Tuesday 4th October 2011 – Essen & Münster

After a latish breakfast, we (Eva, her mum, Gertie, Larissa, Jill and I) headed off to Münster to take Larissa back to University.  She had a meeting with her professor this afternoon.  We visited her flat which she shares with another two girls – a nice tidy little flat right in the centre of everything in Münster.

Munster

Jill had a rest in the flat (she is still not all that well but better than she was yesterday) while Larissa went off to her meeting and the rest of us had a wander around the streets of Münster.  Munster is a university city – out of a population of around 270,000 there are close to 50,000 students.  It is also known as the bicycle capital of Germany so you can imagine the bicycles everywhere.  There are also lots of pedestrian only areas and the streets are lined with merchant houses some dating back to the 14th century (a few even earlier).  The architecture is quite different to anything we have yet seen in Germany – built of stone and more rectangular.  Wandered into St Paul’s Cathedral, built in the 13th century in a mixture of late Romanesque and early Gothic styles. It was completely restored after World War II damage and includes an astronomical clock of 1540.  Like most of the cathedrals we have seen in Europe the architecture is quite impressive.

Got back to farewell Larissa and then headed back to Essen, an hour’s drive.  Was probably a bit longer today as the traffic was pretty heavy in places this time of day.

Had a pleasant dinner with lots of chatting and then off to bed.  We have a big drive tomorrow to Backnang.