We took a day off in Lubeck, and stayed in a hotel rather then a camp-site. The hotel booking included breakfast and this was most welcome, even if we were paying for it!
Lubeck was important in the Middle Ages and later. There is quite outstanding religious art; what we saw in the Cathedral was some of it. There are other grand churches. Parts of the city are wonderful old streets to wander down, but much of it is now quite modern because there was much destruction in WW II. Air raids by the British caused much of the this and I was aware of this, having recently read a history of the war by Anthony Beevor which questions this aspect of Allied policy in the war. I think the debate about this, centering more on what happened to Dresden, has been going on for some time.
After our first hotel breakfast, we set off on foot and went to the cathedral. A wonderfully well proportioned building of considerable size, romanesque and gothic. One is immediately struck by the very large wood-carved crucifix with mourners, above the crossing.
It was by Bernt Notke, who lived in the 1400's. He is famous also for the "dance of death" painting, of which there is a fragment in Tallinn and I think we commented on it earlier in this blog.
Here are two other items of medieval art in the cathedral
We had noted a cafe in the cathedral cloisters but could not get to it. Then we found we could through the natural history musuem, which backs on the the cathedral cloisters. Stopped for a pleasant snack lunch, in the cloister courtyard.
We then went to the railway station to book our return journey; this had not been possible online with bikes. But the train we wanted to be on, into the Netherlands, had no bike reservations left, and neither did any other on that route that day or the day before. Calamity, but not entirely. After some talk between ourselves, and then going back to the booking clerk (another one, but both were extremely helpful) we changed our plans enough to get bike reservations on a series of local trains, one day early. This meant going home from Hitzacker rather than Wittenberge, when the time came. In the event, this turned out fine and we would not have seen and enjoyed Hitzacker on the original plan. It also saved maybe as much as 80 euros because the travel day was now a Sunday and there was a special offer on that day.
We met a man from tthe Netherlands later, who told us that he routinely travelled with a bike on German railways and had observed bike reservations were often not available when actually there was loads of room (German trains these days, except for "ICE's" have very generous space for bikes). He had taken to not getting a bike ticket, just putting his bike on and locking it and going to sit elsewhere! He reckoned a lot of people with bike reservations do not turn up.
This all left us rather later than planned. We went to "I" to ask what to do in the last bit of the day. They suggested the Hanseatic musuem, as closing an hour later than other museums. This was about a 15 minute walk away. Well, we did this and got there about 5.10 pm. Took a ticket for only part of the museum, the old Dominican priory and part of the exhibitoon about the Hanseatic towns. The museum was partlky i n the priory, which is interesting. I did not take any photos here. We also saw a bit about the Hansa, but not very much. We then walked back into the town centre. To start with we were going aslong much older streets and it was indeed a charming place. Unexpectedly, we came across an old building that turned out to be an old hospital
Then to a bookshop to buy maps for next year's stage, and then to a restaurant by a river, with a view of an old merchant's building (I mean the building; I have no notion of the merchant's age).
Then we walked back further along the river, passing quite delightful rows of houses, and came back to our hotel after a delightful walk round a lake with a view of the cathedral.
The next day, we left in the afternoon, so had a bit more time to see things in the town. But I will write about that in the nerxt blog, also about leaving Lubeck and continuing along the ICT.
Lubeck was important in the Middle Ages and later. There is quite outstanding religious art; what we saw in the Cathedral was some of it. There are other grand churches. Parts of the city are wonderful old streets to wander down, but much of it is now quite modern because there was much destruction in WW II. Air raids by the British caused much of the this and I was aware of this, having recently read a history of the war by Anthony Beevor which questions this aspect of Allied policy in the war. I think the debate about this, centering more on what happened to Dresden, has been going on for some time.
After our first hotel breakfast, we set off on foot and went to the cathedral. A wonderfully well proportioned building of considerable size, romanesque and gothic. One is immediately struck by the very large wood-carved crucifix with mourners, above the crossing.
It was by Bernt Notke, who lived in the 1400's. He is famous also for the "dance of death" painting, of which there is a fragment in Tallinn and I think we commented on it earlier in this blog.
Here are two other items of medieval art in the cathedral
We had noted a cafe in the cathedral cloisters but could not get to it. Then we found we could through the natural history musuem, which backs on the the cathedral cloisters. Stopped for a pleasant snack lunch, in the cloister courtyard.
We then went to the railway station to book our return journey; this had not been possible online with bikes. But the train we wanted to be on, into the Netherlands, had no bike reservations left, and neither did any other on that route that day or the day before. Calamity, but not entirely. After some talk between ourselves, and then going back to the booking clerk (another one, but both were extremely helpful) we changed our plans enough to get bike reservations on a series of local trains, one day early. This meant going home from Hitzacker rather than Wittenberge, when the time came. In the event, this turned out fine and we would not have seen and enjoyed Hitzacker on the original plan. It also saved maybe as much as 80 euros because the travel day was now a Sunday and there was a special offer on that day.
We met a man from tthe Netherlands later, who told us that he routinely travelled with a bike on German railways and had observed bike reservations were often not available when actually there was loads of room (German trains these days, except for "ICE's" have very generous space for bikes). He had taken to not getting a bike ticket, just putting his bike on and locking it and going to sit elsewhere! He reckoned a lot of people with bike reservations do not turn up.
This all left us rather later than planned. We went to "I" to ask what to do in the last bit of the day. They suggested the Hanseatic musuem, as closing an hour later than other museums. This was about a 15 minute walk away. Well, we did this and got there about 5.10 pm. Took a ticket for only part of the museum, the old Dominican priory and part of the exhibitoon about the Hanseatic towns. The museum was partlky i n the priory, which is interesting. I did not take any photos here. We also saw a bit about the Hansa, but not very much. We then walked back into the town centre. To start with we were going aslong much older streets and it was indeed a charming place. Unexpectedly, we came across an old building that turned out to be an old hospital
Then to a bookshop to buy maps for next year's stage, and then to a restaurant by a river, with a view of an old merchant's building (I mean the building; I have no notion of the merchant's age).
Then we walked back further along the river, passing quite delightful rows of houses, and came back to our hotel after a delightful walk round a lake with a view of the cathedral.
The next day, we left in the afternoon, so had a bit more time to see things in the town. But I will write about that in the nerxt blog, also about leaving Lubeck and continuing along the ICT.
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