Our last full day here before we leave for Hamburg! I ran first thing in the morning (always wonderful because so much of it is under trees and through parks), and then we both worked for a while after breakfast and then went for a walk, part of it with Imke and part on our own. It was another repeat walk, out into the suburbs, mostly along a little canal–almost a ditch–called Pappelgraben, out to a funny mural inside a train underpass (we took photos last year). But my mom especially liked a couple of little garden spots along the way, so we took some photos of the flowers. On the way home we stopped at a bakery for some lovely baguette and rolls, and at a discount supermarket for some salad ingredients, because the deal today was that I would make a salad for lunch. That’s what I proceeded to do when we got home, and everyone was very happy with lunch. We all decided we needed a little bit of rest, but after a little nap, Mark and I went off again–partly in search of a rare halogen bulb for my mom (not successful), and partly in search of another tower that used to be part of the city wall. (We also had to sample more gelato dishes–culinary research!) After we had found the Plümersturm yesterday, we got curious and found out that there are five such towers left, but we had only been to four! So we investigated some more (including looking at the model of Osnabrück in the mid-17th century, with all the city wall intact, which is displayed in the town hall) and eventually found it. It is called “Versperrter Turm” (Locked Tower) and dates back to the 14th/15th century. But it’s been fully integrated into a row of apartment and office buildings, and looks almost modern in that context.
We walked home mostly along the “ring street,” the busy four-lane road that follows the shape of the (roughly oval) old city wall and rampart. We found a row of very big old trees and Mark’s extra-smart smartphone identified them as American sycamores. We are not sure how they got here, but they’ve been there a while! Close to home, we veered off to take one of those innumerable paths just for pedestrians and bicyclists; this one is one of my favorites, because it is almost a tunnel. (If I don’t look like ANYTHING is my favorite thing in this photo, it is because I was getting tired. I ran 3 miles this morning early, then we walked 3 miles mid-morning and another 3+ this afternoon, and I didn’t have an afternoon coffee!)
