Münster; Saturday, 21 December, 2024

I took that as a hint to start making my way back to the station and my hotel room, stopping off in the bar for a quick nightcap before turning in.

After breakfast I headed out of the hotel and over to the Promenade, the former fortifications of the city which now form a pleasant 4.5Km walk around the edge of the old town, and went for a walk along them, stopping off at the Zwinger – a former bulwark tower which was converted into a prison, and during the dark days at the end of the Second World War into a place of torture and execution of Polish and Russian PoWs by the Gestapo.

From the Zwinger I walked on past the only other surviving tower of the old city walls the Buddenturm and then round past the Schloß Münster, the former city palace, now part of the city’s University. A short walk on from there and the promenade meets the site of the Old Zoo, the Alter Zoo, where some of the original structures that would have housed the animals have been retained, after the zoo moved out to better facilities on the edge of the city.

It was then a short walk further round the ramparts to where they meet the Aasee, the city’s lake and forming the southern border of the old city. After taking in the lake it was only a short walk to be back to where I’d started my walk. Having completed the promenade I turned into the old town and back across to the Cathedral to have a look around the St.-Paulus-Dom.

I spent quite a bit of time looking round the cathedral before heading over to the nearby St. Lamberti Church. The church is much smaller than the cathedral, and also has a more grizzly past. Following the defeat of the Münster Rebellion of 1534-1535 the three leaders of the uprising were executed and their bodies hung up in three cages placed on the spire of the church as a warning to others. Whilst the bodies may have long gone (and much of the original fabric of the building during the bombing raids of WWII), three replica cages still hang from the spire of the church.

From the Churches I had a long wander through the streets of the old town, stopping off at a couple of the markets, including a pause for a sausage based lunch, before making my way over to the Botanical Gardens located in the grounds of the Schloß Münster.

I arrived at the gardens with about an hour to look round them, which would have been sufficient time if both British Airways and the weather hadn’t conspired to cut my visit short. Part way round the gardens I got an alert of my phone to say that my flight back home the following evening had just been cancelled due to air traffic restrictions because of forecast high winds, so I had to spend a little while getting myself rebooked in the end onto a flight on the Monday morning as there was no space on the Sunday afternoon flights – which was probably for the best at that would have meant cutting my trip short and losing most of the Sunday to get back to Düsseldorf in time.

Just as I’d finished sorting that out the first drops of rain started to fall, which rapidly deteriorated into a particularly heavy downpour which meant I spent most of the rest of the time before closing time sheltering in one of the greenhouses. Thankfully the rain decreased before it was time to kick everyone out so I didn’t get so wet heading back into town.

I headed back to the hotel just to check that the replacement eTicket from British Airways had come through, and to book myself a night at an airport hotel near Düsseldorf before heading back into town to explore more of the Christmas Markets, including dinner.

My visits to the Christmas Markets complete, I returned back to the hotel with the last of my Christmas presents purchased and after a quick nightcap turned in for the night.