Monday, February 17, 2014

Münster, Germany, 2014


In celebration of our 4-year wedding anniversary (February 5), Astrid and I drove to Münster, Germany, 2  weekends ago, to spend a 3-day weekend with good friend, Philine.  She's the one who visited us here in Gorinchem this past November and who we visited in 2010.  Thus the 2014 in my title!

Not only did we put Silverleaf to a long-distance test (we drove 580 km total = 360 miles, most of it in rain and heavy wind), we got our bearings again where Philine lives, expanding our relationship with her delightful part of the world.

This post is about Münster proper and our special time with Philine, much of which took place Friday afternoon and Saturday morning.  The rest of the time--churches and castles--will come later.

It's a 2.5-hour drive to Münster from our apartment, and Philine wanted us to arrive in time for lunch.  
We stayed at a neighborhood hotel 5 min.-walk away, right near the Martini Kirche.
As you may remember, Philine is one of those delightful friends who talks with her whole body!
We love her to death.

 After lunch, we started walking throughout the city.  You know me and architecture!
At the end of the day, before supper, we even saw the city's palace from 1767...all lit up.

Almost before we really got started, we stopped for koffie.
HA!  No complaints from us.
(Astrid and I love our latte macchiatos!)

Then we walked part of the promenade that surrounds the old town, 
similar to our citadel walk here in Gorinchem.

And to show how much Philine knows us (!), she took us to this schoolyard where we could play.
Of course, Astrid is the pilot!

In that same schoolyard is the pacifier tree.
When pacifiers "graduate" away from their children, guess where they end up?!
How cute is that!

We actually stopped inside a couple churches that afternoon, which I'm saving for my next post.
But here are some skyline views that we got from top floors of a hospital and senior center.

Whenever we rode an elevator with mirrors, yup, we played!  (Astrid's pics, my processing)
Philine is such a good sport, pretending to be so stoic.

That evening for supper we met up with Philine's brother and a friend at Le Feu for flammkuchen.
If it reminds you of our Dutch pannenkoeken, you're on the same page.
We even ended with sweet cream, apple slices, cinnamon and sugar, flambéed with Calvados!

There were 5 of us so we ordered 5 different flammkuchen and shared them.
Astrid and I both chose the König Ludwig beer before discovering he was Bavaria's gay king.
And guess what:  he died on June 13, 1886 (my birthday is June 13).

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

That was Friday.  We then had Saturday morning with Philine before spending the rest of the weekend joined by friend Mechtild.

We walked from our hotel to Philine's for breakfast on a sunny Saturday morning.
The weathervane is just down the street from her apartment.

After breakfast we walked towards the St. Paulus Dom for the market.
So much to see everywhere you go, of course!

As we neared the Dom, a priest stopped to chat after finishing confession.
Philine is a stranger to no one...and she's not even Roman Catholic.

Here's the St. Paulus Dom, Münster's main church.

And here's the market on the main square, outside the Dom, every Wednesday and Saturday.
In this regard, Germany and Dutchland are similar.

Some things stick out like sore thumbs for me.  Have you noticed?

Fruits and vegetables.  Take your pick.

And more Dutch tulips in Germany than we've seen thus far in Dutchland!
Don't you just love the market.

And while walking here-n-there, we're always stopping, you know.

Impressions.  Impressions.  Impressions.

And reminders everywhere that Germany is really our sister country,
in spite of any history that may rankle the natives!

(to be continued....)

23 comments:

  1. one word - jealous!

    wish i could go on these trips with you gals. you find the most interesting places to visit and photograph.

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    1. Well, likewise, Maria! We both could easily swap trips and love every minute of them!!! Thank you.

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  2. I am so glad that you take all these pictures and make them into collages. THIS is what we experience. THIS is what we like. THIS is us. So many impressions, I am not able to put that on my hard-drive in my mind. Thanks to these wonderful posts, I (we) remember. This is our photo-album. THIS is fun.
    Thank you MLS, for doing this for us.
    Philine is a dear friend and to her this will be a great memory too.

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    1. Well, you do know I do this for us! For sure. How else will we ever remember!! My hard-drive can't contain it all either. HA! It was fun to go back and compare this trip to the one in October. :) Thanks for sharing the photo hunts and the sweet times with dear friends like Philine.

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  3. Lots and lots of good connections for you in this visit with Philine. So many wonderful perspectives.

    Are those eggs painted for Easter? The flowers and bulbs are wonderful. Don had pink tulips delivered to me at my office for Valentine's Day, and what a breath of spring they were. I'm sorry you didn't get much winter, but we've had a bit too much, you know.

