When last we checked in with our intrepid correspondent, Team Munchkin Wrangler had returned from their excellent little side trip to Vienna.
Back at my brother’s place, we spent the next few days with Family Stuff™. One thing that really worked out well on this trip was the way in which we were able to spread ourselves around evenly among the family so everyone could spend time with us and nobody felt like they got the short end of the stick. Robin and I went gift-shopping in Muenster and used the opportunity to leave Lyra and Quinn with my mother, who was more than happy to ply them with toys and treats all day long.
(When we came to pick them up, I asked my mom if they’d had nothing but candy all day long. She shook her head and asserted that OF COURSE they’d had real food. At McDonald’s.)
The kids had no problem at all being the center of attention and consuming their own body weights in German candy all day long at Oma’s place, and we got to stroll around Muenster without any complaints about hurting feet or boredom.
Quinn, Lyra, and their Oma.
Lyra even got to spend a day at a German kindergarten with her cousin Janne, who is also five years old. You’d figure the language barrier would have been a problem, but at that age, it doesn’t seem to hold them back much when they can’t really understand the words coming out of the other’s mouth. When I came to pick her up, she asked to go again the next day. (“It’s a school just for playing!”) In Germany, kindergarten starts at age 3, so they don’t do all that much educational stuff in the mixed classes and mostly let the kids engage in free play.
The sight that greeted me when I walked into the Kindergarten to pick up Lyra.
I took a little bit of time on this trip to visit some landmarks of my childhood. This time I had a DSLR in tow, thanks to my friend Oleg. For example, I went to see my old kindergarten in the center of Muenster:
St. Ludgeri kindergarten in Muenster. I went there as a wee lad, back in 1976-77.
I also drove out to a small village called Ladbergen, where we used to live in the late 1970s. I’ve always had fond memories of that quaint little place, unlike some of the places we lived in subsequent years.
Moeller’s Hof gasthaus in Ladbergen. My father ran the place in the late 1970s/early 1980s. My sister Nadine was born while we lived here.
The village bookstore, still in the same spot where it stood in 1978/79. I used it as my unofficial library quite a bit.
Another gasthaus on what is Main Street in town. Also another family landmark: my little brother got hit by a car right in front of the place. (He was fine.)
My old elementary school. I spent second and third grades here.
The church and main cemetery, right in the town center. I played there a lot as a kid with my local friends.
A closer look at the church and that ancient cemetery wall all around the place.
Detail above the church door. It’s been in that spot for a while. The words are “Come; for all things are now ready”, from Luke 14:15-24, the parable of the Great Supper.
Memorial in the cemetery, commemorating “our brothers fallen for king and fatherland” of the Franco-Prussian and Austro-Prussian Wars. Before the German Empire’s establishment in 1871, Westphalia was part of the Kingdom of Prussia.
I appreciated that the trip was unhurried enough for me to indulge in a bit of personal history sleuthing, going back to places I hadn’t seen in thirty years or more. If you don’t know where you came from, you can’t know where you’re headed.
(Part Three to follow, in which I will show you around Muenster, my favorite city.)
I so want to go back to my old stomping grounds, and especially show my friends and my kids all my old haunts in Berlin. Of course, plenty of them are gone forever, but my old high school still stands!
Excellent photographs and narrative!
I tried (and failed) to get stationed in Germany while in the US Air Force. I did spend a couple of memorable nights there. The beer made my lips numb and the Rhein wine made my heart sing.
Steve in South Carolina
Little Red, I hear you, I spent an hour at a rather small & ancient ( circa 1200-1300 from the architecture) church in Normandy and was choked up seeing small memorials dating back to 15xxall the way to WWII (Believe it or not, some Germans)! And since it was near the sea, there were also ex-voto ships models (both war. trade and fishing) dating back (one of them) to the early 1700’s hanging from the ceiling.
Somehow all the stupid wars had managed to pass it by and not molest it. Of course, between heavy stone tile roof, tiny windows, walls 5+ ft thick, and doors that seemed to be 6 inch thick oak beams bolted together ( the only lock was a interior cross bar.) nothing short of explosives was going to affect it.
I’ve always wished I could remember the town i visited in the Rhein Valley where the war memorials in the cemetery went back to the Napoleonic Wars. Kind of put a lot of history into perspective.