There and Back Again: Chapter 3: In which I wander around aimlessly

Yesterday was a fairly normal day as far as that goes. The silica gel stuff takes a while to make, which means that as of right now I'm not doing a hell of a lot in the lab because that's all I'm doing. So I'm slowly going through the literature they've given me to read. It's boring. I can't help it. The project sounds very interesting and I'm excited to get to work, but reading papers is awfully dull. At least they're in english. After work I walked back to the apartment to drop off my backpack and then headed downtown to just sort of meander. I'm pretty good at meandering. Saw lots of pretty buildings, passed by the town hall, and such.

One of the main streets in the town center

"Paderborner Rathaus": Town hall

I was just thinking to myself, "I wonder where the church is. There's got to be at least two or three around here," when I heard the bells chiming. So I let my ears lead me and I walked straight into an open square with a modern art museum, a fountain, and three churches. Good job cantwell. After ensuring that my phone was on silent I slipped into the "dom", or cathedral. Based on my limited understanding of german and the pictures, it looked like it had be destroyed (and I do mean flattened) several times. Each time the people just sort of got together and built it back up again. Only a few sections are still in stone, but many of the altars/side chapels/sculptures/etc had been saved. Really I was surprised at how much of the older pieces had survived the wear of time (and bombs) considering it was built in the late 700s. A small mass was starting in the crypt (which I gather is where they have their smaller services) so I got to hear the organ reverberating through the cathedral. Just beautiful. The cathedral by the way holds the relics of St. Liborius. The church across the street has the shrine and relics of St. Ulrich.

Fountain in square, you can see the cathedral in the background.
The weird looking building is the Diocesan museum.

Another look at the cathedral

I then started to wander back and became intrigued by the large stone wall that bordered the sidewalk I was using. So I followed in around until I found a gate. The wall went so long without interruption I was beginning to get a "secret garden" kind of feeling from the pine trees sticking up of the wall. Not exactly a secret garden, but perhaps a holy one. I had found the local convent. It's possible that's where the nuns who run my apartment building live. Oh yes, my place is run by nuns. I'm not allowed to have visitors after 11 (and definitely no overnight guests!) and there's a cross on the wall by my bed.