A walk along the Baltic

This morning we boarded a bus for a half-hour ride to Travemunde, the resort town north of Lübeck where the Trave River flows into the Baltic Sea. Now we know how much the bus costs -- 3,20 eu each -- so we can confidently go to Travemunde whenever we feel the urge, which I'm sure will be often.

Today we were headed to meet Peter for a walk along a relatively isolated stretch of beach he knows of. In Germany, you're never really isolated in the same sense as Americans think of isolation, in that there's always someone out walking along with you. We passed a hundred people on our walk today (probably twice that)  -- and this was off the beaten path! But the walking paths here are so convenient and ubiquitous, I'm not sure which is better: few paths with no people, or more paths with many people? I think both are good. 

Peter met us at the bus stop in Travemunde in his van, and drove about a kilometer north of Travemunde, where he parked at this restaurant and we set out on foot. 

As we walked, Peter pointed out that the shore along the Baltic Sea is eroding at the rate of almost 2 meters annually, which is a lot of erosion. You can see the effects of it here:

I asked if this was due to sea levels rising from climate change, but Peter said no, this has been going on for a very long time. He said that when he was on this same walk twenty years ago, the house in the next photo was set well back on land, with a garden in front and another house in front of it, toward the sea, with a garden in front of that house at the water's edge. And now it looks like the photo below; the other house is long gone, as is the front garden of this house:

Next time we come, it's possible this house won't be here anymore, either. 

Along our way, we saw this cute bird bench with a puddle in front of it from yesterday's rain:

... and something from one of my favorite Christmas carols, The Holly and the Ivy. They both appear to be full-grown:

Eventually we found a stairway leading down to the beach, where we walked for over two hours back toward Travemunde. Our iPhone app tells us we walked 7.4 miles today! That should work off that muzen and gluhwein we had at the Christmas market last night. Along the way we looked for bernstein (amber) and rocks with holes through them, the name of which I can't remember. We didn't find either one, but I picked up a lot of rocks I thought might be amber. (Apparently you can tell the difference between amber and a regular old yellow rock by trying to float it. The rock will sink; the amber won't.)

Here's a view of the house we passed earlier, from the beach:




Along the way we gathered a bit of natural clay for Gary's sculpting; it's there in abundance and will soon be washed out to sea. 

We also saw these sights:

A guy standing out in the sea in waders, fishing for cod

A tree recently washed down to the beach. They let dogs run freely in Germany without leashes. Imagine that!

What's left of a brick building that has been washed out down to the beach

Two and a half hours later, we ended up back at the restaurant where Peter's van was parked. We stopped in for some grunkohl suppe (kale soup) which was made with potatoes and was very good. We were among the few who took advantage of outdoor seating, even though it was balmy -- in the 40s Fahrenheit. All of the outdoor tables were decorated with boughs.

Afterward, Peter drove us back to Lübeck, where Gary and I walked to a cafe nearby that Peter had recommended for a gathering of some old friends of Gary's tomorrow. We wanted to make a reservation for nine people, so I looked up the translation on my iTranslate app to run past Peter, to ensure it was fit for public utterance (I do not trust this app!). Peter said it was fine, so here's what I read off my iPhone to the young woman at the cafe: "Wir wollen eine reservierung machen, aber wir verstehen deutsch nicht," which means, "We would like to make a reservation but we do not understand German."  It worked great: she asked if we speak English and very kindly made our reservation! Whew!

It was an excellent day, but our dogs are barkin'. These Germans sure do like to walk!

Christmas Eve, an antique Christmas tree stand, and Gary's sculpture project

Merry Christmas! 

Before heading out on Christmas Eve, Gary and our landlord/friend Peter obliged my wish to attend the Christmas Eve service at my favorite cathedral, Jakobikirke, a couple blocks away. Here's one of the pieces the choir sang (part of it, anyway -- excuse the shaky video; I was trying to be discreet):

*SIGH*!!! The service was gorgeous, as I knew it would be. That was all I wanted for Christmas.

Afterward Peter drove us the half hour to his partner Maren's house, where we four had a nice light dinner of a grated potato dish and a wonderful beet salad that Peter made (cooked beets & potatoes & celeriac with herring and plain yogurt as a binder; definitely going into my recipe file). It was the perfect way to celebrate Christmas -- peacefully and beautifully.

Today (Christmas Day) on the way back to Lübeck, we visited the home of one of Peter's friends, Martin, who is renovating (along with his wife, Elke) this grand combination house/barn:

You can't see it well here, but the huge roof is thickly thatched. Here is Peter with Elke & her son, who is generously loaning me his violin while we're here.

