So after about 2 or 3 hours of driving, a pit stop for some German fast-food at a rest stop (the soup was AMAZING!), and possible multiple traffic violations ("what was that flash?!") we made it safely to Osnabruck, where my friend, Malte, goes to school.
Bob and Tom are clearly ecstatic to be here!
We parked in this small, free parking lot near the edge of this "city" ("Stadt" in German), and walked to find the hostel, where we were happy to know that we could park right outside of it for free instead of walking two blocks. We almost had a run-in over the boys' lack of Hostelling International cards, but the guy just brushed it off and didn't give us a hard time. We headed up to the 2nd floor of this hostel/retreat center, to find our 4-person bedroom, equipped with our own bathroom and shower! Sweet!
Our bedroom...pretty swanky, eh?!Afterwards, we started our journey into Osnabruck so that I could check for an email from Mike at an internet cafe and we could explore. There was a plethora of churches, a huge shopping street, and...as we were taught in German class, a Fussgangerzone (pedestrian zone), which actually went all the way through the center of the city along the shops and restaurants...we need a city like this in the US.
This would be the Fussgangerzone sign...precious, no?
We wandered until we reached the side of the city opposite the hostel, then came upon this castle gone...something-cool-looking! We'll have to ask tomorrow. Then we headed back toward the city center. Bob was craving icecream, which should tell you how strange the situation was, even weirder, was that on a Friday night around 9 PM there were lots of open bars and restaurants with no one in them! One street that we walked down had about 15 people on it...DEAD silent...soooo Creepy! We did get some gelato for Bob though (yeah, Tom and I wanted some too, as usual!)...dessert first!
We ended up on the opposite side of a church we had seen while walking out of the city...that had a nice little courtyard where a group was gathered with someone who seemed to be in the military...probably a Brit, as I recall Malte saying there was a base nearby.
This is a view from said plaza. That stepping facade along the roofline seems to be pretty typically German as far as I can tell from driving around today. The stepping pattern or just high gabled roofs in general are EVERYWHERE. As in Spain, the buildings are brightly colored, and I really love the vibe it gives off...it makes the street feel alive and homey.
We grabbed a pizza zu "mitnehmen" ("to go"-the only phrase about eating NOT in my phrase book), stopped at a grocery store to get a few things for tomorrow, and headed back to eat at the hostel and shower.
The pillows here are HUGE and fluffy--I need to get one of these for home!
This will be our first night with 8+ hours of sleep in quite some time...hooray for vacation!
Goodnight Germany!
We get to see Malte tomorrow!
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