Schloss Steinfurt

A few weeks ago I decided to head for the nearby castle Schloss Steinfurt, situated in the county seat of Steinfurt. Taking the direct route, this trip is fast and easy--probably about 12km. Taking the indirect route, which I like to do, was not so fast but turned out to be relatively straight forward nonetheless. Before entering altstadt (old city) Steinfurt, with its grand castle, I happened upon a wonderful city park that, until this ride, I didn't know existed.

Schloss Steinfurt itself is bit hard to describe and even harder to capture on film because so much of it is not visible from the public roads and pathes. For starters, the castle is privately owned. So getting close is difficult. To make matters worse, a golf course abuts two sides of the castle property and privately owned houses another side. Thus, the castle can only be viewed from the main street, which doesn't allow one to really capture the size of this residence.



I didn't stick around Steinfurt for too long. My next destination was an old Holland-style windmill out in the middle of no where. The trail leading to the windmill was very well marked, thank goodness, because the trail itself was a bit rough at times:



Unfortunately, this too was only accessible from one side and the sun was not cooperating. The best shot I got of the windmill is below:



The trip home from the windmill was quite interesting. I decided to stray off the marked trails and depend on my map. At one point was riding through someone's field on an electric tower right-of-way. At another point I came to a cross roads and had difficulty locating my position on the map. Eventually, I just guessed and kept riding. The ride itself took about 3 hours and covered about 41km and a very pleasant Fall day.

Kreis Coesfeld Castle Tour

This little castle tour took place about two weeks ago. I simply have not had time to write about it. The original plan was to take a train into Münster and then ride through Kreis (county) Coesfeld, visit a few castles and a brewery, and then take the train back home from Havixbeck, a small town east of Münster. However, I ended up driving to Havixbeck and making a circle tour that took me past several castles. The route I took can be found here.

From Havixbeck, I made my way out into the country in search of the Longinusturm, which is a 100+ year old, sandstone tower in the middle of no where. Unfortunately, the pictures I took didn't turn out well. From there I continued along open country roads to Billerbeck, where I planned to visit Kolvenburg, an almost 600 year old structure built for the Knights of Billerbeck. This very well perserved building now houses the Kreis Coesfeld Cultural Center.



Kolvenburg is considered one of the castle on the Münsterland 100 Castle Route, however as you can see from the picture above, castle doesn't immediately jump to one's mind upon seeing it for the first time. My next two stops, however, certainly qualified as castles. First up, Schloss Varlar.



This privately-owned gem dates back to the 17th Century and appeared to be undergoing some renovation work. The grounds around the castle are open to the public. From Schloss Varlar, I made my way to what promised to be an even more impressive castle, Schloss Darfeld. By this time I was a good 40 km into my ride (10 more than planned because I got lost between Schloss Varlar and Schloss Darfeld), and I needed a break. I decided to prop my bike against a tree and take in the view.



The grounds of Schloss Darfeld are open to the public and very well kept.



Upon leaving Darfeld I realized that I was out of water, hungry and still far from where I had parked my car. To make matters worse, the path back became somewhat hilly about 45 km into the ride. Luckily it's apple season in Münsterland, and I was able to find a few trees with low hanging fruit. A few apples later and I was back on my way. Before I found the apples, however, I came across something that made me forget my hunger for a moment. While riding along a country road I saw, out of the corner of my eye, a headstone with the Star of David on it. I stopped to take a look. Sure enough I found an old family cemetary belonging to a Jewish family. The most recent headstone dated back to the 1930s. Later I read that there was a small but thriving Jewish community in this part of Münsterland before the Holocaust.

Next stop, after digesting the apples, was an old water mill that is part of the estate of Haus Stapel.



Haus Stapel today is privately owned, but appeared to be avaiable for rent. A quick look at my map indicated that I was a mere stone's throw from my car. I headed down the path pictured below and made my way home.



What about the brewery, you might ask. Well, turns out that I didn't have any cash on me and I couldn't find a branch of my bank in Havixbeck (where I parked my car and where the brewery is). No money, no beer. It's that simple.

