Wanderings in Eselsberg

If you take a look at a map of Ulm, you have - unsurprisignly - the cathedral and old town in the middle of the map, Söflingen in the west and Wissenshaftsstadt (Science City) in the north west. This is where I work. It's a nice easy name to remember when you first arrive in Germany. In between the city and my work is the Universität, Botanischer Gartens and (if you look with Google Maps and its satellite view) a large amount of green forested area. I'm not sure if this forested area is protected or if it's just a coincidence that it has survived the developers, but it's very green and very lush and whenever the bus has gone through there on the way to work I have thought that I should hop off one day to have a wander around.

Wandering through the secluded forest - minutes from Ulm!

So on Saturday I had to work a bit in order to build up some flexitime for my trip to Australia and I decided to walk home from work. It's getting cold here in Ulm now and every night a thick fog descends, sometimes quite early, but by mid afternoon it's usually gone and the sun comes out and Ulm looks a treat! So I set out from work under a glorious blue sky and headed into the forest, which was a little spooky really. I was completely alone and the forest was... well very "foresty." It's very different to the Australian bush that I'm used to and seemed very lonely and secluded. What made it more spooky is that the birds have all flown south for the winter, so whenever I stopped walking and stopped to listen, I heard absolutely nothing at all! It was eerie. Complete and utter silence with not a leaf blowing in the wind - as there wasn't any - and not a single birdsong. Not a tweet. No cars, no people, no birds, just me on this road through the forest which seemed to be miles from anywhere, except that it was just a 25 minute brisk walk from Ulm! It's a very compact city, Ulm. Some people might even claim it is just a large town!

Imagine living in this bastion

The other reason I had wanted to walk through Eselsberg is because there are a lot of flats and houses for rent in the area. I had originally thought it would not be a particularly nice area to live in but after walking through I realised it was actually quite pleasant. The further up the hill you go the more modern the buildings become, and wherever you live you are not far from the forest. As I headed down the hill I came into a suburb with the evocative name of "Fort Unterer Eselsberg." Now you don't need to speak German to figure out what that means! I had been through in the bus and thought that it was named after a fort that used to be there, but to my surprise I now stumbled upon the entirely intact 19th century fort after which the suburb takes its name! I thought it might have been converted into flats at first but it's actually used as some sort of offices for either companies or the local council. I couldn't tell. But wow, if it had been flats then what an amazing place to live! It would be worth living there just so you could say at the end of the day "Well bye everyone! I have to go back home to my fort now!"

This is one of the so-called "Bundesfestung" - federal forts - of Fortress Ulm, built after the Napoleonic Wars to keep those pesky French at bay. The whole of Ulm was an enormous fortress about 150 years ago. This is a subject that I intend to research and explore in the coming months!

Some pretty German houses