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.
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| Looking at the southeast side of Lübeck, with the Petrikirke and Marienkirche cathedral spires. |
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| 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:
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| Looking northward toward the Trave River |
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| Looking in the direction of our flat, a couple blocks away |
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| Checking out the bolts mid-ride |
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| 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.
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