On the first day of our week-long vacation break together, my partner wanted to go to Münster. I’d heard of the name as a comedy about monsters in the 1960s, though apart from that it was totally out of my consciousness. Feeling slightly confused but with no set plans to speak of, we went Saturday morning on a 2.5 hour drive across the border to Germany. What I saw turned out to be pretty – and surprising.

For a medieval city, it had all the right ingredients. Somewhat lucky during the last world war, the Altstadt was spared from much of the bombing. While the historic sites were impressive, walking around I couldn’t help but notice how many destitute and homeless there were. Living in the Netherlands where there’s rarely such a sight is akin to living in a bubble apparently – coming face to face with this reality, more so in a place as prosperous as Germany, can certainly be jarring.

It seems Munster had a lot to offer. Apart from a string of old churches, lots of green spaces and enough bikes to match Amsterdam, and of course the cheaper food, having been around since the 800 A.D. does give it a lot of interesting history. I even found out later that this was where the idea of Amsterdam was born. Like my partner said, after Münster I’ve been to practically anywhere worth seeing within a 300 kilometer radius. So where does one go from here? Just a little bit further, I suppose.