On our way to Rotterdam, we took a day trip to the city of Munster in Germany. While here, we had the opportunity to sight-see and visit the many museums the city has to offer such as the Picasso museum, a Greek archeological history museum, and an art museum featuring paintings, sculptures, and writings across different time periods throughout history.

Before arriving in Germany, however, I was fascinated on the drive over as we passed acres of farmland covered in solar panels. Some parts of the drive consisted of solar farms alone while other parts of the drive included farmhouses with solar panels on the roof. This was surprising to me as I am mainly used to seeing solar panels in bigger cities and suburban neighborhoods when in the US. After further research, I learned that the Dutch government subsidizes solar panels for farms and creating solar fields in order to allow farmers to rely on cleaner energy sources and cut down on the reliance of fossil fuels for the country itself. This in return cuts down on emissions and makes energy consumption within the country greener. It is also a way of allowing those who can not afford to live in the bigger cities or those who rely on farming to not be left behind in terms of sustainable energy usage and cuts down the gap between those who can afford solar panels and those who may not be able to. In the first picture below, a farm with solar panels on the roof can be seen.

While in Munster, we got to experience a different perspective of how the second world war affected Western Europe. While in Amsterdam, we did not see many remains from bombings or the presence of such as the city was mostly spared. However, in Munster, there were a lot of modern or newly built structures from after the war due to the devastation the allied bombings had on the city. Many structures left standing from the war still have chunks missing or holes in them which were leftover from bomb fragments.

At the Westphalian State Museum of Art and Culture in Munster, our group witnessed another form of the influence the Protestant Reformation had on society through art. The museum starts out with religious pieces as this was the most common form of art in early history and moves towards the Renaissance which introduced art focused on humanist ideals and away from strictly religious themes. Art from the time of the Protestant Reformation and Baroque art movement were also held in the museum and represented a different look at the movement away from the strictly architectural form seen in Elburg churches. Art reflects the beliefs and culture of societies at the time it was made which can be seen from the presence of still life art and a mixture of different interpretations of scenes from the bible in art from around this time period. While some artists mainly focused on secular objects or everyday scenes, others had the liberty to interpret the bible and religious stricture how they wanted through their artwork which was used to spread their beliefs in places like Protestant Germany and the Netherlands.