Holstenhafen

We decided not to go out but to have breakfast in the hotel, and it was the best. It was in a huge, bright room with lots of space, with everything set out along one very long wall. One lady was rather shyly extolling the virtue of her home-made fruit quark, and another was plying people with pots of coffee or tea.

We walked to the station and waited, and waited for the ICE to Hamburg. It was about 15 minutes late when it arrived. It had lots of spaces for luggage, seats weren’t a problem, the wifi was great (but no power points…) and raced along at 230kmph. The speed showed up on a monitor, and on a dedicated ICE computer link that also had all the connecting trains at all the stations, complete with platform numbers and time to get there. At one stage the train was 25 mins behind schedule, but by Hamburg (14:22) it was 1 minute ahead of time. We had to change platform for the regional train to Luebeck, and arrived around 3:15. We are getting to be very good at arriving at towns and hotels in the early afternoon. I have never done it before.

Our hotel in Luebeck (Radisson Park Inn) is on an island between the station and city (5 mins to each). We walked into the city/town, and went up a lift to an observation platform in an old church tower, then walked up to the Rathaus and another huge church. In the 1200s Luebeck was the second largest city in Germany (after Cologne) and, even though not the home of kings or emperors, it was probably the richest, and it stayed that way for centuries, all due to trade. The old buildings were meant to show wealth and power – like the seven enormous steeples in town, and the fortified gates on the roadways. Unlike Bamberg, with its colours and Baroque/Rococo flourishes, Luebeck was austere Calvinistic simplicity, and still is.

The Dom in Luebeck has two huge cathedral bells in pieces on the floor after a 1942 bombing raid and subsequent fire. It was almost as dramatic seeing them this time as in 1975… except it is the first church we have visited so far that sells tickets at the door. Hardly the dour Protestant approach… or maybe it is.
Lots of walking around to find a restaurant off the very strong tourist track, but we could not find anything other than kebab shops, so we had dinner by the river with the hordes. It wasn’t bad at all, apart from the tip-demanding waiters with attitude.

16,000 steps, 12.1km and 7 flights.Read more