Herbstferien - Lübeck and Hamburg

Tuesday, October 30

We sadly said our good-byes to LC and Friesdorf-Bonn, gathered up our stuff, picked up HR and ME from their friends' homes, and got on the road. We had a "long" drive (by Germany standards) from Bonn to Lübeck and wanted to give ourselves plenty of time in case of traffic and construction zones on the Autobahn.

When J was first teaching himself Deutsch in 2011, he started playing a multi-player online game, Star Wars the Old Republic. He played on a German server and and joined a German-speaking guild. He got to know another player, MG, who cheerfully corrected J's accent, grammar, and taught him game-slang (not necessarily the most useful in every day speaking, but at the time it was pretty entertaining). This past June, MG used his well-deserved vacation time to fly to the US to spend two weeks with us in Virginia. We didn't have an equivalent 2 weeks to spare, but planned to spend 2 days with him in his home town of Lübeck during our Herbstferien. I booked a little Ferienwohnung with AirB&B near the city center and MG met us there when we arrived. Our host was there to hand off the keys and looked over at MG and said, "I think I know him! He works at ***, right?" Turns out our host is an engineer at the factory where MG works! Small world...

After unloading a few things from the car, we followed MG into the city to explore a little. The Marienkirche was already closed for the day, so we just walked through the Altstadt while MG explained the points of interest. To top off the day, we enjoyed a very traditional Norddeutsche meal at the Kartoffelkeller.

We packed plenty of road-trip-ready food. It was raining on the drive, so we carried the baskets into the rest area food-mall area and enjoyed our own spread.

A banner outside the Theater Lübeck: "I was a foreigner and you gave me shelter" I took this picture right after we parked the car and were just walking up the hill toward the Altstadt. I wasn't sure why it was hanging outside a public theater. Here's what their website has to say [compliments of Google Translate]: "After the recent xenophobic riots [in Chemnitz], we would like to position ourselves decisively against right-wing extremism beyond our programmatic, substantive debate and set an example in public space, in the Beckergrube. Therefore, the following banner is currently hanging on the theater facade... The sentence is not easy to say. A question mark encompasses the entire text, making it an open "speech image" that anyone in the world can interpret for themselves if they take a moment to do so. Some may think of the Christmas story, some of their own experiences of being foreign - here or elsewhere, on a small or large scale. Everybody was already somewhere and somehow strange. And there are the experiences of strangeness that most people can not even imagine: When people have left their fatherland and motherland to survive or live a better life. This sentence, which comes from the New Testament (Matthew 25), reflects, like many of our pieces, the question of being human, how we are alien to ourselves and others, or not. The word "stranger" plays on encounter and in the encounter everything happens: we become insecure or encouraged, feel trust or mistrust, are welcomed or encounter rejection. We hope that the sentence provides the opportunity for discussion and (joint) reflection."

Walking up the Breite Straße into the pedestrian zone.

Rathaus Lübeck

Details on the facade of the Rathaus.

The time change happened while we were in Bonn! The sun is now going down at about 4:30 p.m. Here you can see the evening lamps are starting to come on already and the sky is a strange twilight color. The sun shines so sideways up here!

The arches of the Rathaus.

Directly opposite the Rathaus is the Niederegger Marzipan shop and museum. We only window-shopped this evening, but we're going back to shop and visit the museum tomorrow morning. These figures are made by hand out of Marzipan (almond paste)!!

Another angle on the Rathaus. Wonder where that stairway leads!

In the central Markt with a view of the Marienkirche steeples. The lights for the Weihnachtsmarkt are already going up!

When we came around the corner from the Markt, we could look up into the windows of the Rathaus. This is the ceiling of the Burgermeister's office on the second floor of the Rathaus.

Marienkirche against the twilight sky...

MG told us this building has housed the Schiffergesellschaft for hundreds of years! It's now a fancy restaurant.

We stepped inside to take a peak! Check out the ships hanging from the ceiling!

Old-fashioned street lamps and darkening sky.

We crossed this plaza in front of the St. Jakobi Kirche to get to the Kartoffelkeller for dinner. The large brick building, the Heiligen-Geist Hospital, a former nunnery, is now a nursing home.

Kartoffelkeller: literally in a cellar!

Selfies: killing time waiting for the food to arrive...

