Back To Shore

I’ll be back in the UK for a short trip next weekend. I though it’s about time I start posting my photos from the last trip in February. There are tons of photos to go through (pick and edit and upload) though , so I thought I’d start with a more easily put together selection. My night shoots.

I won’t be posting the London ones today, because I want to get off the computer again. Digital detox day. Kind of. I still used my phone (and computer) to chat, to play my NYT Games, do my daily Duolingo, listen to podcast or music. No mail or news feed or social media though. Small steps.

I also will log into Insta later to post a link to this and share some photos on my grid.

After work yesterday I didn’t drive straight home but to the historical shiplift Henrichenburg. It’s about equal distance between work and home and only a bit of a detour. I had a reason for going there though, which I will tell you about a bit further down. First of all a few photos of the always interesting to look at and walk around historic shiplift. 

I’ve been inside the small shiplock museum several times before, but walked through it again regardless. I don’t recall this interactive activity from my last visit. So of course I did it, no matter if it’s more aimed at young people or not. And I got a sticker I could put on the ID card and take home in the end. Success!

A couple of weeks ago I had by chance read that the shiplift museum hosts a big exhibition about shipping containers. [German press release from last year].

I only now managed to actually visit very shortly before it will closes (tomorrow, 12th April) and I wish I had gone earlier. Because I would have loved to recommend it to so many people (I even did to a few last night to be fair but it’s quite short notice).

Do I have a special nerdy interest in shipping containers? I didn’t think I had, but the article I read about the exhibitiion obviously made it look super interesting. And it was! To me anyway, so maybe I do have a bit of nerdy special interest. But if you really think about it for a moment the arrival of the shipping container as we all know it, definitely changed the world in a similar way as the printing press or the internet. At least I left this exhibition very convinced of that statement. I even bought the expensive exhibition catalog to be able to read up on various aspects of it all. 

The exhibition touches on all kinds of aspects: the history of the design / invention of the container as such. The use of it. The massive impact the ubiquitous use of shipping containers had and has on global trade and global traffic and economics and societies and the ecosystem. The impact it had on architecture, urban design and art itself.

There was quite a lot to see and think about, as any good exhibition should leave you with. 

One tiny thing I would have given critical feedback on (if there had been a feedback opportunity somewhere) was the layout of the exhibition. I get that that there might have been spatial restrictions along the canals and the available space. But there were 15 sections which sort of build on one another: 1 was “the container”, 2 was “the technical norm”, 3 “the beginnings”. But that was the layout when you entered the exhibition from the regular way (entrance – shiplift museum – shiplift – upper canal…) from the left

Section 9 – 11 were further on the other side of 1 – 2 – 3. A bit weird. When I got home and had a good look on that photo on my phone I realized that I had missed going into section 4 and 5! Probably because I had already walked past the building on my way to have a look at the “offical” starting point of the exhibition. So it’s a good thing I spent money on the catalogue.

Anyway here are a few of my photos in official order of the sections, with the occasional additional comment. 

There was a whole lot of information about all the technical aspects, the material, the various sizes, the locks they need to interlock the containers for transport. I also very much liked the drawing of the container side with all the symbols.

Another section – all large photos set up below deck in an historic barge – were about various accidents and how that impacts the ocean but also the coasts and the people living there. Here are a few images from the south of England in 2007. I do not recall the “big LEGO spill” in the late 1990s in the same region of the world. Someone wrote a book about that though and I might jotted down the details.

In 1992 a ship going east from Hongkong lost containers filled with rubberducks (and other plastic bathtoy animals). Below is a map of where they were found many many years later.

Down below also was another photo exhibition on the crew on container ship and the harsh condition they work and live in. The dangers of ship wreck and other technical failures, the months long seperation from families and all that. I didn’t take a lot of photos there (only a few with the mobile phone), maybe because I thought it was too personal? But also maybe because the lighting below decks wasn’t that good.

This photo of a young man – on the bottom of the ship’s workers’ hierarchy so he has to do the most unpleasant (dangerous, dirty jobs) – reminded me so much of paintings / drawings of climber boys and chimney sweeps and children working in coal mines a few centuries ago. Heartbreaking in way, I thought. 

Other sections dealt with the variety of goods that are shipped in containers these days. At some point it was stated that 95% of the things we own have been in a shipping container at some point. That’s probably true but staggering regardless, when you think about it. The exhibition shows lots of examples, clothing and phones and computers and computerchips and all that. It also show the ecological impact the shipping industry has by now. The large carbon footprint, the pollution, transfering non-native / harmful species across ecosystems. You name it.

The exhibition ends – or rather starts if you walk into it the only way to get there 🙂 with a special made container building and exhibition space inside (and on the walls outside).

Inside it gave you insight into the concept of modular design; not just shipping containers but also beer crates (in Germany at least), the monoblock chair and IKEA’s Billy shelves. Insight about how containers are used in urban planning and in art. A screen showed clips from movies where where the bad guys hide in or chase the good guys through container environment like a shipping yard.

