Germany (Lonely Planet, 6th Edition) - Andrea Schulte-Peevers [371]
On Bahnhofstrasse sits Max Bill’s monument (1979) to the great physicist, a stack of red-granite pillars marking the spot where Einstein was born.
MUSEUMS
The Museum Pass (€12), sold at the tourist office and participating museums, gets you into seven local museums.
It’s easy to spend half a day discovering the outstanding Ulmer Museum ( 161 4330; Marktplatz 9; adult/concession €3.50/2.50, Fri free; 11am-5pm Tue-Sun, to 8pm Thu), which romps through ancient and modern art, history and archaeology. Standouts feature the 20th-century Kurt Fried Collection, starring Klee, Picasso and Lichtenstein works. Archaeological highlights include tiny Upper Palaeolithic figurines, unearthed in caves in the Swabian Alps, including the 30,000-year-old ivory Löwenmensch (lion man), the world’s oldest zoomorphic sculpture.
The glass-fronted Kunsthalle Weishaupt ( 161 43 60; www.kunsthalle-weishaupt.de, in German; Hans-und-Sophie-Scholl-Platz 1; adult/concession €6/4; 11am-5pm Tue-Sun, to 8pm Thu) right opposite unveils the private collection of Siegfried Weishaupt. The accent is on modern and pop art, with bold paintings by Klein, Warhol and Haring.
How grain grows, what makes a good dough and other bread-related mysteries are unravelled at the Museum der Brotkultur (Museum of Bread Culture; 699 55; www.museum-brotkultur.de; Salzstadelgasse 10; adult/concession €3.50/2.50; 10am-5pm Thu-Tue, to 8.30pm Wed). The collection celebrates bread as the stuff of life over millennia and across cultures, displaying curios from mills to Egyptian corn mummies.
LEGOLAND
A sure-fire kid-pleaser, Legoland Deutschland ( 08221-700 700; www.legoland.de; adult/3-11yr & senior €34/28; from 10am-btwn 6pm & 10pm mid-Apr–early Nov) is a pricey Lego-themed amusement park, with shows, splashy rides and a miniature world built from 25 million Lego bricks. It’s in Günzburg, 30km northeast of Ulm, just off the A8 and served by bus 850.
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SPOT THE SPARROW
You can’t move for Spatzen (sparrows) in the German language. You can eat like one (essen wie ein Spatz) and swear like one (schimpfen wie ein Rohrspatz); there are Spatzenschleuder (catapults), Spätzles (little darlings) and Spatzenhirne (bird brains). Nicknamed Spatzen, Ulm residents are, according to legend, indebted to the titchy bird for the construction of their fabulous Münster.
The story goes that the half-baked builders tried in vain to shove the wooden beams for the minster sideways through the city gate. They fretted and struggled, until suddenly a sparrow fluttered past with straw for its nest. Enlightened, the builders carried the beams lengthways, completed the job and placed a bronze statue of a sparrow at the top to honour the bird.
Today there are sparrows everywhere in Ulm: on postcards, in patisseries, at football matches (team SSV Ulm are dubbed die Spatzen) and, above all, in the colourful sculptures dotting the Altstadt. Watch out for the birdie as you wander.
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Tours
The MS Donau ( 627 51; adult/child €7.50/4.50; May–mid-Oct) cruises the Danube at 2pm, 3pm and 4pm daily, and also at 5pm on weekends. The docks are on the Ulm side, just south of the Metzgerturm. Sportiv Touren ( 970 9298; www.sportivtouren.de, in German; adult/child under 14yr €24.50/17) runs 2½-hour canoe tours from various points on the Danube and Iller Rivers.
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Sleeping
With a little pretrip planning, you can eschew chain drabness in favour of quirky digs in Ulm. The tourist office lists holiday apartments and guesthouses that charge around €20 to €25 per person.
Brickstone Hostel ( 708 2559; www.brickstone-hostel.de; Schützenstrasse 42; dm €18-22, s/d €30/44; ) This converted redbrick house in Neu-Ulm is single-handedly upping the