Lübeck
16 de mayo, Alemania ⋅ 🌬 25 °C
We had breakfast at the hotel at around 8:45 - the idea was to save time, but it was also very good. Perhaps the best yet, apart from not quite having the personal touch of the people in Bamberg, and having a noisy table of probably Chinese women. Ignoring them was easier said than done.
We walked anti-clockwise around the town in the greenery along the river, then through the town again simply enjoying the buildings we found. One large church – St Giles in English – was not touched in WW2, so it still looked as it had in the early 1800s, and largely as it was in the 1600s, and parts might have been similar to the 1400s or even when it was built in brick in the 1200s. At some time in the distant past the inside was whitewashed, and in patches the old wall paintings are visible, but they have left that for future generations. It was one of the lesser churches - but this was in Luebeck, a city powerful enough for its army to defeat the armies of Denmark in a battle in around 1227.
Then the Cathedral, which was bright and huge. it was started at the same time as Notre Dame in France, and is still an engineering challenge. The 115m high towers are not straight. The right tower leans to the right (2m!) and the left to the left (1.8m), and both a bit forward (2m). When one looks at the other towers in the photos, none of them are straight, either. It is not an optical illusion.There is no stone found here, so they must have foundations in clay, and being made of bricks, the mortar weakens and cracks over time (as do the bricks). The engineering displays were almost as grand as the old altars and the 500 yo tombstones underfoot, or the bells at midday. Curiously, its towers are not the city's highest, even though it is the cathedral. One of the other churches has a tower that is slightly higher after some age-old local political power struggle.
Lunch in a park by the river, then we walked around the other side of the town, saw Germany’s oldest station of the cross (12th C), and at 5;45 we met Wiebke.
Anne’s niece, Fiona, has a German partner, Philipp, who grew up in the middle of Germany. On the train yesterday Anne messaged Fiona and mentioned we were heading to Lubeck, as decided 12 hours earlier. It turns out that Philipp’s younger sister lives in Lubeck, but is going away tomorrow. Many messages later, we met in a café at 5:45. It is a small world, as they say. Wiebke is lovely. She speaks wonderful English, having lived in NZ for a year, and being a teacher of English in primary school. It was nice to hear about their family.
Dinner afterwards in a small Italian restaurant she recommended, and an early night.
29,471 steps, 23.1km, 6 flights.Leer más
Viajero Brilliant architecture
Viajero So pleased you met Wiebke!
Viajero FYI I also identify as your niece
Viajero Which makes me proud - but I am hoping to be succinct for the few readers who don’t know all the family.