All in all a really interesting exhibition that gave me lots to think and talk about. I’m so glad I made time and went there after all.

Lyrics “One Foot Before the Other” – Frank Turner, 2011

If I really want to turn this blog into a “photo memory / recap of my activities” place, I should get on to sorting the photos (and memories) from my February activities. Operation Mincemeat, Manchester, London. Instead I let myself get distracted by too many other things. Monkey Mind and all that. Anyway, Easter Saturday was a quite lovely day around here, so I decided to tackle the next bit of “my Camino”. (Wrote this on Monday, finally get around to post it on Wednesday. Progress of sorts)

Part 06: Münster-Hiltrup – Drensteinfurt (Mersch)
(KM 78 – 98)
Saturday, 04th April 2026

The distance on the actual path between the green and the red marker on the map above were about 20 km. I gave myself the option to end it earlier (at the orange marker) but I felt fine enough to walk the whole distance. I then also walked about 1 km from the train station to the actual route and another 4 km to the train station again; the grey line in the map. With a small detour for some lunch I came to about 26 km. From 10:00 – 18:00 with about 1 hour of lunch break. Decent enough pace, and even if it weren’t it shouldn’t matter, because it’s neither a race nor a competition.

Why do I do it to myself though? I wondered about that on the last long straight stretch. I guess, I do it, to prove to myself that I can. And use this “you managed to do THAT” experience to help me deal with other things. I don’t know. Maybe I’m just a masochist who likes to push – aka torture – herself?

First stage of this section was urban Münster again, not much interesting to document or anything that would make a good photo theme. Catholic missionaries, Police Academy (sorry, University, but of course the former is so ingrained in my generation’s pop culture).

I crossed the Dortmund-Ems Canal (for the sixth time since I started this in 2024). This time sort of twice – the old canal route – and the newer one.

South of the canal I left the main roads (finally) and entered a bit of a more outdoorsy area. While there were trees and bushes and nature and all that that paths mostly were still paved for all kinds of vehicles (forestry, agriculture and so on) to drive on. 

I was glad I have a digital version of the route on my phone because some markers weren’t as easy to find as others.

It seems like I wasn’t the only pilgrim, that day 🙂

The village of Rinkerode was the only place on today’s section where I could sit down to get some lunch (and use the restroom) so I made use of that, of course. 

From that on is was pretty much straight down south-east. Woods and fields, wind turbines and the occasional piece of art. In real life it definitely looked more than a big turtle than it might on this photo. 

The rest was a lot of walking on straight paved paths between fields and farms and trees. When one road ended, it was either turn left or right and walk on straight on. Again.

These  all are indeed different sections of the route. It got kind of boring after 10 km or so in. 

There were quite a few cyclists out and a few (dog) walkers as well. I had a lovely chat with a couple on bikes when we shared the same resting space for a bit and also was allowed to fondle a beautiful large dog. 

Later on I came across a site where they obviously had recently put up three new wind turbines or were in the process of still putting them up. They looked pretty complete to me from below, but what do I know? They still had the temporary road extension set up. As someone who works in the climate action field I always like to see renewable energy systems of all kinds. Nerdy, maybe, but I’m fine with that.

There were the usual way markers – stickers on lampposts or metal / laminated signs fixed to trees, but also various others which is always nice to see. The last one was the one before I left that day’s route (the photo of the one where I entered in the morning turned blurry and I didn’t notice it at the time) 

And then there were the remaining 4 km to the train station. On a seperate walk/cylce path next to a main road. Straight on. What a suprise. By then my feet and legs were quite tired. I resorted to the “proven and tested” (by myself anyway) method of “you only need to walk to the next dandelion (or alternatively pebble on the path / fence post”; literally anything I could see a few feet in front of me. 

I was never as glad as that evening to see the signs for the railroad tracks. The train station was right at the traffic lights, where the street crossed the tracks. But obviously no one ever gets there on foot? No sidewalk or anything. Weird. 

About 45 hours later I’m still a bit sore from all of that exertion. Still feel quite accomplished that I managed to do it without any real struggles. And I’ve already been sketching out the next trip. Which will have to start with these 4 km from the train station to where I left the “Camino” on Saturday. But I’m sure I’ll manage. It will be the start of the walk that day anyway… 

Part 05: Münster-Dorbaum to Münster-Hiltrup (KM 061 – 078), 26th March 2026
Part 04: Greven-Schmedehausen to Münster-Dorbaum (KM 045 – 061), 19th October 2025
Part 03: Lengerich to Greven-Schmedehausen (KM 029 – 045), 27th October 2024
Part 02: Natrup-Hagen to Lengerich (KM 017 – 029), 13th October 2024
Part 01: Osnabrück to Natrup-Hagen (KM 000 – 017), 15th September 2024