Münster

It was a cooler morning when we set off by bus to the centre of Münster. Being a Sunday morning there were very few people about. 

Given that Münster suffered heavily during WWII,  the reconstruction has been done incredibly well. This old Hanseatic town has over 1200 years of history, and being a university town today, the old and the new compliment one another very nicely.

The Prinzipalmarkt and the merchant houses and arcades. It is in this area that the community festivals and other happenings occur. 

The Domplaz and the Prinzipalmarkt have a combination of Gothic and Renaissance merchant houses with arcades which ooze wealth and success. 

The streets are lined with arcades with VERY expensive shops!

The St Lamberti Church is a late Gothic building with some very interesting stories. It was here that Cardinal von Galen preached his famous sermons criticising the Nazis. It also has three interesting cages high on the belltower - these were for the Anabaptists  who "mutinied" against the Lutherian  teachings and were tortured and killed  back in the mid-16th century. Their bodies were left to rot in the baskets to warn other would be 'decentors' not to meddle!

St Lamberti Church, cages and tower. 

One of Münster's landmarks is the Kiepenkerl, an itinerant trader with his traditional basket on his back, a short linen smock, red scarf, cap, pipe and gnarled walking stick. He was reponsible for both goods and news being  exchanged between towns. 

An exhibition in one of the oldest guild halls was quite outstanding and the moving. It was all in German but we could follow the story. It was by a Dutch artist painting from the perspective of his memory as a 12-year old in 1939-40. 

A brochure of the exhibition. 

We took another bus to the Münster university and the associated botanical gardens. The university's administration is housed in the Schloss-Residenez, the Baroque Residensez for the Prince-Bishop. 

The Baroque Residencez of the Prince-Bishop. 

The botanical gardens had some interesting plants with an outstanding selection of Australian plants - some we had never seen before! 

A little bit of Oz. They have very cleverly kept the eucalypts in pots! 

We also took in a delightful modern art exhibition there.

We returned to the van in the afternoon and decided to move on to Bad Iburg for the rest of the afternoon and for our overnight stop. 

Bad Iburg - as you can guess by the name has a burg or castle. This castle has some good pedigree, with it being the residence for the Prince-Bishop of Osnabrück when his palace in Osnabrück was damaged by fire. 

A quick look at the burg in Bad Iburg. 

And some sort of a German guild day with marching band and uniforms etc. They entertained us with their music and singing for the next few hours - music from the traditional marching band music to Abba and other well known tunes.