Quakenbrück

Quakenbrück is Conway's sister city in Germany and we visited our friends Albrecht and Ruth there last weekend. The connection between Quakenbrück and Conway is frogs/toads, and here are a couple of the many frogs on the main shopping street in Quakenbrück.Friday is market day in Quakenbrück, and we were amazed at the size and scope of this plant stall - this doesn't capture the whole thing, and it is set up for one morning in the market of a town of 11,000. Albrecht & Ruth took us to the nearby town of Cloppenburg, where there is an open air museum with old farmhouses and windmills. The farmhouses are very different from what I've seen at similar museums in the U.S. For one, the barn and farmhouse are under one roof so the building looks enormous. For another, there are small, enclosed sleeping chambers close to the fireplace. These farmhouses are from the 1700s.
This is a picture Wayne took for one of his German classes and it is typically German - a mail bike! The mail is often delivered by bike, but I've also seen postal carriers with carts of mail on the city buses.
This is a fairly typical German breakfast. Again, this is a picture Wayne took for his classes. This is also typical of a German supper, with the main meal coming in the middle of the day. We are getting very spoiled by the bread!