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    1. Lots of connections to Philine, indeed, Ruth. She's such a dear friend. I always think of how much she and Mom would enjoy each other. :)

      Yes, those eggs were painted for Easter, though a bit early, I must say. I told the guy they reminded me of the Olympics and the gay issues going on in Sochi. He spoke impeccable English and loved my comparison.

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  4. You have been really short of eyes, and it is wonderful to see how many things your eyes discovered - and there are so many funny things you captured - a wonderful photo- album also for me and a lovely reminder of our beautiful time together - the rain can be forgotten while we are looking at these colourful photos. Many thanks, Ginnie, for these collages! You are really a great photographer!

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    1. Your words are so very kind and loving, Philine. Thank you. These are memories we will cherish and hold for a long time because you are so dear to us. Whether here or there, we still have so much more to see...which is the joy of looking ahead to many more meet-ups!!! :)

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  5. Oh my...the markets are just to die for!!! Philine looks adorable. Perhaps one day would be fun to meet her too! GREAT compilation of events! Always love coming here...

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    1. Even though it's easy to say that when you've seen one you've seen them all, Robin, I never tire of these European markets. And to think we have one 2 blocks down the street from us every Monday and Saturday! You'd love to meet Philine, and she you. Maybe one day...you never know. :) Thank you!

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  6. Another wonderful post full of fascinating photos! Dear Ginnie – you and Astrid live the life as they say. I hear you say “it’s a 2.5 hour drive from our apartment” and you are in a different country with great food. To drive to my daughter near Nashville it takes longer than 2.5 hours and the food is still the same. How I would love to sample those thingy with cream and apple with Calvados! Look so yummy. I am kind of down because I thought we would go to Paris this year but the off-season fares are way too expensive. I read that it is because airlines have consolidated and have no incentive to make prices lower (cheapest for off-season is $1250 each.) It is cheaper to fly to Australia or China from Atlanta… I’ll see if it will be better in the fall. So, I’ll travel with you and Astrid virtually – and I do enjoy all your colorful pictures.

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    1. Man! That's expensive, Vagabonde, for the off season. I wonder what our tickets will cost for our trip back to America in October! (sigh) You can imagine, then, the thrill of being able to travel to the countries around us so cheaply. We really are lucky and we know it! Thank you.

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  7. Another thing I meant to say is about the markets in Europe. Talking with my nephew – he said one of the reasons the rich here don’t care for the poor is because they never get close to them, and added “I bet Mrs Sarkozy never shops in Paris where a poor person shops.” I said “au contraire – in city markets everyone is close to everyone, from any social status.” And this is so true – last time with my cousin in France at her bi-weekly market we were waiting to buy cheese and she talked with several ladies. Later she told me one was the cleaning lady of her neighbor, the other was a Tunisian immigrant and the third was the wife of the mayor – everyone talking to each other. We don’t get that here in Publix or Kroger! I’ll have to mention that in one of my posts.

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    1. Wow. What a delightful, thoughtful comment about the European markets, Vagabonde. So ture, though I had never thought about it like that. It makes me want to go one time and sit in an inconspicuous place and just watch! :)

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    2. You have raised something that absolutely appalls me, Vagabonde...as you say, in the US in this day and time. It's like we have a Tea-Party contingent that is being allowed to get away with murder, worse than the Jim Crow days. It stuns me into speechlessness! WHO WILL SPEAK OUT? In the end, we have to believe that love will win. It always does, eventually, but WHEN?

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  8. The montage with the churches is my favorite. How beautifully the silhuette finishes it. Also loved the eggs and flowers. I've probably missed some of your mailings over the past week or two as my head has been deep in a book for family members on my grandfather and the home he dreamed of and, perhaps, achieved just a bit too late. In any case, it started as a week-long effort and is now looking like a couple of months at least. I'm looking for a chance to get my head out and post another TODAY'S. I haven't even taken a picture.

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    1. With all that's going on in your world, Ted, I feel very honored that you even stop by to look, let alone comment. THANK YOU. Stay safe and warm.

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  9. Delightful to see another meet up with you two. What a life!

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    1. We're very lucky that Europe is so accessible, Mary, aren't we! Thank you.

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  10. Happy Anniversary and what a fabulous trip. I miss markets like that with fresh fruits and veggies and other treats. Here our farmer's markets are tricky as you are exposed to pesticides, other chemicals and GMOs.

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    1. It really was a great way to celebrate our anniversary, Donna. And I LOVE the European markets! I never tire of seeing them, even though they are similar everywhere we go, in Durchland as well as in Germany. We are so lucky!

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