Leaning Lūbeck

As we sailed into Kiel this morning there were lots of campers along the waterway.  I saw more in our travels throughout the day.  It's the month for holiday caravanning in Europe.

We docked next to a German navy yard.  It was pretty cool watching our large ship make a 180 degree turn and back into its docking spot.

A few of the navy ships in the nearby yard.

Our destination today was about an hour and a half away in Lűbeck., about 54 miles to the southeast.  This capital of the Hanseatic League was founded in the 12th century and was THE major trading center of northern Europe until the 16th century.  Now a UNESCO World Heritage Site, Lübeck has a historic center that is watched over by the seven spires the city is known for.  

It was a lovely drive through German countryside, pastoral scenes, forests,

and fields of wheat being harvested.

One of our first views of Lűbeck, a city of over 200,000.

Three of the spires of the city towered above everything else.

Renaissance gabled houses can be found throughout the 247 acres of streets in the Altstadt, or historic center.

The Old Town is on an island, surrounded by the Trave River and what used to be marshy ground beyond.

We arrived on the opposite side of the river from Old Town and walked alongside it until we reached the old entrance to the city.  The street in the photo on the right was lined with warehouses during the time of the Hanseatic League and its multitude of merchants.

You can see a few more of the city spires here.

The twin spires of St. Mary's are the tallest at 410 feet.

Just a couple of random sights along the river.

The tall white building on the other side of the river dates back to 1678.

The Holstentor, or Holstein Gate has been guarding the entrance to Old Town since the 15th century.  It was built to impress any and all who came into the city.

The awake lion

and the sleeping lion that are at the entrance to the park in front of the gate were formerly guarding the entrance to the home of a wealthy merchant.  I'll point it out in a later photo.

Now you may think I should have straightened this picture but the gate is actually leaning, like so many old brick buildings here in Lűbeck.

The reason for the tilt here is that the walls of one the towers is 3 meters thick while the other side is only 1 meter.  After centuries the heavier side has pushed on the lighter one.

The brickwork on the towers was made to impress, to show the wealth and prosperity of the city.  The bricks around the windows had to be formed individually and were thus more expensive.  

One of the conical towers.

You can really see the lean here.  The Holstein Gate is the last of the city wall and other gates which were pulled down in the 18th century after having guarded Lűbeck for hundreds of years.

Looking through the gate, the "Concordia" inscription above it stands for unity both inside and outside the city.

Looking up on the other side, plus a view of the depth of the gate.

The black bricks in the gate are all glazed, which was another way to show wealth as they were much more expensive to make.  And there are a lot of them!

The photo here shows some of the width of the wall on the other side.

The gate's three towers.

Looking down the Trave River towards St. Mary's and Old Town.

The row of buildings here were some of the most important in the city, the salt warehouses.  The salt trade was one of the most lucrative in the city, everyone needed salt for preserving meats, especially the barrels of herring from the coast.  Without refrigeration you have to have salt.

Someone's calculations were really off when they built the warehouse on the left.  You can see where they added bricks to try to even it out...without success.

I noticed that on many of the brick buildings they had the metal rods that would have gone through them to strengthen the structure and that doubled as metal decorations.

This type of roof line was typical.

No surprise there were a group of locks of love along one of the river's bridges.

We were walking along cobblestones again, although these were much easier on the feet than those ones we'd  walked on a few days before in Klaipeda.  That city definitely wins the award for the most painful cobblestones.

The street pictured here was where some of the wealthy merchants would have lived.  The lions near Holstein Gate used to be in front of the white house in the center of the photo.

The small doors at street level would have been for ease of making deliveries of food or other goods to the house.

A few more of the interesting buildings in Old Town.  The red brick one on the left was, of course, leaning.

You can see the different here between the old and new buildings.

As the city grew in population they needed to find places for the poorer people to live.  These smaller alleyways would lead into their living areas.  The width only had to be big enough for a coffin.

