Ulm

Exit the Minster's south door, cross Münsterplatz past Richard Meier's blunt-white Stadthaus, and walk 4 minutes south down Hirschstraße to the Marktplatz. Ulm's other showpiece is the Rathaus — a Gothic-Renaissance town hall whose entire south and east façades are covered in painted frescoes (1540) and whose astronomical clock has tracked sun, moon, and zodiac since 1520. In front of it stands the Fischkasten fountain, which once held live fish for market day and is now the city's favourite meeting point.

Tip: Stand on the south-west corner of the Marktplatz around 11:30-12:00 — that's when sunlight hits the painted façade head-on and the reds and blues actually pop in photos; any later and the building goes into its own shadow. The astronomical clock has no hourly performance, so don't loiter expecting one — read the dial, take the shot, move on.

Walk one block back north to Münsterplatz — 3 minutes. This café is built into Richard Meier's controversial 1993 Stadthaus, all white planes and floor-to-ceiling glass facing straight at the Minster spire. It's where local office workers grab a midday plate, which means the kitchen turns tables over in 20 minutes and the prices are real-Ulm, not tourist-Ulm. Order the Maultäschle suppe (Swabian pasta-pocket broth, €9) and a Hefeweizen (€4.50); average €15-18 per person for a quick lunch.

Tip: Skip the indoor seats — the Minster-facing terrace is open April-October at no surcharge, and you eat staring straight up the spire you just climbed. If the terrace is full, the bakery counter inside sells fresh Laugenbrezel for €1.80; take one to the Minster steps and you've still had the same view.

From the Stadthaus, walk south down Hirschstraße and turn right onto Fischergasse — 6 minutes downhill, the cobblestones narrow and the air starts smelling of the canal. Ulm's prettiest corner is a tangle of canals, footbridges, and timber-framed houses that lean at angles physics shouldn't permit. The Schiefes Haus (Crooked House) tilts 9-10° off vertical — Guinness once recorded it as the world's most slanted hotel — and the Blau, the small tributary that runs through here, is so clear you can count the trout.

Tip: Cross the small wooden footbridge directly in front of the Schiefes Haus and stand at its midpoint — from that exact spot you get the postcard shot with the leaning timber gable in the foreground and the Minster spire rising behind it. Afternoon light (14:00-15:30) hits the timber from the south-west and warms it to honey; before noon the gable is in flat shadow.

From the Schiefes Haus, two minutes south brings you out under the Metzgerturm — the leaning brick tower (3.3° off vertical) that anchors the old city wall against the Danube. Walk east along the Stadtmauer on top of the rampart itself; Ulm is the only German city where you can do this for an unbroken kilometre. Cross the Herdbrücke into Neu-Ulm (you're now in Bavaria — the river is the state line), then double back along the south bank for the picture every Ulm postcard uses: the entire old town strung along the river with the Minster spire towering behind it.

Tip: The single best photo of Ulm is from the middle of the Gänstorbrücke (the smaller pedestrian bridge upstream, not the big Herdbrücke) between 17:30 and 18:30 in summer — the sun is behind you and the spire catches the last gold. The spire is so tall a normal phone shot crops the top; use panorama mode in portrait orientation or you'll cut the cross off every time.

Walk back over the Herdbrücke and turn left into the Fischerviertel — 8 minutes total, you'll smell wood-smoke from Zur Forelle's chimney before you find the door. Built in 1626 on a wooden platform straddling the Blau canal, this is THE Fischerviertel restaurant — generations of Ulm fishermen drank here, locals will swear young Einstein did too, and the trout (Forelle Müllerin Art, €26) is still kept alive in the canal running directly under the dining room until you order. Start with Maultaschen in Brühe (€16); pair with a glass of Württemberg Lemberger (€7). Budget €45-55 per person.

Tip: Reserve at least three days ahead for a window table over the canal — walk-ins get seated in the upstairs room without the water view, which is the entire reason to come. Two final pitfall warnings for Ulm: avoid the menu-in-six-languages restaurants on Münsterplatz (double prices, freezer-bag Maultaschen), and don't accept anything from the 'rose sellers' who linger around the Minster at dusk — once it's in your hand they will demand €5 and follow you for a block.