A few weeks ago we were given tickets to the zoo and an outdoor museum called the Mülenhof Museum. It was a long weekend for us (yay German Reunification Day!), so we, well I, decided that we needed to use one set of tickets.
We have been so lucky to have warmth and sunshine for the last week. After ten days or so of gray and dreary weather I told my family that we HAD to spend the long weekend outside - all of it! I even was able to wear shorts for part of the days.The zoo is an all weather zoo, so we opted for the Mülenhof Museum. It is an outdoor museum similar to Williamsburg.
The Museum is just off the Aasee, so Saturday we were able to jump on our bikes and ride there in about 10 minutes.
One of the boys favorite exhibits was upstairs in the Weavers House. Even though they didn't have anything to do with weaving, there were several models of various windmills. They were not turned on, but you could see that they would be plugged in. Even with no power, it was impressive to see how complicated the machines were. My boys were dying to see them spin, so I (shhhh - don't tell) spun it manually with my hand a few times.
Another favorite spot was the Bee Museum. It had a bee hive that was encased in plexiglass with a door that you could open to safely see the bees. We even found the Queen. Preston informed us that she has a slightly longer torso than regular bees. Luckily, this queen had a blue dot on her back.
A few exhibits down the path was an apiary (Bienenhütte) with several working bee hives.
Another interesting exhibit was the linen bleaching hut. When people made linen, they would bleach it in the sun by laying it out on the ground and periodically sprinkling it with water. It would take several days. Linen was so valuable that who ever was doing the bleaching would sleep outside by the linen in a hut like this one to protect it.
At the Shoemakers's House there were typical examples of old shoes, but I was really surprised to see some very strange shoes. It took me a minute to realize that were, in fact, shoes. The ridiculous trend of really high platform shoes has apparently been around for a long time. I really think Gaga would like these.
There were lovely kitchen gardens and other really interesting exhibits, but I think the real show stopper was the Well To Do Farmhouse complete with moat. It was huge and brimming with examples of everyday house and farm wares. In the middle of the house was an amazing hearth full of spits, kettles and pots used in cooking over the fire.
What formal dining room wouldn't be complete without a giant boar's head above the door?
I posted all of the pictures on Facebook, you can peruse all of 80 or so of them here.
Münster Bike Race
On Sunday we went for a long bike ride and noticed some commotion near the Schloss (castle). There were tons of tents being set up. We looked up the weekends activities at saw that there was a bike race on Monday scheduled and the finish line was by the Schloss. The race was the Sparkasse Münsterland Giro 2011, which you can read about here.
So Monday, bright and early, we walked over and checked it out. I have done a few running races (Half marathon, a few 8 Ks and a sprint triathlon), but never a bike race. This made me very tempted to look into it.
As we walked to where the finish line was there were children's activities set up. The boys were able to grind their own wheat and later take a quiz about cows (auf Deutsch) in order to win a prize (the boys picked chocolate milk). Then, we made our way over to the race.
We happened to get there just in time to see the winner cross the line. Not ever having seen a race before, I was surprised to see the bikers so closely together in their packs. As soon as they crossed you could see their faces change from stern concentration to utter relief and pride. It was really emotional. There were people who crossed the line on foot because of injury or accident and you could see the frustration and pain, emotional and physical, on their faces. It was heartbreaking for them. Below is just a picture of random finishers, not the winners.
It was another eventful week for us here in Münster. We continue to go about our daily activities but keep running into unexpected occurrences.
One other fun thing we did this week was visit Burger King. I have been wanting to reward the boys for being such great sports these first few weeks. I know it can't have been easy for them to be not only in new schools, but in schools where they really couldn't understand much and didn't know anyone. After watching the bike race, we told the boys we were going on a bike ride and just didn't tell them where we were going. They were thrilled to say the least, hamburgers and milkshakes! I will admit, I really wanted a milkshake.
Tomorrow we are having our first house guests. We are going to have to borrow a chair from a neighbor in order to have enough seats for everyone. I asked the boys what they wanted to serve our guests and they all said soft tacos. Luckily we can find all the ingredients pretty easily. I even bought an avocado, but don't ask what I paid for it. Dessert is going to be a cheese cake because that is what I feel like making. They do have cheese cake here in Germany, but it is not the same.
Bis nächste Woche! (Till next week!)
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