These days there are nice, quiet homes or apartments inside the alley, the small gardens are no longer there but you can see that there are lots of pretty plants grown there.

I especially liked this entrance,

as well as this one.

More of the Old Town homes along a cobblestone streets.  You can hopefully see how the red brick house with the dark windows is leaning backwards.

If you couldn't tell in the last photo you should be able to in this one.  When these buildings undergo any type of restoration they have to remove the bricks one at a time and then replace them.  It's time consuming and expensive.

During WW2 about 25% of Lűbeck was destroyed by British bombers, mainly in retaliation for the bombing of Coventry by the Germans.  You can see that this is part of the city that had to be rebuilt.

We made our way up the hill to St. Peter's.  Here you can see another of the metal rods that strengthen the church.

The tall facade of the church is impressive.

Originally built in the 13th century and expanded during the 15th and 16th centuries, St. Peter's was one of the churches that was destroyed during the war.  It has been rebuilt

but the interior remains empty.  There are no longer enough people to sustain a parish here, although there is still a priest for the church.  

The Gothic ceiling is impressive and lovely.

They now call the church "Like a Prayer" which is supposed to mean that you can pray anywhere, you don't need decorations for it to be a church.

The building is often used for displays, Christmas markets, other types of venues.  Currently there are some modern art displays.  This one with t-shirts has the faces and names of people who have died.  It's an interesting reminder.

There is a small altar at the front of the church, but also this other different artwork made up of long strands of yarn.

There is a bit of the original floor left.

The impressive old Town Hall with its wide square was a busy place.

Market Square has been the site of the Town Hall since 1230.

Some of the various merchants coats of arms adorn the walls of the City Hall.

Behind City Hall stands St Mary's Church, with its tall spires.

Just an artsy photo for fun.

These spires have been recently refurbished.  One of the others in the city needs to be redone.  The price tag for the facelift is expected to be €23 million.

Outside of St. Mary's is a little statue of a devil.  If your rub his ears or kiss his big toe it's supposed to bring you good luck.  I didn't feel like I needed enough luck to kiss the toe.

Views of the exterior of St. Mary's, we didn't end up with time to go inside.

The front of the twin spires.

Views of the church's flying buttresses, and towers of City Hall on the right.

St. Mary's was begun in the 12th century.  The Hansa guilds would compete with one another in building the best and biggest church.  Whichever one built this one was certainly the winner.

Below the City Hall was the restaurant we had lunch in.  Karl learned that a real Ratskeller was supposed to be in the cellar of a city hall.  The one had been in existence in some form since 1220.

I opted for the pork schnitzel and fried potatoes with bacon for my lunch, Karl had bratwurst, sauerkraut, potatoes and baby onions.  It was all deeeelicious!

On the market square in front of City Hall was a metal model of Old Town.

On one side of Market Square was a bakery with such good smells that we had to follow our noses in the door.  Karl tried one of the plum cakes on the far right, they reminded him of the ones his grandma used to make.

We also bought a couple of cherry pastries, a cinnamon bun, and a couple of pretzel rolls.  Part were a nice treat on the way back and the rest will be a nice breakfast tomorrow!

One last look at St. Peter's before we got on the bus to head back to Kiel.  It was a fairly short tour in Lűbeck but we were glad we'd made the effort to come see this beautiful city, plus we got the bonus of more delicious food.

As we made our way back onto Serenade we saw Captain Stig (center) with his officers, posing for some sort of photo.  It was a nice opportunity to get one for myself.  He's been such an approachable captain.

As daylight was ending we crossed under the Storebælt Bridge, also called the Great Belt Bridge.  Its 4.2 mile length connects the Danish islands of Zealand and Funen.  

I had wondered if I'd be paying attention as we went under but Serenade's horn blew as we sailed below so I had time for a couple of photos on this beautiful evening with its sliver of a moon.  It was a nice way to bid goodby to Germany.