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.