May 19, 2016 Day 13:
Today was our last day as a group.  We traveled to Ulm for a culture visit.  Coming off the train, we saw a church tower in the distance.  Initially, it reminded me of the Cathedral of Learning due to its stature and its ability to be viewed from basically anywhere in the city.  We met our tour guide at the base of the church, and she took us inside the Munster, which we found out was the name of the church tower.  This was definitely my favorite church we visited on the trip.  It was so spacious with dark wood pews and a beautiful organ in the top.  We entered and we heard the organ playing; the acoustics in the stone walls were amazing. I got to spend time listening to the music and observing the different types of stained glass.  What interested me was the fact that there were different "eras" of stained glass, such as the oldest stained glass, which was the darkest.  This glass had more brown and dark yellow hues.  The next era of stained glass was from 1700-1800, I forget the exact years.  This glass had lighter, happier colors, like greens, and blues.  Then the last made me sad, it was the stained glass that replaced the old windows that were damaged in the war.  These were bland, white tinted windows.  I was upset that these beautiful pieces of art were lost forever, just to be replaced by boring pieces of glass.
We left the church and got to see some of Ulm's architecture.  Like some of Bavaria, Ulm had half-timber houses, however there were many buildings with odd colors (like oranges and greens).  I found it very interesting that people live in odd colored houses.  My favorite part of the tour was seeing Ulm's Rathaus.  It had this beautiful zodiac clock on the side.  It was a beautiful sight, and I thought it was a really cool concept.  Clocks are another thing that fascinate me; I just don't understand how that clock could function, since it had the time but also the zodiac figure for that time of year.  The zodiac hand must have a very slow moving cog working for it.
We got to see a couple of leaning buildings which seemed to be a feat of both engineering and physics.  We left our tour guide and went to this restaurant that had sweet and savory crepes.  I got an apple pie crepe with the best vanilla ice cream I have ever tasted.  After eating, we had about an hour until we had to climb the Munster tower.  A few of us went to explore some shops, including a mall down the street, where I bought sweatpants.
We made our way back to the tower, and started our ascent.  The trip up the stairs made me realize how out of shape I am.  By the time I got to the top of the 768 stairs, my breath was taken away once again.  The sight was so beautiful, neither words nor pictures can do it justice.  There was just so much to take in.  The steps and pain were so worth it.
Once going back down the stairs, we got to take a moment to relax.  My legs were shaking so bad, so I just walked it off.  That climb was arguably one of the hardest things I've had to do, and I've taken calculus two.  We headed back to the train station just to find out our train was delayed.  We got to explore the train station a bit before going back to Augsburg.
For dinner, we went back to the Augsburg Rathaus and ate in the Ratskeller.  I was sad to leave the German students, but I was also excited to go back home.  As much as I'll miss Germany, I just want to sleep in my own bed.