Oeschinensee

We went up with a cable car and walked to a glacial lake called Oeschinensee...

The lake was fed by many waterfalls coming down from various glaciers.

I'm in this picture

Berner Oberland

The next night, we stayed in a hotel in the Berner Oberland, in the middle of the mountains.

The ideal mountain, I think.

Here is the hotel. Built in 1753.

Iseltwald

A little town also on the Brienzersee, where we swam.

Brienzersee

We stayed in an amazing hotel on the Brienzersee.

View from my window

You could walk behind the waterfall.

Drive through Switzerland

M. B. and the motorcycle

Black Forest

Just some snapshots from the window of a train going through Baden-Württemberg...

Schwörmontag & Nabada

This is, in theory, the main event of the whole weekend: the mayor's speech and his yearly oath to uphold the laws of the city.

Now the real craziness starts: the Nabada. In the Swabian dialect this means something like "swimming down the river."

Below you see the calm before the storm. 

I don't have any photos of my own of the Nabada for reasons that will soon become obvious. The event basically consists of thousands of people piling into thousands of inflatable boats, armed with water guns and buckets, and having an massive water fight as they flow down the Danube. Yes, I took part, and yes, it was awesome. In addition to the private inflatable boats there are giant floats with huge papier-mâché figures (for example of the mayor or chancellor) and boats belonging to music clubs, in which entire bands, tubas and all, play music as they float along down the river.

But you can see lots of photos by clicking here. It's definitely worth a click. Just imagine me right in the middle.

Then Monday night is a big party throughout the whole city of Ulm.

Fischerstechen

Spectators on the banks of the Danube... We are here to see the "Fischerstechen," another part of the Schwörmontag festivities. This one also has very old historical roots: many of the leading families of Ulm back in the middle ages were fishers and were part of fisher guilds. At some point they started doing this sort of aquatic jousting event, and the people who take part today are, I was told, still part of these families.

Here, costumed VIPs are brought over to special seating on boats... I'm sure there is a complicated explanation for all this.

The Fischerstechen goes as follows: after being announced by a commentator, two boats depart opposite sides of the river and head toward each other. Each boat has three rowers and one person, at the back, dressed up as some historical or comical character. These characters have lances or sticks, which they can only hold using one hand, and which they use to try to knock each other off the boats.

Here's my video of it:

Afterwards we went into Ulm for a concert in the Münsterplatz. The whole weekend, we had very sunny, very hot weather.

Münster

Lichteserenade

Above: Ulm and the Danube.

In Ulm, this Monday is a festival called "Schwörmontag" or Swear-Monday, in which the mayor of the city has to swear to uphold its laws and so on. This started in the 14th century after a controversy between the patricians and guilds of the city (thanks, Wikipedia).

The whole weekend is filled with festivities so be prepared for photos.

On the Saturday night before Schwörmontag they put on this spectacle called Lichteserenade (light serenade) in which thousands of candles float down the Danube.

We had a great view from the balcony of an apartment building in Neu-Ulm (Neu-Ulm is the city across the Danube from Ulm--Ulm is in Baden-Württemberg, Neu-Ulm in Bavaria).

In prominent view is the Ulmer Münster. Its steeple makes it the tallest church in the world, and don't you forget it!

 

 

The first boats going up the Danube--they released the lights.

Lieder zum Wandern und für frohe Stunden