So this is just a recap of my day in Münster last Friday and some (hopefully) interesting things about Münster.
Münster is a city in northern Nordrhein-Westfalen with a population of about 270,000 people, about 50,000 of whom are college students. Next to rich historical and cultural offerings, Münster is famous for being the bike capital of Germany. Special lanes for bikers and special traffic laws make for a very bike-friendly city. College students and businesspeople alike make up the bike-riding population. There are actually far more bikes than people in the city, with about 500,000 bikes at the last survey.
In the bike garage next to the train station. 3,300 bikes fit in this building, with sections marked off just like they are in a parking garage.
More bike stands in the back of the train station.
We started with a visit to the Picasso Museum, where there was an exhibit about real paintings in comparison to forged paintings and had the visitor try to discern real paintings from attempts to copy them.
In front of the St. Paul's Cathedral in Münster. Just inside the door was a stone from a cathedral in Coventry, England. The two cathedrals are part of a partner program for cathedrals unnecessarily and brutally destroyed during World War II in England and Germany.
A picture from the marketplace in front of St. Paul's Cathedral.
After eating some Chinese food (which is unfortunately just not as good here in Germany) we went for a long walk on the promenade in town. Afterwards we went to a bar in the old town and tried a local specialty, but had to leave a little bit earlier than usual to get back home for the night.
In the train station, while waiting for our train home, we played with the toy train set and met a few people doing it. We happened to run across another exchange student, who is from South Africa, and ended up having a very interesting discussion about national pride with another group of Germans, all because of the toy train set.
So, that's a very brief look at Münster. It's actually my favorite city that I've visited so far. The old town is very pretty, and there's a good combination of history, culture, and nightlife. The city is very accessible by foot or on a bike and is great to just visit.
3 comments:
Hey! Your blog looks really nice - it looks like you put a lot of care into every post. Mind checking out mine and giving me some constructive criticism? Also, with you already in Germany, it'd be interesting if you could comment on anything I wrote about in today's post, especially about the new smoking ban.
Oh, and Munster looks beautiful! Thanks for posting the photos. :)
Glad that you enjoyed Munster. We have absolutely no sense of geography here; how far is Munster from where you live?
Thanks for your comment, sarah. I do try to put a little bit of effort into my posts. ;)
Grandma and Aunt Ceil, Münster is about 50 kilometers, or about 31 miles, away from me. It's about a one hour train ride, because the train stops at 10 smaller towns in between. The train station is about 5 minutes from the house by bike. Because there's so many different methods of transportation, how "far" away Münster is could be measured by car, train, bike, bus, time, price, or anything.
-Kevin
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