Great news, everyone!
Like everyone, I have a list titled "things to do before I die" and I am happy to say that this has been a good year.
I got off to a good start on 1/24/09 when I got to check the box titled: "marry the woman of my dreams" (Hi Honey, look, I have a blog). Now, on a good year, you check one box. This year, I also checked the "make an extended visit to Europe" box. However, I recently check a third box, titled "climb to the top of the world's tallest church steeple"
If this is not on your list, it should be. It was really something. However, based on the way I felt after climbing to the top of the world's tallest steeple, I have decided to erase from the list, "climb to the top of Mt. Everest". Turns out that the world's tallest steeple, which I will refer to as "TWTS" from now on, is 530 ft high (161.5 meters) and is reached by climbing 768 steps. The stairway all the way to the top is spiral staircase. So, you have the pleasure of being dizzy, as well as tired, when you get to the top.
Mt. Everest is 29,029 ft above sea level, which is 8,848 meters or 5.5 miles. I decided to sacrifice the last 28,499 ft and scratch it off the list. I will downgrade it on the list to "see Mt. Everest".
I wonder how many "steps" it would be to climb Mt. Everest? Turns out it is 42,064 steps (on TWTS conversion scale), so I am only 41,296 steps away, not to mention oxygen starvation and possible death. Maybe I could climb TWTS 53.7 times and call it a day.
At a cost of Euro $4 per climb, that would run me Euro $216 or USD $302. That is a lot cheaper then the cost to summit Everest, which is around USD $60,000 (fully supported). So, I saved $59,698 going with plan "B". I feel like my net worth just increased. Maybe I will spend the difference on a pre-owned, well cared for, Ferrari but it would have to be an older, more common model as $60K doesn't buy much Ferrari.
/
On a side note (I have lots of those, don't I), I will share an interesting (to me, anyways) story about Ferrari ownership. The house I owned in Denver was only 10 minutes away for the Ferrari dealership. I would wander around the dealership periodically and got to talking to the sales manager about a particular car for sale. It was a 1984 Ferrari 308 (like Magnum PI drove to help the (more seasoned) ladies form a visual). The sale mgr told me that the last time they saw the car was for its 5 year maintence. Every 5 years, a Ferrari has to have all its belts changed. Well, a Ferrari, up until the last 10 years or so, had to have the engine pulled to to this. The cost of a 5 year maintenence was around $8000 assuming nothing else needed to be done. This car was brought in for its 5 year maintenence and then returned to its owner. The car was brought in again, 5 years later for it maintenence, and had been driven only a few hundred miles before being offered for sale. Needless to say, that was a very expensive few hundred miles. A 1984 308 can be had for around $45,000 but who wants to pay for maintenence. Maybe me at some point in the future (its on the list, btw).
On a side, side note, ave mileage for a Ferrari per year is around 1,000 to 1,500 miles. So, you can expect a 10 year old Ferrari to have about 10,000 to 15,000 mile on it. I think 12,000 miles is the average yearly mileage for a car operated in the US so you can see that driving a Ferrari is limited to weekends mostly and not used as a daily driver.
On a side, side, sidenote, I have cars I drive less then that at a rate of only a few hundred miles per year. Probably need to sell those (at least the '91 Toyota MR2 but not my '88 BMW M3, which is considered an entry level collectable).
Now where was I?
The Ulm Cathedral is technically not a cathedral since no Bishop was ever seated there. However, it is the largest Lutheren Church in Germany and the second largest church in Germany overall. This is unusual that the largest Lutheren Church is found in S. Germany since most of S. Germany is Catholic (Lutheren's own N. Germany though).
In 1377, the foudation stone was laid. The steeple had reached a height of 100m in 1543 and construction was halted. In 1817, some 274 years later, work on the final leg of the steeple restarted and was completed in 1890. It was the tallest building in the world for a few years.
The town of Ulm itself is very old as is the case with many cities on the bigger rivers in Europe like the Danube River. It was founded in 850. The city doesn't look very old although there is a fortified wall that is pretty long and has gun ports (slits) in it as well as a fort-like tower overlooking the wall that was built in the 1350's.
Most of the town doesn't look very old because a lot of it has been rebuilt after WWII. Turns out that Ulm was home to a couple of truck factories which were very important to the German war effort (logistics is critical to any campaign). Lacking the ability to produce end items critical for war and/or get them to soldiers was the reason Napoleon and Hitler were defeated.
When the war was all over and the dust settled, 80% of Ulm lay in ruins. It was rebuilt in the plain and simple ways of the '50s and 60's.
Miraculously, the chruch sustained only minor damage. Thankful, there were no military targets close to the chuch (keep in mind that precision bombs did not exit then, job got done using massive quantities of bombs using a drop point determined by the best guess of the bombadier in the lead aircraft). Turns out that the church was used as a navigation point for aircraft as well as the bombing the city. Remember, there was no GPS back then and landmarks that could be identified from 20,000 ft confirmed that an aircraft was where it was suppose to be or if they were off course, the landmark told them where they were, thus, helping them get back on course.
Miraculously, the chruch sustained only minor damage. Thankful, there were no military targets close to the chuch (keep in mind that precision bombs did not exit then, job got done using massive quantities of bombs using a drop point determined by the best guess of the bombadier in the lead aircraft). Turns out that the church was used as a navigation point for aircraft as well as the bombing the city. Remember, there was no GPS back then and landmarks that could be identified from 20,000 ft confirmed that an aircraft was where it was suppose to be or if they were off course, the landmark told them where they were, thus, helping them get back on course.
Like every town/city I have been to, this one had a very active town square and on Saturday, the farmers' market was in full swing. Best I can tell, most places which could not really be called a "city" don't have supermarkets like we know them. The farmers' market had everything you would need to prepare meals including butchers, fresh eggs, fresh pasta, spices, all kinds of vegtables, cheese, fresh bread and olive oil.
In fact one booth, which was rather large, sold nothing but cheese. There must have been 100 different kinds available. My Brother In Law, Don, a chef by profession who has spent time learning his trade in Europe, probably wishes something like this could be found in towns across America. The supermarket chain where he is the Executive Chef, Wegman's, works very hard at trying to replicate this vibe in their stores.
When I left for Ulm, about an hour away, it was raining pretty hard in Stuttgart. I wasn't going to sit in my room all day so I left while it was still raining hoping it would break by the time I got to Ulm. Luckily, it did. However, the rest of the day was overcast and it drizzled occasionally which is not very good weather for taking high quality pictures. I apologive in advance that they are probably not what you have come to expect. I hope to get back on a nicer day to better capture what I say. That's it for the world's tallest steeple. Check my flickr page for pics.
Coming up: Strasbourg, France, where I will celebrate the 4th of July. Take that, Frenchie!
Cheers,
Michael
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