( Photos from Thursday in Munster, Germany )

All righty folks. You can't have forgotten where we left off, because it was only yesterday! Today we continue with Thursday's pictures and my trip to Munster, the Munsterlands, and two water castles.

We got up bright and early to drive to Munster. It's only an hour away from Bochum but I guess traffic on the Autobahn can be pretty terrible. And it was blazing hot the whole time I was in Germany, so we didn't want to risk spending the early part of the day in the car.

First, we walked by the Munster Schloss, or Palace, which was built 1767-1787 for Munster's ruling Prince-Bishops. It now houses administrative centre of Munster University and is decidedly less interesting than the other things we saw that day. It was already bloody hot out at 10AM.

Our next stop was Munster's central Cathedral, called the Dom, or St. Peter's Church. It's a huge structure with winding hallways, a gorgeous sanctuary, gardens, and plenty of ancient artwork. The inside even hosts an astronomical clock. It seems like a weird thing for a church to have, but it helped them correctly predict the dates of their holidays. The thing has been through a few incarnations and in its current, should tell 100% accurate time until the year 2070.

There's no shortage of other churches in Munster, and all of them are gorgeous. Unfortunately, a lot of them were under construction while we were there and the insides were inaccessible.

We stopped for apple streudel at Stuhlmacher on Alstadt, Munster's biggest street. The street is pedestrians only, which is a nice respite, and lined by shops and cafes on either side. At one end is the Prinzipalmarkt, or main market, and Lambirtikirche, the most amazing church in the entire city. St. Lambirti's has a very intricate steeple tower inset with torture chambers called the Cages of the Anabaptists. The Anabaptists overthrew the ruling bishop at one point and were, in turn, overthrown themselves some time later. This is where their leaders spent their dying days, probably picked to death by birds. Savory!

Gerd & Gertrude sweetly bought me some incredible german bread and gourmet chocolate while we wandered Alstadt. We poked around a bit looking at the architecture before heading back to the car and driving to our next destination, Schloss Nordkirchen.

Nordkirchen is one of the most famous castles in North Germany, primarily for its beauty. It's called "The Versailles of the North" and houses a lovely sculpture garden on the grounds. We didn't wander through the garden because it was so blisteringly hot, but we did take a walk around. There were black swans in the moat!

Next, we drove to Burg Vischering, which was my favorite castle of the whole trip. So stately, yet so humble! I'd be proud to call it home. Inside the rotund castle is a courtyard, where we retired for a beer and I spent the better part of 20 minutes taking pictures of doors and windows.

I slept most of the car ride back, and then relaxed in the garden with my hosts for the rest of the trip. Oh, and I took a picture of their shampoo because I found it deliriously funny. And that's that!

Be sure to look at the rest of the photos. :)

******************

As a side note, I feel compelled to mention that the water tower in my hometown, Ypsilanti, Michigan, has just been awarded the title of Most Phallic Building in the World. Hurray, Brick Dick!!