Lübeck

 

Today (after this amazing German breakfast) we took the train from Hamburg to Lübeck (45 mins), to explore this historic Hanse-City, famous for its marzipan, red-brick houses, and old Rathaus (from the 13th century, the oldest in Germany). Lübeck was the center of the medieval trading league, the Hanseatic League, and was a wealthy trading and shipping city. Lübeck was the first northern European city to be named a UNESCO World Heritage site (in 1987).

breakfast :)

 

The rain was off-and-on, but luckily mostly off today. The first thing you see when entering the city is the Holstentor, a city gate built 1466-1478.  We weathered one downpour in the St. Petri Church, a gothic church damaged in the bombing of Lübeck in 1942. Then we walked down the main street of the Altstadt, past the Rathaus (the impressive and super-old city hall), and we wandered through the narrow streets, through inner courtyards and back around along the main street to the Niederegger Marzipan Café. Real decadence. We just had to have the famous Marzipan-Nut-Torte, and a few others…We also went in the Marienkirche, a beautiful red-brick church (the third-biggest in Germany). The two bells that fell from the belltower during WWII are left on the floor of the church, a sobering and impressive sight.

holes in the wall so the winds from the Baltic coast don't blow the wall down

 Lübeck is also the home of some very famous German personages: the writers Thomas Mann and Günther Grass, and the politician Willy Brandt (mayor of Berlin during Kennedy’s visit and later chancellor of W Germany who helped ease relations with the East). 

fallen bells in the Marianenkirche

Niederegger Cafe - the Marzipan Mecca

the famous Marzipan-Nuss-Torte

 I hate to go from pictures of food to pictures of food...but tonight's dinner was great. :)

From here we leave Hamburg and head north to the North Frisian island of Amrum. Not sure whether we will have internet, but we will have expansive sea coasts, dunes, beaches, lots of wind and maybe some rain...liebe Grüße!