Last Day in Münster

I promise that I'm not just trying to prolong our time in Germany. Oh wait, yes I am. 

It was so weird to say goodbye to this city that we lived in for almost a year. On our last day in Münster, we finished packing up our things, swept and tidied, and ran around doing last things and saying goodbye to this place. 

We've taken a picture in front of all the places we've ever lived so far (including Marburg!), so it was on my list to take one here, at Kolde-Ring Sechzig (60).

Our toaster oven went to a good home: a friend and colleague of Carson's who's staying in Germany. We provided a delivery service and walked it to his office.


Packing the last few things.

The forecast for the last week had predicted rain, and I was so sad about that. I prayed that there would be sunshine and warm weather, and honestly what a blessing to have had such a lovely last week in Germany. It felt like a silly prayer, but it was meaningful to have had beautiful weather that last few days.


A raised map of the city.

A last visit to Carson's office to turn in the keys and make sure he'd grabbed everything in there.

We had lunch that day with Ben, our Fulbright friend who lives in Cologne and is a fellow Southerner. I didn't get a picture of our delicious Flammkuchen (click the word for pictures of that lovely dish), but we savored every last bite.

Another map of the city.

 This day was actually rather hot, so we sat in the shade near this church for a little bit and talked about the things we'd loved and disliked about our year in Germany.

We walked down the Promenade.

And past the sea of bikes at the train station (Hauptbahnhof).

Then we walked to the Hafen (harbour). It was a lively Friday evening and there were plenty of people out enjoying the sunshine and good food at restaurants along the water.

Every ten years since 1977, Münster hosts the Skulptur Projekte (Sculpture Project) where a variety of artists put up exhibits all over the city. It lasts from June to October, so for several weeks we've passed these interesting exhibits on our way to various things. We aren't crazy about really modern art, so we haven't taken the time to see everything, but it really is all over. The harbour isn't on our way to anything, so we hadn't seen this "walking on water" exhibit before, but it was a nice thing to see on our last day. The artist put up a walkway under the water connecting one side to the other and there were tons of people removing their shoes and wading across, so we followed suit. It looks solid in the pictures but it's actually a grate and boy, did it hurt my feet. Such a fun thing though!

We had dinner at a restaurant over there: Hot Jazz Club. We ate outside, so I have no idea what sort of Jazz Club it is, but we enjoyed the dinner and the people watching as we ate.

We walked home at 10pm after our late dinner through Süd Park and down Hammerstrasse, commenting all the while that it was our last time to see all these places.

View down Hammerstrasse (Hammer Street) toward the Altstadt (Old City). You can make out the tops of two churches.

And we walked down Kolde Ring (our street) for the last time.

We decided to run out to the bridge instead of going home, just so we could see the sunset and capture the view of the city from the bridge one last time. Like most cities in Germany, there is no distinguishable skyline in Münster, but I took a picture anyway.

And as a last evening surprise, it was the night of the Skatenight which happens every other Friday night during the summer (read about it here), so we watched hundreds of roller skaters fly by to upbeat music.

Last Week in Münster

Time was running out on our time in Germany, so we crammed as much into our last full week there as we possibly could. Carson worked in the mornings and afternoons, and we would head out for adventures in the evening, or meet midday to cross something off our "things we must do" list.

One night, we went to this place (Sausalitos I think?) and took advantage of their happy hour specials. I got this massive burger (I didn't have a clue how large it would be!), and Carson had nachos. 

As we walked home, we noticed a large crowd, so we headed their direction and caught the very last movement of the Aaseranaden at the lake.

The next evening, we were just taking a walk around the lake after dinner at home when we heard music from The Lion King. We were walking in that direction anyway, so we just picked up our pace and arrived early enough to catch the last thirty minutes or so (you can probably tell just from the lighting in the picture above, but the second night, the music began later). We really were glad we caught the music that night. It was a movie music night, and we listened to a variety of tunes that included Indiana Jones, Rocky and various Disney movies. The crowd was enjoying it too, swaying along with the music and some even singing the lyrics quietly amongst themselves.

We continued that walk to a park where we could do a few pull ups, which I was terribly bad at yet sore for days after I tried. On the way back, we passed the LVM Insurance building and Carson had me high-five this hand statue that I think is so ugly.

These horse statues are up all over town advertising for a polo event that will happen after we leave. It's sad to see dates on things and know we won't be around - how on earth did a year pass by so fast?

One afternoon, on a particularly nice day, we met at Belag Bar and had sandwiches. Carson had a pulled pork open faced sandwich, and I had a sandwich with bacon and eggs. He's visited this spot before with a colleague but I hadn't been, so it was on his list to take me.

After we'd eaten there, we walked over to the lake to do something else we'd been planning to do: paddle boating!

It was a really hot day (I PRAYED for warm, sunny weather for our last week, knowing it was totally selfish, but we had warm, sunny weather and I'm so grateful and happy), but there was a nice breeze on the water and we could have stayed out there for much longer than the hour we'd paid for. I was ready to just stay out one more and pay later!

We wanted to eat or have drinks at one of the restaurants at the marina on the lake, so since we were there already, we made it happen. We went for happy hour and enjoyed the view. Our apartment would be somewhere to the right (you may recognize the large LVM building that we walk past from previous pictures)

Here's a shot of our walk into town. I felt pretty trigger happy about capturing our life in Germany, so I got some random ones of streets. This is a street we often met on in the evenings. There's a Deutsche Bank ATM just out of the shot on the right, and that was our meeting place. The street doesn't look busy, but it really is, and the side of the street I'm standing on is usually so crowded that it's frustrating to walk down.

I can't remember why exactly, but one night, Carson slept on the couch, and the blanket around him looked very much like a weird jumpsuit.

One day, we walked around the botanical gardens.

I was trying to get a shot of this butterfly, so I handed the camera to Carson since he's taller and probably able to get the right one - look at this!

We pass this Macaron place often on our walks to and from downtown, and I always comment on wanting some, so Carson stopped by and picked some up for me.

This is the LVM Insurance (Versicherung) building on Kolde-Ring, which was our street.  The hand statue is just beyond this funny horse.

And here's the entrance to our apartment - Kolde Ring 60.

One morning, we went to Waffelschmeide for waffles. Carson's is the fancy one.

Later that evening, we had a cookout with Carson's colleague and friend, Andrew. Andrew is from Canada, so we had fun relating as North Americans and also quizzing him on some of the differences between our countries (like Canadian football!).

We enjoyed some bratwurst and the first (and only, I guess) watermelon we had in Germany.

I tried to get a good nighttime picture from the bridge of the view downtown. I don't think my camera is up for these kinds of challenges, but you can see the Uberwasserkirche and the big cathedral.

On our walk back, we encountered this lost kitty. She had a collar with a phone number, but we couldn't read it so well (instead of what we'd use as an area code, they put "MS" for Münster, but we didn't know what that meant) and thankfully another lady was outside and helped us out and called the cat's owner so that she could return it. The owner didn't pick up, so we just hoped that the cat is safe and sound where she belongs!