Not the Cheese, But the City

In March, I took a trip to Germany.

Germany is not far - it's less than two hours to the border by train (you must remember that The Netherlands is only about twice the size of the state of New Jersey). You roll across flat, green farmland bisected by muddy ditches. The occasional trees cluster around the occasional farmhouse. Everything is compact, including the tiny, shaggy ponies which one occasionally sees grazing.

Slowly, the landscape changes. The land rises, and it's not all in use. The houses get a bit larger and more assertive. Trees range freely over the hillsides. Now we're in Deutschland.

But I'm getting ahead of myself.

The way to travel cheaply in Europe if you're a poor student or a poorer volunteer, is to have friends in places you want to visit. I have a friend named Shu Yi who teaches at a university in Muenster. Her flat was unused while she was away in America for a few weeks. I have another friend, Deasy. She speaks fluent German, and wanted to visit Muenster. So Deasy and I planned a trip there to visit our friend who would not actually be in attendance.

We had to change trains twice, but we made it to Muenster in good time. The light was failing, but there was still plenty of time to walk around the city.



Muenster is a small city, as cities go. Small, but centered around a huge church, with a second, nearly-as-amazing one close by. I've noticed there seems to be some sort of inverse proportion law at work in Europe between city and cathedral size.

The inner ring of the city is quite old and reflects what it must have looked like in medieval times. That's it pictured above, at night. Below is the same street leading up to the smaller but more modern of the two cathedrals.

When we ventured inside this church we had an amusing encounter that would prove typical of our interactions in Muenster. The older woman who showed us around kept attempting to speak to me in German, even though I don't speak a word. Meanwhile Deasy, who is fluent (but, admittedly, looks Indonesian - because she is) was generally left out.

Doesn't she look German to you?!?



Anyway, Deasy's knowledge of all things Germanic included knowing the whereabouts of a lovely 'gasthuis', a really old-world style restaurant. It was such an amazing old place that you'd expect it to be swarmed by tourists and run by the state preservation agency. But no, it was just a typical German restaurant with antlers on the walls.





I apologize for being in all these photos, but Deasy was hogging the camera.

The other thing to see in Muenster, besides the churches, is the Rathuis.



Despite it's unfortunate pronunciation, this is actually German for 'town hall'. And this town hall happened to hold special significance - the Treaty of Westfalia was negotiated there. This treaty, among other things, made The Netherlands an independent nation!



Deasy and I make some noise in the Hall of Peace. The hall is lined with portraits of the original delegates and their represented lords.

On our second day in the city we finally ventured into the Dom, the huge cathedral in the center of town. This is a building that is actually too big to be captured fully on camera, by a tourist, standing on the ground. It is truly massive, though, and really old.




It was a gray, chilly day, so there weren't many tourists. Lucky for us. The interior of the Dom holds a secret, which we got to explore all by ourselves: a beautiful, quiet graveyard in a courtyard at the center.





I like the way German's think about food. They are pro-meat, which is a stance I can get behind. And they eat jelly donuts for breakfast. Everything is cheap to boot!

Also? This is a small beer in Germany:



Everyone we saw in Muenster was either old or young. Must be because it's a college town. How would you like your university to look like this?



With such a perfect backdrop, Deasy and I couldn't resist hamming it up a bit.




Finally, some more scenes from the streets of Muenster (which doesn't lack for churches - I guess Muenster actually means 'church'?):








This last is me heading for the exit, or possibly the underground WC. Cheers!