Münster

This last Sunday we headed out early for a day trip to Münster. We were only a year late for the once-every-ten-years Skulptur Projekte Münster, but with the city full of remnants of sculptures from years past, there was still plenty to see. As the weather prediction was sunny and 80, it seemed like a beautiful day to get out and walk around (I even wore my running shoes instead of the standard summer flip-flops). The two hour train ride Sunday morning was peaceful and quiet, though as we left Köln city limits, gray clouds started to gather above us. Arriving in Münster with no map, we quickly found the open Tourist information and got loaded down with brochures about the sculptures. Münster is one big bike friendly city, and it would've been very easy to rent bicycles once we arrived but, since we had no idea where we were going, we stuck to exploring the city on foot, getting lost more than once, but at a slower speed.

One of the first sculptures we saw was from last year - Hans-Peter Feldmann's WC-Anlage am Domplatz. In the mid 1950s, during the reconstruction of Münster after the war, there were public restrooms installed below one of the main plazas. Frequently used, these restrooms were in poor state, not having a renovation since 1987 (when the pope visited). Feldmann's project was to redesign the bathrooms. Art meets public bathrooms - now that's something I can get down with. I felt weird photographing the toilet I used (though it was pretty snazzy), so instead I just have the entrances, and a picture from the official website.
We checked about two dozen sculptures off the list, while getting acquainted with the layout of the city. Here's one adorning the side of the Westphalia Landesmuseum, by Otto Piene.
Not far from there is Tom Otterness's busy Superwoman, peopled by numerous little figures working, drinking, and playing.

Kim Adams built a would-be house/office space out of a grain silo, placing it above a cafe that itself used to be a gas station. I'm thinking I need to work on getting such an office.
Further outside the center of town is a fountain by Piene's colleague, Heinz Mack.
We lucked out and dodged rain altogether. The gray skies never left, but it was warm. As for Köln, we found out the next day that we'd missed a blue-skied scorcher. But that hardly mattered, as we've been basking in warm weather all week.