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....)