Schloss Surenburg

After testing my ankle to see if it could withstand a long ride, I decided to head out for Schloss Surenburg, which is an old moated castle that is still privately owned. The Schloss is between 12 and 15km from Emsdetten taking the direct route. I decided to chart a path that would take me past a few more interesting things as the "direct route" involved driving along a main road. The path that I charted and the path that I eventually took were, as usual, quite different.

The path I took can be found on the Bikely site here. I diverged from my charted course almost at the very beginning. Instead of heading toward the old Sinningen windmill using a path that runs along the main road between Emsdetten and Saerbeck, I decided to take the "back roads." Actually, the detour happens to be part of the main bike trail system. I just never bothered to take it before. I'm glad I did. Among the things on I found on this trail were a secluded park with great playground equipment for kids, a new part of Emsdetten that I had not seen before, and this great bike path that runs along the road from Emsdetten to Austum (a cluster of building just outside Emsdetten).



At this point I was in uncharted territory for me. It's hard to believe that I had never been on these trails, which are so close to my home. The goal of getting to the old windmill to snap a few pictures had to be abandoned. I was on the other side of a river from it, and according to the map there was no way of crossing the river anytime soon. So I kept heading toward the nearest bridge. After taking what must have been a wrong turn, I eventually started seeing things that looked familiar. I made my way toward what I believed was a direction that would put me back on my original course. Sure enough I found myself on a road that would put me back on course for Schloss Surenburg. Along the road, I came across this little abandoned barn:



Soon after passing this barn, I was back on a well traveled bike trail with which I was quite familiar. A few turns and about 10km later, I was in front of Schloss Surenburg, something I had stumbled across before but never bothered to stop and take a look at.



The castle is still privately owned, so I couldn't get any closer. There was a trail that went around the moat of the castle, allowing me to get this shot:



From there I decided to once again depart from my plotted course. I took a quick look at the map and decided that a few of the offroad paths would eventually lead me back to the main bike path. The paths were not marked for bikes, so there would be no little red arrow signs pointing me in the right direction. It was just me, my map and the forest. This was truly an offroad trail, making me glad I was on a mountain bike. I eventually emerged from the forest exactly where I thought I would (go figure) and started making my way back to Emsdetten. Along the way I passed a windmill park that I have been accustom to passing as it sits on one of the main trails leading out of Emsdetten.



I also took a quick video that I will post later. The video itself isn't all that interesting, but I was able to capture the sound these huge power generators make. It's like nothing I've heard out in the country before.

Zum Landhaus

There were no accidents involved in this short ride. That is if you don't count one of the main reasons for this ride. I was trying to see if I was healed from an accident I had while playing basketball. I strained ligaments in my ankle coming down from a rebound. I was on crutches for a few days and two weeks later I am still having to ice the ankle at least once a day. This ride was thus a test to see if my ankle could handle the stress of riding. I chose a known course. This is a short ride to a Landhaus (countryside restaurant) outside of town. I happened upon it a few weeks ago . . . by accident. I had just finished a ride where I got totally lost because part of the bike path was under repair and the "detour" signs led me astray. I was surprised to see this little gem out in the middle of nowhere. The (direct) route from Emsdetten is about 6.6km and can be viewed here. Half of the ride is through town. On the outskirts of town I came across this nice little canola field:



What this picture fails to show are the new houses that are slowly encroaching on the countryside around our little town. This ride was truly a leisure ride. I was dressed about as casual as could be: jeans, t-shirt, jacket and Chuck Taylors:



Once out of town, the ride is rather easy. There is only bike traffic and the occasional tractor on the road. At this time of year, the corn is high enough to form a wall along the road:



The final stretch is great. It's a pedestrian path through a small forest.



At the end is the reward . . . the Landhaus whose name I forget at the moment. The name, a picture and a quick review of the beer on tap and food on the menu may be subject of a future post.