Martin explaining some of the work going on in the barn half of the house. You can see the old timber framing behind him.

On the second floor of the house half: the future master bedroom, with a view of the lake

It's an impressive, long-term project; it took Martin and Elke two years just to clean things up at the home site before they were finally able to start the "fun" part of renovation, four years ago.

During our visit, their antique Christmas tree stand caught my eye, and Martin gave us a demonstration. It's a music box, from the 1880s! Absolutely charming. We've never seen anything like it.

Martin changes the music box disc to a different tune. They have about a dozen of these old disks to choose from.

And now, the afternoon of Christmas Day, we're back in our flat again! This week I'll be continuing with my illustration "work," and Gary is already well into his first sculpture (this is no one in particular, just a study). Whenever I walk past the kitchen now, I do a double-take, and I think you can see why!

Waffle!

Waffle shop!

It's the 4th Sunday of Advent, another rainy day in Lübeck. Everyone was out in force regardless, enjoying the Christmas markets, and we joined them this afternoon. We found a new little Christmas market nook near our flat that features a kiddie skating rink, and a shop that sells what I've been looking for:  waffeln mit Vanillesoße (waffle with vanilla sauce)! At last!

Naturally, we ordered one. The girl behind the counter made a waffle and served it on a ceramic plate with a real fork. *sigh* I haven't seen a single piece of styrofoam or disposable cup at the Christmas markets. Gluhwein is always served in ceramic mugs. (You pay 2 euros extra when you order a gluhwein, and you get the euros back when you return the mug.)

Gary attempts to take the first bite, but I had to intervene because he was taking too long.

We ate our wonderful waffle watching the kinder skating, some of them pushing these cute little "ice chairs" (left of center, toward the back) around the rink. The chairs are resin, but they look just like animal chairs made of ice. Süß!

After the waffle, we strolled to the main part of town, where I insisted on visiting this shop at the Christmas market, which promised to make my every Christmas wish come true:

Christmas Dream Shop: Beware!!!

Gary decided to stay outside and stand in the rain while I shopped. I was annoyed because I wanted to experience this shop together, but I went in alone, giving him a disapproving frown as I entered. I realized, as soon as I stepped in the door, that I had made a terrible and irreversible mistake.

Inside the shop, a solid line of people snakes around the shop in a narrow aisle, shuffling sloooowly past displays of Christmas tree ornaments and nutcrackers and candles and more ornaments and nutcrackers and candles. There's no getting through it more quickly than anyone else. I was stuck in Christmas Hell for twenty minutes before I staggered out the exit door, all my Christmas dreams having come true over and over and over again. The only thing that would have made me overdose on Christmas any faster would have been a vanilla sauce IV, pumped directly into my veins.

Nevertheless, we still stopped at the nut shop on the way home, and bought candied macadamia nuts *and* candied pecans. I took this shot of bratwurst roasting on an open fire at one of the rost-fleisch stands as we walked past.

Fröhliche Weihnachten! May your every Christmas wish come true, with vanilla sauce!

Shopping

Today is the last Saturday before Christmas. Stores will be closed tomorrow (like they are every Sunday here) so we were out most of the day tracking down art supplies. We have to do something while we're here besides walking around gawking at buildings and bakeries, so Gary will be sculpting, and I'll be painting. Our flat is roomy enough to accommodate both. We also shopped today for groceries, to last us until life gets back to normal after Christmas Day.

So, the subject of this blog post is shopping!

Check out the prices for French Chardonnay at the local Aldi. There's no added tax, either. (And yeah, yeah, I know it's not cool to like Chardonnay. I like it anyway.)

You can also buy sauerkraut juice.

And if you like schnitzel but also love animals, you can get this:

If you want a bag for your groceries, you have to buy one as you check out. No grocery stores offer free bags, so if you don't have one with you, you need to be prepared to carry your purchases using your hands and opposable thumbs (I know -- so weird ;-)  ). It's not at all difficult to stuff nylon bags in our pockets, which accommodate all kinds of purchases.

Another thing that I wish legislatures in the U.S. would adopt (and stop caving to the grocery industry lobbyists) is the "trash" counter. After you check out at a grocery store here, you can remove all extraneous packaging and recycle it on the spot, as we did with the cardboard wrapping around my yogurt purchase today. (My only wish is that my yogurt came in one large container instead of four small ones. Baby steps, eh!)

Removing the cardboard...

