Germany April, 2004

Werne

Now we knew that Werne was a small town, near Dortmund, but after being so impressed with the different train stations, we were absolutely shocked when we got off the train here.  The grass by the side of the tracks was uncut, the underground walkways were full of graffiti, and the outside of the abandoned station had no taxi stands or anything else.  Basia and I, in fact, were the only ones standing outside here.  Needless to say, we feared the worse, wondering what the rest of Werne would be like.  Luckily, I had the foresight (and/or financial foolishness) to have purchased a UK SIM card for my World Phone.  So, I called the hotel from my mobile phone and had them arrange to have a cab pick us up as it would have been foolhardy for us to have starting hiking off in the general direction of town - and something, obviously, I originally was thinking of doing.

The good news was that the Bahnhof was not at all representative of the town.  Werne is a very beautiful and family friendly town.  Much as I enjoyed the larger cities, I guess I must be a small town guy.  Whenever I am given the chance, I normally pick a small town over a larger one.  Luckily, Werne did not suffer the ravages of World War II, either because there were no viable targets or because it was so small and our bombing accuracy so poor that we never were able to hit it.  In either case, I am happy that it survived intact, whatever the reason.

	Oh, there was a bit of confusion when I told the taxi driver that we wanted to go to the Hotel Baumhove.  It turns out there are two places he could drop us.  One, the modern hotel (where we wanted to go) across the street from the Cloisters (yes, there is a very, very, very small religious order here) and the other in the middle of the old city, where their restaurant (since sometime in the 1400s)adjoining the market square was located. Oh, the food and the atmosphere was wonderful!
	Werne is probably only about four blocks wide by three blocks wide and some of the buildings are easily from the 1400s, if not earlier.  This is the city market square.  One day during the week (if not more), it is completely full of vendors selling whatever from carts.  If you have been in places like Florence or Rome and shopped in those market squares, it would look very similar.
	However, one of the things that made Werne delightfully different were all the sculptures around town.  One picture I loved was the one of the guy sitting having his morning coffee, oblivious to the 'bell ringer' crying out just behind him in the market square. This is the same building as in the prior photograph but taken at a different time of day.
	The one that made me grin the most was this sculpture of two girls in front of a bank.  The ringleader has broken the piggy bank and is depositing the contents into the another, obviously shocked,  girls' apron.  This is something that needs to be seen in more detail, so you can click here or here (or even here)  for a larger picture. The local people also grinned as they pedaled past on their bicycles, watching me taking these pictures.
	Werne is very people friendly as this is a foot walking zone only.  So, there are no motorized vehicles allowed.  This little town had no less than 3 ice cream shops (that is ALL that they sold) and at least two pastry or chocolate shops.  The only way I figure that they can keep their figures is to either walk (as they must in this part of town) and/or ride bicycles, which is also quite common.
	Not only is Werne people friendly, it is child friendly (now, I am NOT saying that children are not people, but rather that children are a subset (no pun intended) of people.) There are all sorts of rocking horses and other amusements to keep the little ones occupied with benches nearby to give their parents or guardians a little rest. As I said, I loved Werne.  It was almost a pity that it was so small, but then it would have lost its small town charm had it been larger.

Thank You

And lastly, many thanks to Carsten and Sabine Kefenbaum for making time in their very busy schedule (which included Sabine's birthday, their first wedding anniversary and his very extensive sports agenda.) to take us to visit Dortmund for dinner Sunday night.

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