire that is behind the kids. 
Robert entering the 19th century spire 
The first steps of the spire
View through ornate spire window 
Cammi climbing down the spire
Ah back to wider tower stairs! 
Last steps in the North Tower
Ulm Minster was just as beautiful on the inside. There were many original stain glass windows, but also several new mid-century windows. We discovered that these were installed soon after WWII. The Allies spared Ulm Minster when they bombed the city in the spring of 1945, but the shockwaves blew out several of the old church windows. As a war memorial, the parishioners chose a local artist to make the new stain glass windows.
WWII memorial stain glass windows 
There are two pulpits. One is for the Pastor and the other above him is for the Holy Spirit!
Now we can say that we’ve climbed the world’s tallest church!
Camellia's Travel Blog 