Accidental Tourist

One of my all-time favorite movies is The Accidental Tourist, the 1988 film based on the Anne Tyler book. The novel is called "Accidental Tourist" because the main character, Macon Leary, is a writer of travel guides for people who don’t want to travel - for those on business trips, for example. He himself hates travelling, and he seeks out all of the places in his destinations where American food can be found, where American people and culture can be found, and where the "accidental" tourist does not have to interact with the people of the country he/she is visiting. The name of this blog was inspired by the movie. I am truly an accidental bike rider. I started going out for rides about eight months after moving here from the United States out of shear boredom. After my first ride, I realized that biking though the countryside was a great way to familiarize myself with my new surroundings. I am somewhat of an accidental tourist as I never intend to be a tourist while out biking, but because I am so new to the area, most of what I am riding past is new to me. So I often stop, look around and sometimes take pictures. The many Germans who are out on the bike routes do flash me stange looks at times when they see me taking pictures. Finally, while I don't intend to avoid interactions with the locals here, clearly spending hours biking does accidentally accomplish that. I almost always bike alone and rarely stop to talk with anyone. And even I did stop to talk, I'm not sure they would understand my broken German.

Biking in Berlin

A few weekends ago I had the opportunity, almost by accident, to take a bike ride through the heart of Berlin. I mentioned to our hosts that I was considering taking the train into downtown to do a little "sightseeing." It was then suggested that maybe we should bike into town (12k one-way). This was somewhat of an unusual bike ride for me as I was accompanied by other people--a four year old who rode with me in a child bike seat, a six year old who rode her own bike (quite a feat considering the distance we were to cover) and the father of the two girls.

The ride into town was tense at times, as we had to share some rather busy road space with cars due to construction on some of the bike paths (or a complete lack of paths). The map of our ride can be found on the Bikley website. As we got closer to mid-town, the pathes got better and sights became more interesting. We passed various embassies including the Scandinavian Embassy (all three Scandinavian countries share a building) and the still-under-construction Saudi Embassy.

After a short, but pleasant ride through the Tiergarten (the main public park in Berlin), we came upon the relatively new Bundeskanzleramt, which serves as the home of the Chancellor and main office building for the government leaders (similar to the White House):



Within view from the Kanzleramt is the Reichstag, which house the Bundestag (German Parliament) and is obviously a historically significant building. It got somewhat of face lift shortly before Berlin became the capital once again.



Berlin has undergone a massive transformation since the fall of the Berlin Wall. And the city continues to change with each passing year. Shortly before the beginning of the 2006 World Cup, Berlin opened its brand new main train station, which sits across the river Spree from the government building pictured above. As part of this construction effort, new pedestrian paths were built along the river:



After emerging from the river path, we took a short detour to find a rest room. Traveling with someone who knows Berlin inside out has its advantages. We found a bathroom in a building between one of the most famous hotels in Berlin and the soon-to-be United States Embassy, a stones throw away from the Brandenburg Gate. After the pit stop, we took a quick shortcut, which took us past the British Embassy and then the relatively new Jewish Holocaust Memorial:



From there we took a short break for lunch and then started our return journey. As as an aside, the website Radzeit.de has a bike route planner for biking in Berlin (in Enlgish no less).

Already a Name Change

The purpose of this blog is simple. I want to keep track of the bike rides I take through the Münsterland area of Germany, where I live. I originally also wanted this blog to serve as a kind of guide for people (primarily English speakers) who are interested in taking bike tours in this area of Germany. I also thought the blog could provide people who didn't see themselves riding anywhere near Germany in the near future with a virtual tour of this very bike-friendly and lovely area. Originally, I named this blog "Biking Through Münsterland." A few days ago, I set out on my inaugural trip. Sure, I've biked around this area plenty of times over the past two years, but this trip would be the first one I would write about. I mapped out a great, albeit lengthy, ride. All started off well. I took plenty of pictures and went over in my head what I would write about each. And then the inevitable happened. I say inevitable because it always happens to me when I take a new route. I got lost. One would think that a rider armed with a bike traill map and riding through a very well-marked countryside would have no trouble finding his destination. I assume for most riders around here, that is the case. But not for me. As usual, I did end up where I intended--by accident. But I didn't end up taking the exact route I had mapped out. Once again, I was the accidental bike tourist wandering aimlessly through this still-to-me foreign land.