Just living here

How quickly we’ve become spoiled. When we first arrived, we were so joyful about the above-freezing temperatures, we would walk for hours, even in the rain. Now, when it’s raining we aren’t as forgiving, and try to time our daily walks to avoid the worst of it. But the temperatures have stayed above freezing so far, so it’s a really pleasant winter, even in the rain. 

Yesterday it dried up in the afternoon, so we checked out the salt warehouses, where they stored the salt that came from Lüneburg. The interiors of these old buildings have been completely renovated, and house a collection of high-end clothing shops. 

We’ve discovered that walking in the early evenings is particularly nice, because Lübeck is so darn pretty at night. They don’t light up every street with streetlights, like they do in the States, so some of the residential streets are dark. Very medieval. Lübeck is a pretty safe city, so the most dangerous thing about walking in dark alleys at night is your footing. Photos don't turn out so well, either. 

Speaking of bad photos, we went to Hamburg last Saturday, and I didn’t get any photos due to wretched weather. We later learned that a big storm had come through the region and taken out trees in various areas. We aren’t getting TV weather reports that tell us the sky is falling whenever the weather isn’t perfect, so we just go about our business, even in storms. As for Hamburg, it’s very big. We visited the Arts and Crafts Museum there, just to be indoors. 

Mostly we’ve been enjoying just “being” in a place where you can walk a short way and find a beautiful bakery or a pretty street, like this one.  

Gary is working on a list of things to do when we get home, and he has over 100 projects on his list so far. Meanwhile, I've been working on learning watercolor painting. I love those whimsical old drawings of European cities, and have been trying to capture a little bit of Lübeck.