Au revoir France; Hallo Deutschland

It was sadly time to say goodbye to Paris and France…
Unfortunately we had a last minute panic when we realised a) that Deutsche Bahn didn’t have an office in the station so we couldn’t use the discount from Sydney Trains 🤔☹️ and b) there we no more trains to Münster that day…at least not from that station 🤦‍♂️🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️ (edit: heard back from DB today - 9/6/23 - with a confirmation of the discount we asked for in March to use in May…German efficiency!)

However, with some rapid internet searching and a “short” walk with all our bags through Paris, we were finally off…via Brussels and Cologne to Münster.

One bonus of the…extended…version of getting to our next destination was plenty of time for homework both for the girls and the parents.
It also meant we got to see the wonderful sights of Hamm…picturesque…especially at 10pm.

However, it was all worth it the next day when we got to catch up with the wonder K-Boom and meet Simon (woo woo, Karolin’s got a boyfriennnd!)

Karolin and Kylie had teed up a ride around Münster which really quite a lovely city with an interesting history.

It was Father’s Day in Germany and we were worried we’d taken Karolin and Simon away from their families. However, they told us the tradition for Father’s Day in Munster is basically an excuse for a piss up for anyone who is a Dad or, basically, male. We saw loads of ‘dads’ trips with crates of beer and jolly Dads. Apparently Mother’s Day was when you got together with family. Raw deal (for some).

We hired some bikes and started our ride around the old city walls stopping and looking around at modern sculptures and old towers and stately mansions, statues of famous authors (Baroness Anna Elisabeth Franziska Adolphine Wilhelmine Louise Maria von Droste zu Hülshoff) and beautiful lakes and parklands.

We stopped at a reconstruction of an old Westphalian village (Freilichtmuseum Mühlenhof) for lunch (snags in bread, or “wurst” as their called - even though they were the best, and yummy cake) and managed to squeeze in our first German beer 🍺
There was a fair on in the village and we got to watch sheep being shorn, wool being prepared and spun. We even got to visit an old school house where School Mitress Ariah taught the class with a firm but caring hand 📏

After a bit more of a ride it was time for a pub and good German meal (MEAT!!) along with a quick game of Queens which I think confused the crap out of poor Simon but delighted Ariah.

Great day.Read more