... and leaving it at the store

With these trash counters, German grocers are motivated to buy from sellers who don't over-package. As a result, Gary and I produce a lot less trash here than we do in the U.S.  

We stopped at a couple of art supply stores today, and I was enthralled by the way German stores sell wrapping paper:

It's not wrapped in plastic -- imagine! And it's so pretty, I think I'll need to pick out some to bring home.

We've been here a full week now, and still haven't gone to Hamburg or Berlin or to visit friends -- and I haven't even shown photos yet of our flat. The nice thing about spending 8 weeks in a place is that you have lots of time to get around to it. We'll get there -- and meanwhile, happy Samstag!

Friday before Christmas

Today was yet another rainy day, so we stayed home until mid-afternoon before going out for our daily walk. The days are very short right now -- and especially short today, Winter Solstice -- with the sun rising at 8:33 and setting at 3:57.

I didn't get any photos today because of the rain, but I managed to take this short video at the main Christmas market in downtown Lübeck. We were passing through the market when we heard a brass band playing, so we decided to order a gluhwein and have a listen. But they went on break as soon as we settled in at our table, wouldn't you know!

They don't have piped-in music at the Christmas market, so when no live musicians are playing, you just hear real life. I like that, a lot. Here's dusk at the Lübeck Christmas market, the Friday afternoon before Christmas. Happy Winter Solstice!

Thursday before Christmas

Today we had planned to go to Hamburg, but we slept in and the weather was drizzly, so we decided to postpone that trip until later. Instead, we stayed home and did our own things until mid-afternoon, then went for a walk around the perimeter of Lübeck, along the canal that separates the city (on an island in the Trave River) from the mainland. Here are some shots of what it looks like. Swans and ducks and and coots and seagulls live all along the river. 

Looking at the southeast side of Lübeck, with the Petrikirke and Marienkirche cathedral spires. 

The Holstein Tor (Lübeck city gate) and salt warehouses on the left, and Marienkirche cathedral spires across the river

It's such a pretty, walkable, people-sized city. I just love it here! 

For a quick, late lunch we stopped at the main Christmas market for a roasted wurst und brötchen. This market, in the middle of town, is a traditional Christmas market: there are decorations and ornaments for sale, street musicians, and food vendors selling bratwursts and other street food, sugared nuts, cookies, muzen (more on that later), and many varieties of hot beverages like kinderpunsch (non-alcoholic) and gluhwein. 

The three other Christmas markets currently in Lübeck are:

• an artisan Christmas market, located inside a cathedral that had been bombed in WWII and has never been fully restored inside
• a "historische" market -- my favorite -- under the formidable, damp exterior walls of the St. Mary's Cathedral, where they have craftspeople selling wood carvings & brooms & historical clothing & soaps (think Renaissance Fair, in a place where the actual Renaissance happened)
• a "Maritime" market across the street from the mariner's cathedral and a centuries-old restaurant called Schiffergesellschaft, which looks like this:

A little history before I continue: the Schiffergesellschaft was founded in 1401. It managed to stay in business and INTACT despite being smack dab the middle of many wars, from the Thirty Years War to WWII, which is really saying something. They say that the interior has hasn't changed since it was first built, and that sea captains used to hang out here. We went here for dinner with my cousin Vonnie when we were in Lübeck 3 years ago, and we definitely will go this time, too (more on that, with photos, when the time comes). 

Anyhow, this restaurant and the mariner's cathedral are why the Christmas market across the street has a maritime theme. It's more of a kindermarket, meant for children, but it was nevertheless our destination this afternoon, as it features a huge ferris wheel that we wanted to go on. I'm not normally a fan of carnival rides, but the promised view from here was too tempting to pass up. I needed just one thing before getting on board: a mug of gluhwein. 

The gluhwein worked! It was a wonderful ride, well worth the 5 euros each, and we lived to tell about it. Here are the views at dusk from the "Around the World" ferris wheel, looking down at Lübeck:

 

Looking northward toward the Trave River

Looking in the direction of our flat, a couple blocks away

Checking out the bolts mid-ride

Up close at the St. Jakobikirke spire, with St. Mary's Cathedral in the distance

As a reward after the ferris wheel ride, we bought ourselves a kleine bag of Muzen, which are pieces of pillow-shaped, deep-fried dough doused in powdered sugar and eaten with a bamboo skewer, as shown below:

To reward ourselves even more, we also bought a bag of sugared, roasted macadamia nuts:

. . . and then we came back home. Es war ein guter tag.

Kuchen time!

