Hotel Aspethera

Computer museum ’Heinz-Nixdorf-Museumsforum’ (HNF)

by himalia11

The Heinz-Nixdorf museum is a very interesting computer museum. It shows the history of information and data processing, over a time of 5000 years, starting with development of characters. You can experience how to calculate with an abacus, there’s an exhibition with lots of typewriters and coding machines, you will get to know the development of calculators, computer and telephone and much more. There are lots of old machines, with several explanations, and if you want to know more there are several multimedia terminals where you can get some details about the topic. Sometimes you can do some experiments yourself, like trying to calculate with an abacus. There’s also a so-called Spieleinsel (games platform) with computers with some computer games.

On weekends there are free guided tours at 14:00 and 16:00. They take about one hour. Some machines are switched on only during a guided tour, so we partly joined the tour. We’ve spent about two hours there, and didn’t watch all the information films and didn’t do all experiments, so you can spent much more time in this museum!

Admission: adults 4 Euro, children 2 Euro, family 8 Euro.
Open 9:00 – 18:00 (Tuesday – Friday)/ 10:00 – 18:00 (weekend).

Paderborn

by Kathrin_E

Paderborn has been the seat of a Bishop since the early middle ages. The diocese was founded by Charlemagne in 799 when the king and Pope Leo III met in this very location to negotiate the modalities of the coronation as emperor, which then took place at Christmas 800 in Rome.

The city has suffered severe damages during World War II. Only a few weeks before the end of the war, on March 27, 1945 the heaviest air raid hit the city. The resulting firestorm reduced the centre to ashes and rubble and killed a lot of people. Not much is left of old Paderborn. The churches and a few other old buildings have been repaired or rebuilt.

Paderborn’s image is being the most catholic of all catholic cities in Germany. In recent decades, with World War II refugees coming, the new university and generally more mobility among the population, things have changed and opened up. Anyway, you will still notice the predominance of the catholic faith when walking the streets of the old town, not only from the number of churches and monasteries.

What impressed me most, apart from the cathedral, was the landscape around the Pader springs. Several dozens of springs open up right downhill from the cathedral, in the middle of the city, and spit out an enormous amount of water. The Pader is Germany's shortest river but definitely not its smallest. From the beginning it qualifies as river, not as creek or stream. Running water adds a lot to the flair of a place and here we have a lot of it. The springs are set in stone basins and made part of a nice park area.