Kunst in Munst(er)

On our first proper day of exploring we stopped off at the historic and very regionally significant town of Munster.  

In typical Gari style he started the day by climbing a tree, Zini was somwhat more grounded. Once they had walked all their zoomies off we packed up a few things and headed into the city.

We decided to make use of our new bike rack, especially since it was such a faff to install, and cycle the 45 mins into the city along a huge and very well maintained canal. These European canals are really starting to put British canals to shame. 

Initally after getting into Munster we decided to flip our usual routine of local history museum first on its head and explore the city then see what we missed in the museum later: a local history quiz if you will. This entailed a lovely walk around the city spotting some of the classic German historical drain covers like this one commerating the end of the 30 years war and the Peace of Westphalia which was signed in Munster, partially at least.

Continuing along our wandering, we spotted the 3 cages that the corpses of the ring leaders of the Anabaptist revolt were held above the city in from 1535 right through to 1848. Thats what you get for religious non-conformism in post-reformation Germany. 

Several hours of strolling and 3 pretzels later we stopped into the stadtmusem and were very pleasantly suprised by the massive exhibit and the free admission. In particular these guild symbols for a largely pre-literate Munster guilds were very cool. *best Rob teacher voice* how many of the medieval professions can you spot??

A particular favourite of mine were the pamphlets made by armies during the 30 years war to be passed around so soldeirs could have a birds eye view of their battles. What must've seemed incredibly futuristic at the time now seems very quaint by comparission watching modern wars unfold on my smartphone...

Post-museum we did a bit more wandering, had a cracking burger, and visited a classic German board game shop. We also went to the botanical garden inside the old citadel. I think Danni enjoyed getting, at least partially, away from the history for an hour. Incidentally, the citadel and the walls surrounding the town were demolished just before the invading French revolutionary armies. Talk about being caught with your trouers down! 

I was evidentally less of a fan...

On the cycle back to the van we stopped off at a WW1 war memorial, which, in classic German aware-of-your-history fashion, had a large information board next to it confirming that they are aware that they were indeed the baddies.

An hours drive, and a visit to an Aldi later, we parked up for the night on the side of yet another canal for a peaceful night and letting the boys have free roam with no harnesses all night.