Not sure how the girls got hold of my phone...

J ordered the traditional local meal: "Seemanns-Labskaus" which is a traditional meal from northern Germany.

ME got a Schnitzel.

Dogs in the restaurant... remember, I said "only in Germany"!

Wednesday, October 31

We had a quiet night in our little AirB&B then joined MG for breakfast at the Café am Theater in the Altstadt. Then we walked back through the sites we'd seen in yesterday's twilight: Niederegger shop and museum, Marienkirche, and Rathaus. We wanted to go inside the church, but since it was Reformationstag there was a service already being held and visitors were asked to return after 10:30 a.m. We shopped in the Niederreger shop instead and walked through the little museum in the top floors where several large Marzipan sculptures are on display.

The little girls split the Französischer Frühstuck which included croissants, hot chocolate, and Brötchen with an assortment of spreads.

My breakfast: Obst Teller (fruit plate)

ME, J, and MG each ordered the "Guten Morgen Frühstuck" which included an endless cup of coffee, endless Brotkorb (bread basket), assorted spreads, and this tower of meats, cheeses, and a hard boiled egg for each.

The steeple of the seafarer's church, St. Jakobi Kirche.

The Marienkirche has "the tallest brick vault [ceiling] in the world, the height of the central nave being 38.5 metres (126 ft)" (Wikipedia: St. Mary's Church Lübeck)

A long standing tradition: chasing pigeons!

Inside the Rathaus.

Detail on the Rathaus door.

Inside the Niederegger shop... They're in full Weihnachts (Christmas) mode already!

Souvenirs... made out of Marzipan!

There's also a bakery side...

Hungry yet?

Map of old Lübeck.

The famous steeples of Lübeck... made out of Marzipan.

Translation: "This model shows the old city of Lübeck with the seven steeples and the Holstentor from the 16th century. Two Niederegger confectioners created this "sweet city" in ca 200 hours of handwork."

A Marzipan model of the Holstentor.

Little pigs, pig heads on platters... not sure why?!

The Rathaus in daylight.

Waiting for the congregants to exit. The girls thought the pastor's collar was strange...

Ceiling frescoes in greens and reds.

Spooky stained glass!

Spooky sculptures... It was Halloween the day we visited! Seems appropriate.

Wish I could have heard this organ play in this space. So majestic!

The church bells of the original structure crashed to the floor during WWII bombings. They remain where they fell as a memorial to the tragic loss and destruction of those years. Will we be able to keep learning lessons from history?

TRANSLATION: "Dietrich Buxtehude: Born 1637, Died 9th of May 1707, spent 39 years working as organist and master craftsman at St. Mary's Church. He is considered the most dedicated representative of North German organ tradition in the 17th century. He is buried in the Marienkirche."

Stunning.

A plaque commemorating J.S. Bach's visit to the Marienkirche in 1705 to meet and hear the famous Dietrich Buxtehude.

The famous Astronomical Clock [Wikipedia]: "It is the work of Paul Behrens, a Lübeck clockmaker, who planned it as his lifetime achievement from 1960 to 1967. He collected donations for it, made the clock, including all its parts, and maintained the clock until his death. The clock front is a simplified copy of the original. Calendar and planetary discs controlled by a complicated mechanical movement show the day and the month, the position of the sun and the moon, the signs of the zodiac (the thirteen astronomical signs, not the twelve astrological signs), the date of Easter, and the golden number.At noon, the clock chimes and a procession of figures passes in front of the figure of Christ, who blesses each of them. The figures originally represented the prince-electors of the Holy Roman Empire; since the post-War reconstruction, they represent eight representatives of the peoples of the world"

[Wikipedia]: The impressive Antwerp altarpiece (de) in the Lady Chapel (Singers' Chapel) was created in 1518. It was donated for the chapel in 1522 by Johann Bone, a merchant from Geldern. After the chapel was converted into a confessional chapel in 1790, the altarpiece was moved around the church several times. During the Second World War, it was in the Chapel of Indulgences (Briefkapelle) and thus escaped destruction. The double-winged altarpiece depicts the life of the Virgin Mary in 26 painted and carved scenes.

I can't get over the ceiling frescoes in this church! How did the artists get up there?! This is, of course, a reconstruction since the church was heavily damaged during WWII, but if this is a re-creation of the original, how impressive the original must have been!

