So while Glen and I put in our day at the ex-Nazi rubber plant/chemical factory/power plant in Marl, we stayed just down the road in Dorsten. According to that link right there it has almost 80,000 occupants. I sure didn’t see too many of them. I would’ve dropped a zero off that number if you’d asked me to guess. Our little corner of the place was a quiet, rather agrarian area.
As is quite typically the case, I know nothing about this little German town. Neither Glen nor myself had ever been here before, but it was home to the closest available hotel that was in our price range. As such I just sort of ended up here.
But I braved the frigid temperatures the evening we got there and walked a little circle around our hotel, and here’s what I saw:
Our hotel. The Hotel Grutering.
A garage or a shed or something in the hotel parking lot. No Tuff Sheds out here.
The hotel across the street. We ate dinner in their restaurant both nights we were in town.
I'm not in Kansas any more.
The church in town...
Church again.
The neighborhood streets. Quaintly Bavarian.
Some plant ate this house.
Some random structure in the middle of the woods... No idea what it is, but it's pretty....
If this is really from 1913 that's pretty damn cool....
Well, I know 'Strasse' means street. This was the street our hotel was on....
Beware of dog? I guess he'll de-pant you.
Some pretty little doorway....
So I Googled it and apparently this means 'good motoring.' It's on signs leaving everywhere, parking garages, McDonald's and the little town of Dorsten. I still think it means 'good fart' and I'm immature enough to giggle every time I see it.
I hope you enjoyed your little tour around Dorsten. Pictures of Bergheim, the next little town on das itinerary, will be coming soon. And, unbelievably enough, we have tomorrow off work, and I believe the plan is a little day-trip to Amsterdam. So stay tuned.
-B. Littleton
