Lübeck, Germany is the kind of town I could stay in for a week - which is unusual for me because I like to move around when I'm on vacation - but this town is something special. I wore out two camera batteries today taking pictures as there is something worth capturing at every turn. This town is ancient - some of the churches were built in the 1200s and still stand even though the town was bombed heavily during the Second World War. The narrow cobblestone streets, brick buildings with beautiful architecture, church spires, canals and flowers growing in every conceivable space make this one of the prettiest town I've ever visited. People told me before I came that it was "nice," but I was still surprised by its beauty.
We stayed on the outskirts of town and enjoyed a nice walk into the city along one of the many canals that circle in and around this place. The old part of town is surrounded by a moat, complete with fortified entry gates (see photo of Kory and Kaleb at one gate built in 1422). The property all along the canal leading into the city was parceled up into pea patch lots about thirty by fifty feet. Since the bulk of the housing is in the city center and no one there even has a balcony or window box, these little pea patches obviously satisfy the need for the locals to get their hands dirty. There are several other pea patches all within a few minute's walk from the heart of downtown so I imagine they must have begun centuries ago because they sit on prime real estate. Most of the pea patches were encircled by hedges so it was impossible to see what was growing on the other side, but the few we could see grew the customary fruit trees, vegetables and flowers. A few even had little shacks with lawn chairs outside so I imagine it's a little piece of heaven for those who live in the heart of the city to walk just ten or fifteen minutes out of town and be in another world. It reminds me of a system they have in Norway when they started building high rise apartment buildings in Oslo they also built small little cabins with a yard (much bigger than these) about a twnety minutes drive away. Only people who live in high rise apartments are allowed even now to buy into the cabins and there is a five year waiting list to buy one. People spend all summer out there even though they are tiny and often don't even have bathrooms. Everyone needs their own piece of quiet and if one is lucky enough to live in Lübeck, we saw where that was today.
We barely put a dent in walking all the picturesque streets in town, but we did happen upon the most popular places - mostly churches - which were beautiful but far from elaborate like the ones in Rome. Most of them had to be rebuilt after the war. Why this town needed so many churches is beyond me, but they are all different and interesting. We also ran into the marzipan museum as one candy store here is famous throughout Europe. Up until the 19th century, marzipan was only dispensed by prescription through a doctor as it was considered a medicinal thing. That says something about the healing qualities of almonds, since that is the main ingredient. Kaleb went crazy for all the marzipan art - I think he took a hundred photos as he thought it was something close to miraculous that it was all edible. There were some impressive displays of buildngs and people and harbors with lighthouses - all sculpted from marzipan. In the museum they had life sized statues like at a wax museum. That place takes itself very seriously.
I'm a sucker for a town with narrow cobblestone streets but Lübeck had something I haven't seen before - next to each entry door there was a little open dirt spot about a foot squared. Everyone along one street had planted climbing rose bushes so the entire block looked green and colorful as the vines were old and had spread up and out, and it was all just from one bush at each door - a very impressive sight, and good planning. The town was also fairly cheap so I finally splurged and bought a few little things. We ate plenty of ice cream today because it was so hot but then on the way back we had thunderstorms and hard (warm) rain. Kaleb was worn out from all the walking as he wasn't nearly as impressed by the town as we were but he did enjoy the view over the city from one of the bell towers. And thankfully, Kory's back held up.
I lugged my heavy laptop with me all day to find a PC store to have it checked out. The guy said I didn't have a virus - that my operating system has an error - which is worse. I opted out of havng him format my hard drive to fix the problem because then I'd lose everything and at least now I can still use MS Word to write, even if I can't get on the interent or check e-mail with it. This will be a challenge and both Kory and Kaleb are almost giddy about my predicament.
We stayed on the outskirts of town and enjoyed a nice walk into the city along one of the many canals that circle in and around this place. The old part of town is surrounded by a moat, complete with fortified entry gates (see photo of Kory and Kaleb at one gate built in 1422). The property all along the canal leading into the city was parceled up into pea patch lots about thirty by fifty feet. Since the bulk of the housing is in the city center and no one there even has a balcony or window box, these little pea patches obviously satisfy the need for the locals to get their hands dirty. There are several other pea patches all within a few minute's walk from the heart of downtown so I imagine they must have begun centuries ago because they sit on prime real estate. Most of the pea patches were encircled by hedges so it was impossible to see what was growing on the other side, but the few we could see grew the customary fruit trees, vegetables and flowers. A few even had little shacks with lawn chairs outside so I imagine it's a little piece of heaven for those who live in the heart of the city to walk just ten or fifteen minutes out of town and be in another world. It reminds me of a system they have in Norway when they started building high rise apartment buildings in Oslo they also built small little cabins with a yard (much bigger than these) about a twnety minutes drive away. Only people who live in high rise apartments are allowed even now to buy into the cabins and there is a five year waiting list to buy one. People spend all summer out there even though they are tiny and often don't even have bathrooms. Everyone needs their own piece of quiet and if one is lucky enough to live in Lübeck, we saw where that was today.
We barely put a dent in walking all the picturesque streets in town, but we did happen upon the most popular places - mostly churches - which were beautiful but far from elaborate like the ones in Rome. Most of them had to be rebuilt after the war. Why this town needed so many churches is beyond me, but they are all different and interesting. We also ran into the marzipan museum as one candy store here is famous throughout Europe. Up until the 19th century, marzipan was only dispensed by prescription through a doctor as it was considered a medicinal thing. That says something about the healing qualities of almonds, since that is the main ingredient. Kaleb went crazy for all the marzipan art - I think he took a hundred photos as he thought it was something close to miraculous that it was all edible. There were some impressive displays of buildngs and people and harbors with lighthouses - all sculpted from marzipan. In the museum they had life sized statues like at a wax museum. That place takes itself very seriously.
I'm a sucker for a town with narrow cobblestone streets but Lübeck had something I haven't seen before - next to each entry door there was a little open dirt spot about a foot squared. Everyone along one street had planted climbing rose bushes so the entire block looked green and colorful as the vines were old and had spread up and out, and it was all just from one bush at each door - a very impressive sight, and good planning. The town was also fairly cheap so I finally splurged and bought a few little things. We ate plenty of ice cream today because it was so hot but then on the way back we had thunderstorms and hard (warm) rain. Kaleb was worn out from all the walking as he wasn't nearly as impressed by the town as we were but he did enjoy the view over the city from one of the bell towers. And thankfully, Kory's back held up.
I lugged my heavy laptop with me all day to find a PC store to have it checked out. The guy said I didn't have a virus - that my operating system has an error - which is worse. I opted out of havng him format my hard drive to fix the problem because then I'd lose everything and at least now I can still use MS Word to write, even if I can't get on the interent or check e-mail with it. This will be a challenge and both Kory and Kaleb are almost giddy about my predicament.
