06/16/04

Good Friday and Easter Monday are both federal holidays in Germany, so we took advantage of this extra long weekend and traipsed around the northern part of the country, visiting places both recommended to us by friends and our handy tour guide.  Our first day trip was to Lübeck, a city of approximately 213,000 (according to our guide book), and is about 60 km (36 miles) northeast of Hamburg.  If you take the main roads.  Since everything is an adventure to us anyway, we don't always take the main roads - and we didn't on our way to Lübeck.  One of my favorite things to do at home is roam around the countryside, looking for cows and such.  Germany has absolutely wonderful countrysides, and although we didn't see many cows, we did come across a couple sheep.  Things are just starting to green up here, and the dark earth makes the grass seem even brighter. Anyway, I enjoyed our adventure to Lübeck, and Russell enjoyed taking the main road back to Hamburg.

Lübeck was one of the cities recommended to us by friends even before we left home.  Apparently, the city has quite a fine reputation for chocolate and marzipan.  We can now report that there is indeed wonderful dark chocolate in Germany, and if you like marzipan, there's lots of it, too.  The story behind marzipan is that the Lübeckers ran out of flour during a medieval siege, and resorted to ground almonds for baking purposes.  And ta-da! marzipan was born.  It actually has a cherry-flavor to it, and is sculpted into intricately beautiful shapes, but I still prefer my dark chocolate.

While in town, we toured through the Dom (cathedral), wandered around town and through the Holstentor gate, and then took an elevator to the top of the tower of the Petrikirche (St. Peter's Church) to take in the view of the surrounding area.

Our first view of scenic Lubeck was across a canal, which circles the Old Town.

The Dom towers

Stained-glass window of the Dom

The foundations for the Dom were laid in 1173 by Heinrich der Lowe (Henry the Lion), making it the oldest church in Lubeck.

Inside the Dom are many spectacular pieces of art.

Views of the city.

Winding our way through the Alstadt (Old Town).

The Lubeck Rathaus

The facade of the Rathaus, unique because of holes build into the facade to allow wind to pass through (rather than topple the structure).

The Salzspeicher, which was used to store salt in the Middle Ages.

View of the Holstentor from the Petrikirche tower.

Detail of one of the Holstenstor's turrets.

One of the Holstentor's towers.

Terra-cotta frieze of the Holstentor.

Spire of the Petrikirche.

Up close to the Petrikirche.

The Petrikirche was badly damaged during the air raids of WWII. The restored interior now is a showplace for art and music.

View from the Petrikiche tower.

Part of the Rathaus framing the Markt square.

Steeples of Marienkirche (St. Mary's Church), with a wind farm in the distance.

View of the Dom.

Inside the Petrikirche.

Petrikirche Turm (St. Peter's Church tower)

The Dom

The Informatiks (computer science) building, atop the ruins of the Emperor's Gate.

Down a quiet path

Reflections

.

Our first view of scenic Lubeck was across a canal, which circles the Old Town.