Day trip
day...exciting! After consulting Maren, Simon and the DB Bahn train website we
headed out to catch the train for 42 minuntes to Lübeck. This town is on UNESCO’s list of world heritage sites because of its
Brick Gothic architectural heritage and also the second largest town in
Shleswig-Holstein. It is also famous for
the marzipan made there – we took a whole bunch on the road trip to give our
hosts along the way.
Once off the
train Roni investigated the info site while Bray took photos. They wanted us to
pay 2 Euro for a map!! No way. We took a photo of a public map and followed
that until about 500m down the road a fish & chip stand were giving them
away for free – no purchase required!!
Our
self-guided walking tour of the town led us past the Holstentor (town gate that
weak ground is folding in on itself), Rathaus and Kohlmarkt, many churches,
Helligen-Gelst-Hospital (very cool), museums, Dom, theatres and cute neighbourhoods.
It was CHILLY even though we had a
number of layers, hats, scarves and gloves – Bray needed to be wearing his
longjohns and Roni’s bare calves drew shocked looks wherever we walked.
Then onto
another train around 3pm to go about 20k further north to Travemünde.
This town is at the mouth of the river Trave and on the Baltic Sea. It has been
a seaside resort since the 1800s and the huge hotels along parts of the
waterfront attest to this...though the temperature when we were there was
decidedly NOT resort-ish. We were rugged up but still cold enough that Roni’s
lips got a tad blue at one point.
We walked
the length of the beach – saw a kite boarder practising on the sand, many dogs,
a passionate couple kissing in many different locations, the lighthouse and
appreciated the best public toilets so far in Germany! Hot water, toilet paper,
clean, hand soap, hand towels, a heater and they were free! Near these was an
area of picnic benches that looked pretty unique. They were curvaceously designed
and they can spin around – Bray had fun with these...until he felt sick!
Travemünde
also has pretty much the COOLEST playground ever. It is pirate-themed and has a
flying fox, huge pirate ship complete with crow’s nest, barrels, things to
climb on/in/over/around, things that bounce and spin...so many cool things. We
had a quick play before Roni touched the water and we tried to touch the lighthouse (it had a fence around it). By now it
was getting darker (and colder) so we walked past the old lighthouse/now museum
on our way back to a bakery next to the train station. A hot coffee and pastry
of a kind we had never tried yet did a lot to warm us up.
Back on the
train to Lübeck
then there we transferred to a Hamburg train. At Hamburg central station we
bumped into Maren on her way home so had a train buddy.
Easy dinner
tonight as the chilli was still going strong – this time with taco chips and
bread. After dinner there were NZ trip planning chats and all the maps came out
as we did our best to help Maren & Simon plan their Jan-Feb trip for 2012.