The LIGHT!

Around noon we split off from MG and ate a light lunch at our AirB&B, then hopped on the Autobahn and drove to Hamburg. We planned to spend the afternoon visiting our friends-of-the-family, TW and SW, and their kids JWm, JWw, and LW. They greeted us with homemade cupcakes and hot coffee, then we piled into our cars and went downtown to the harbor to visit the Elbphilharmonie and then walked along the harbor to get a snack from one of the food stalls at the Landungsbrücke.

As we walked back to get the cars from the car park under the Elbphilharmonie, we saw the most spectacular sunset over the harbor! Back at their home we shared a light Raclette meal together. It also happened to be Halloween, so the girls got made-up, with the help of older sisters ME and JWw. SW accompanied her youngest daughter, a school friend, and our little girls to go trick or treating. After they returned with their loot, we headed back to Lübeck for the night.

The Elbphilharmonie has two curved escalators: "KONE has installed the world’s first arched escalators at the Elbphilharmonie. More than 80 meters in length, they are the longest in Europe. Designed in the shape of an arch, they give users the experience of travelling in an ‘endless’ escalator, since they cannot see the other end. They were specially designed for the Elbphilharmonie music hall and climb to a height of 21.43 meters." [KONE company webpage reference]

Viewing platform at the end of the escalator.

Across the way is the "Musical Mile" with Hamburg's many theaters for Broadway style musicals. We saw posters for new musicals "Ghost" and "Dirty Dancing"! Say what?! The 90's want their movies back...

I miss MK every time I take or look at a picture of these three on this year-long journey.

The Landungsbrücke was teaming with people, even on a chilly fall afternoon.

The pictures, of course, don't quite capture the intensity. It was stunning.

GE is going to spend a few days of the Winterferien in March with the W family. She and LW (second from the right) hit it off and since GE doesn't have any friends from her Kindergarten in Bonn to stay with like the older girls, we are working out how to get her to Hamburg for a few days. They have school holiday the same week, so hopefully it'll work out for her to do some fun stuff with them for a few days.

Thursday, November 1

We met MG for breakfast at a different restaurant this time, but not a cozy café--more like a Shoney's style restaurant. From there we drove together in one car to the river "moat" around the inner old city. We wanted to check out what time the harbor boat tours were taking place since it's the off-season and they don't go as frequently. The water was also high due to a storm push inland, so the morning tours were not running. We were told to come back at 11:45 to see if the noon tour was going to run. So, with time to kill, we walked along the river, past the Holstentor and up into a different part of the Altstadt to St. Petrikirche. We took the elevator to the top of the bell tower to get a 360 degree view of the city. From there we wandered back to the river and confirmed that the river tour would run--the water was just low enough for the tour boat to pass under the lowest bridges (by just a few cm!!). After the tour, we piled into one car again and drove to Travemünde to get lunch: Fischbrötchen and Pommes Frites from a stall along the boardwalk. Then we walked out to the adventure playground in the sand along the beach and let the girls and MG's song run wild for a bit. We had hoped to take the ferry across to the old sailboat museum on the other side of the inlet, but it stops running in November... We'll have another chance to go when we come back to Lübeck in March! Once we'd had our fill of Travemünde we drove back towards Lübeck, swinging through the little Dorf where MG grew up, past his childhood home, and then a brief stop to point out his current apartment building, before driving back into town. We ate dinner together at a pizzeria housed in the former "party" riverboat that was pointed out on the river tour.

Looking over the river towards the old city.

Mid-morning and the sun is hanging low in the sky! I'm telling you, the light here is amazing!

My FIL (boat lover) would love this city!

MG's song, R, joined us for the day. He's about GE's age and quite the spitfire!

The Holstentor. It's not an illusion... it's truly a little bit crooked!

These brick buildings, the Salzspeicher, used to store the salt that was one of Lübeck's main trading products. We saw them again later from another angle and you can see how crooked they are--I guess building along water will do that!

The famous Holstentor (an image of this city gate used to adorn the former 50 Deutsche Mark bill).

