From Koblenz to Münster

Today was a beautiful, warm, sunny day.  So we decided to visit a park on the route to our final destination, Münster.  To get to the park we had to drive for about two hours including a stretch on the autobahn which Patrick used to test the maximum speed limit of our rental car.  When we started out there was no traffic and it seemed that everything was closed.  I then remembered that today is Father’s Day in Germany.  It is a federal holiday for Ascension Day (the Thursday 40 days after Easter) and combined with the observance of Father’s Day.  This meant that everywhere we went there were lots of things closed and lots of people out and about including tons on bikes.

We chose the North Duisburg Landscape Park.  This park is unique because it is a decommissioned iron works that used to belong to Thyssen Krupp.  The park is huge and includes a diving tank, rock climbing walls, playgrounds, an art exhibit, a café and 28 kilometers of biking and hiking trails.  It also has the former factory with some limited sections available for wandering.   We started at the dive tank and made our way to the rock climbing walls.  They even had a section for kids that both Anna & Sabine tried.  However, there were many more complex climbing options as well and we saw lots of people climbing.  The park designers took the structure of the bunkers (storage compartments for raw ore) and turned them into a very large and complicated rock climbing park.  We also walked through the factory itself and even climbed up through part of the factory to the furnace and cooling tanks.  Patrick even climbed all the way up to the view point for a panoramic view.

We then found our way to the café for lunch.  Anna was thrilled because she has been craving würstchen (little sausages) since she saw a butcher shop with some in the window yesterday morning.  Today she got to have them for lunch along with pommes (French fries) and her new favorite drink – Fanta.  It is similar to the orange drink we have at home but is much lighter and tastes more like actual oranges.  We ate outside and enjoyed the beautiful weather.  They even had a swing and small grass area where the girls could run around while they waited for their food.

After lunch it was back into the car and north into Münsterland.  We took back roads this time so it was slower but much more scenic.  This part of Germany is very flat and mainly farmland.  We saw plenty of cows, horses and farm fields.  It is also known for its Wasser Burgen (moated castles).  Since there were no mountains or other good places to build they simply put water around the castle to defend it.  Our first stop was Schloss Lembeck.  It is privately owned but they open the garden and part of the castle to the public for a fee.  They also have a hotel and restaurant.  We chose to visit the park and it was an excellent choice.  The grounds included a children’s playground and Anna’s favorite – a bouncy place that was basically a series of trampolines.  She liked it so much she went back for more.  Sabine enjoyed looking at the frogs in the pond and the bugs in the flowers.

We then drove for another hour through the countryside to another castle.  This one, Burg Hulshoff, was a bit smaller but had beautiful grounds and a restaurant where we stopped for coffee and cake.  After our snack we walked through the grounds a bit.  We saw a mama goose with three goslings that Sabine loved.

Luckily, our hotel was only about fifteen minutes away from the castle so we were there in no time.  This hotel is small and very charming.  The girls were both very tired and melted down a little when we were done.  I am looking forward to not having to hop in the car and drive as soon as breakfast is done.  Tomorrow morning we are going to explore the city and visit the zoo before we head up to see Meike and her family.