In Germany, they do three of my favorite things really well: coffee, cake, and Christmas. When we were in Lübeck a few years ago, I rarely let a day pass without eating kuchen (cake).  About a month into our stay, I overdosed on it and had to stop. 

Today, though, I was ready to face kuchen again. We stopped at one of our favorite places -- the Hansehof Cafe -- on a sidestreet called Wahmstrasse, where they make the kuchen themselves. It's fresh, not too sweet, and excellent. I ordered the mandarin cheesecake with a cappuccino, and Gary had the pfirsich/himbeere (peach/raspberry) kuchen mit tee. The proprietor, a friendly woman from Bavaria, delivered his tea with a little device (to the right in the photo below) that held three small hourglasses: one for 3 minutes, one for 4 minutes, and one for 5 minutes, so he could steep his tea to his own liking. *sigh*

Here's the view out the window from our table: the cafe is located on the second floor of a building in a little courtyard off Wahmstrasse:

As if the kuchen and hot beverages weren't perfect enough, the Hansehof had a set of Advent candles (which I grew up "doing," but have sadly forgotten about in recent years) lit in the window next to our table. In the age of political correctness, which I mostly subscribe to (but not always) they were nice to see. 

The climate in Lübeck, which is located near the Baltic Sea, is mild enough that they can leave plants outside in winter, for the most part. The Hansehof Cafe has heather growing in pots outside the window. I saw flowers blooming today in along the sidewalks here and there around town.

We walked a lot today around town, and bought some needed items: a yoga mat at TK Maxx (the German version of TJ Maxx), some art supplies, and a sweet children's book that I found at a shop near the Christmas market, illustrated by a wonderful, new-to-me illustrator, Reinhard Michl:

No plans tomorrow yet -- we'll see -- and on Thursday we plan to go to Hamburg, about a 40 minute ride by train.

Day Two

We're still dealing with jet lag, so Day Two was a lazy day. We finally got out for a walk around 2:00, a little less than two hours before sunset at 3:55 p.m. It was a supply run; we checked out our favorite thrift shop, where we bought a tablecloth for 1 euro. Then went to a shop called Tiger, where they sell everything you can think of: we bought a spare pair of reading glasses. Then to Aldi for wine, crackers, and German oatmeal, which is different from American oatmeal but we don't know why. German oatmeal is very smooth, and cleans up really easily from a pan. We'll bring some home this time.

My project for the next two months is to work on illustrations for a children's book I'm writing with a friend in Minneapolis. So today I worked on that, sitting in our front window where the light was best. (Photos of our flat coming soon.)

I didn't take many photos today, just these two -- taken around 4:20 p.m. -- of a Bäckerei around the corner from our flat. We bought zwei Berliner for Morgen Früstück  (apologies to German speakers: I mix English and German in hopes that people will simply understand what I'm trying to say, which is the point of language after all. :-)  ).

Our first day in Lübeck

We arrived in Lübeck December 15, 2018, after flights from Minneapolis to Amsterdam, then Amsterdam to Hamburg, and a train ride from Hamburg to Lübeck. It was standing room only on the train, shoulder-to-shoulder with a group of men drinking beer and singing, which is something you never see in the U.S.  I'm not sure if that's a bad thing or a good thing? I'd like to hear more public singing, myself -- not so sure about the drinking part, but they seemed amiable enough.

Anyway, here we are at last:

We dragged our rolling luggage the kilometer from the Lübeck bahnhof to our flat, through throngs of people attending the Christmas market. We finally arrived around 6 p.m. at the home of our friend/landlord Peter, who was waiting for us with a home-cooked meal. We're again renting one of Peter's flats for two months in his "compound": a former vinegar factory from long ago. It's now a collection of buildings that houses a printer, a hairdresser, an English tutor, a jeweler, and Peter's bistro that features classical and jazz music performances on various Sundays. The old town of Lübeck is on an island in the Trave River, and our flat is within walking distance to everything we could ever want. The back wall of Peter's "compound" is the former city wall of Lübeck, which was founded in the early 1100s. Lübeck is considered the "Queen City of the Hanseatic League" -- a group of Baltic coast merchants that traded luxuries of the day, like salt and herring. These days, except for the places that were bombed in WWII and rebuilt, most of the city of Lübeck consists of 15- and 16th century residences. They're modernized, but still as picturesque as ever.

Here are the sights from our first day here:

A few blocks from our flat: Jacobkirche and a side street

One of my favorite signs from the Christmas market. . 

Tourists

Lubeck city gates. They used to pour hot oil (I'm not kidding) on invaders from here. 

A creche made of marzipan, which was invented in Lubeck.