Intro

A few days ago I posted some photographs of my visit to the small skipper village Lauenburg located at the banks of the important European river the Elbe (here). I was visiting my parents on their tiny river boat (well, someone told me it is a mini yacht and I should not undervalue it by calling it a tiny boat) and we had the plan to sail to Lübeck, an old medieval city. Since we expected the trip with the boat, euh yacht, through the Elbe-Lübeck canal not being that special, and the only way out of Lübeck was back the same route again, we've decided to to jump into my car and drive instead of sail.

I would have loved the river trip though, but was not in for 16 locks back and forth and a total of 18 hours sailing. The convenience of my car got us in 4 hrs roundtrip, and we had air-conditioning, something we very welcomed with the warm and sticky weather conditions.

Lübeck

With a little more than 200.000 residents, Lübeck is a small city, but that makes it not less beautiful. I was kind-a dumbstruck to find such beauty in this part of Germany. Situated at the South-Western part of the Baltic sea, it provided an important logistical route with the Scandinavian as well as the Baltic countries already for more than a century. Still today many ships sail to and from Denmark, Sweden, and Finland. The 'Altstadt' (old town) became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1987.

Without further ado, I like to take you with me through my tour through Lübeck. I try to focus on the photographs, since an image tells a 1.000 words and have about 30 photographs selected for you equalling a staggering 30.000 words (I suppose that is a whole book). I need to warn you though, you may still see comments and stories in between the visuals. Please, skip the blah blah blah in case you find it too annoying.

Photograph Tour

Holstentor: city gate constructed late 15th century

Across the bridge (the River Trave leading to the Baltic Sea underneath) from Holstentor towards the Altstadt.

The style of the houses reminds me very much of the Dutch style houses we have in our south western part of the county, in the provence called Zeeland. Ours (the Dutch) are smaller though.

Many of the streets in the Altstadt, just outside the busy shopping street, have this really nice and quiet atmosphere. Somehow this reminds me of the area around Paddington station in London.

Typical medieval style pavement and small pass-ways between the houses.

I couldn't resist! In Amsterdam these roses would not be there anymore, but in Lübeck nobody seems to steal flowers. They smelled great!

At the top end of one of the streets towards the middle of the island where the Altstadt is located. Commonly, medieval cities are build on (little) islands, either it was an island before the city was build, or canals were dug. The river/canal surrounding the city was one of the protection mechanisms from intruders.

Nothing special in this photograph, but somehow it provides a nice atmosphere. I just didn't wanted to withhold it for you.

Continuing our walk to the main streets in the city center, since we wanted to get a good ice cream and one was recommended in the main shopping street. But before getting there I needed to take a bunch of pictures...

Ice cream in the stomach; The tour continues.

I just skipped the ice cream pictures; It may make you want it too and I do not want to give you the 'wrong' idea.

The Altstadt counts two small lakes providing beautiful evening views. They didn't come out too well on the photographs, but I hope you get the idea.

Would be so nice to live at the banks of this lake...

...they do BTW...

Since the time was already progressing towards 11pm and we needed at least 1,5 hrs drive back to Lauenburg, the tour was coming to an end. Back to my car.

The St. Mary's Church, the most important church in Lübeck build between 1250 and 1350.

At the bank of the 'river' Trave surrounding the Altstadt, close to were we started the tour at the Holstentor.

Holstentor again... It is a museum now, but was closed for the day, therefore we could not have a look insight. A shame, since I suspect the insight of this gate is spectacular also. Ah well, there is always a next time :)

Lübeck drawn in 1493.

This map shows the trip I made from my home town Amsterdam to Lauenburg and Lübeck. The drive we've done the day of our visit to Lübeck is just the little more-or-less vertical blue line between Lübeck and Lauenburg.

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