One of the churches we didn't have time to get to was the Lübecker Dom. You can read a little about it here. An interesting legend surrounding the cathedral:
According to legend, in the 8th century Charlemagne was hunting in Saxony and chased a huge deer. After a long pursuit he succeeded in capturing the animal but neither killed nor kept it. Instead he took a gold chain and laid it on the deer's antlers.
Four hundred years later the Wends and Saxons had converted to Christianity, and the man now out hunting was Henry the Lion, the founder of Lübeck. Henry had separated himself from his followers in order to be alone with his thoughts. He wanted to build a church, but lacked the necessary funds. At that moment a great deer appeared before him with a diamond-encrusted crucifix in its antlers. He took this as a sign from God, and shot the animal. He took the cross from its antlers; hardly had he done so when the deer rose up and disappeared into the bushes. The young duke now had enough money for the construction of the church. [Wikipedia]

 

Hotel Year: 1216! The High Middle Ages in Europe. I still have trouble wrapping my brain around what life must have been like when these buildings were built. The Lübecker Dom was built in 1210... 

Taking off on our boat tour!

The captain was both driver and guide, speaking into a mic and sharing historical facts, anecdotes, local trends, and anything entertaining.

I love how the building facades are smooshed up against one another. One thing I didn't get a picture of up close, were the doors between the buildings that lead into the inner-courtyards where there are private gardens, patios, and cafes! Next time...

The Lisa von Lübeck! A reconstruction of a traditional Lübecker sailing vessel.

She's been in some accidents and is under repair.

One of the bridges into the old city. Be sure to look at a map of Lübeck to understand how the old city is surrounded by water. I think this is the Burgtor and Hubbrücke, but it's hard to identify since the web only has photos from the street level, not the river level and I wasn't taking notes as the guide talked about the history.

During a quiet stretch through the green river parks. GE is getting tired and it's not even lunchtime yet!

The three-towered church of Lübeck... just kidding! It's actually the steeple of the St. Jakobi church in the distance and the Dom steeples in the foreground which from this one angle makes the steeples appear to be from the same building.

Colorful facades... these are primarily private homes. They sit right at water level, so when the water is high, each residence must have a flood readiness plan and supplies to build a temporary sand bag wall! They also have a special city government license to use the shore for their clotheslines and water craft.

The Salzspeicher buildings again.

Look how crooked this building is, sandwiched between the other! Even the windows!

The boardwalk in Travemünde... unfortunately the morning sun gave way to clouds, but at least it didn't rain and the temperatures remained "mild" compared to the usual for end of October/November.

All along the boardwalk's edge, we could see these Feuerquallen (pretty sure they were all Lion's Mane jellyfish). Apparently this summer they were particularly plentiful in the Nordsee and Ostsee. They hurt like the dickens, but aren't particularly dangerous.

This little water bird (can anyone identify it?!) would dive under the water and then pop up 20-30 seconds later in a totally different area.

The old sailing ship, Passat, that you can visit. We'll have to come back to see it another time!

Scaled model of the Passat.

The old lighthouse in Travemünde: "The lighthouse is the oldest on the German Baltic coast, dating from 1539." [Wikipedia]

It's all in the details...

J, whose back was still giving him grief, and MG parked themselves on these bench-platforms while the kids took off to play on the Abendteur playground on the beach.

Abendteur playground in the background.

This sail boat came in out of the fog as we sat by the beach.

This guy must have had a full water suit on to be fishing out in the water like this! Brrr!

This boat used to be a party boat with a dance floor below. To get to the dance floor, one had to slide down a slide from the upper deck! It's now permanently docked here as an Italian restaurant. The kids had pizza and I had a huge salad.

MG with son, R.

The bridge in the background was featured on the boat tour earlier. Something about the strange design that makes it look like it was built upside down or is only partly finished (it's not and it is).

The sun went down while we had our dinner.

Friday, November 2

Friday morning, we packed up our stuff and cleared out of the AirB&B, met MG at the little Café am Theater again for one more gemütliches Frühstuck together.

Farewell view of the Marienkirche towers in Lübeck (taken from the car by J as we drove).

Chatting and digging in to the last breakfast together at Café am Theater. We all ordered the same thing as before!

My breakfast! (I don't eat flour or sugar, so fresh fruit and hard boiled eggs were just the ticket!)

My little squeezy!

And then we hit the road again... This time our destination was a familiar one: a little Dorf called Isenbüttel near Wolfsburg.