Day 1

Our first full day in Lübeck, our goal was to walk around the perimeter of the city and get a feel for distances. Over the centuries -- all nine of them, give or take a half-century or two -- the city has crammed itself onto an island in the Trave River, and its winding cobblestone streets and ancient brick walls give the impression that everything is squeezed and stacked. That's the first impression of two Americans, at any rate, who just arrived from northern Minnesota to this rich, beautiful, people-sized old city, where you never know what you'll discover next. Even in the rainy weather, we're completely smitten.

It probably takes about an hour to walk around the perimeter of the city; we didn't make it all the way, as there was too much to stop and look at. One of the most charming things about Lübeck is that the houses all are (of course) packed together side-by-side, and the first-floor windows are on display as you walk along the sidewalks. Homeowners set collections of things on their window sills, inviting you to look. It makes every walk a treasure hunt.


Because it's Advent, part of our walk yesterday included Weihnachts (Christmas) markets. Lübeck is big on Christmas, and there seems be a Weihnachtsmarket around every corner. The first one we found was inside a cathedral -- Petrikirche -- and was more of a juried art show than a traditional market, with high-end ceramics, textiles, and metal sculpture. The second was a traditional outdoor market in the Marienkirche churchyard, with decorative booths selling gluhwein, wursts, pastries, roasted almonds, and Christmas decorations. There's a lot of hot-wine-drinking going on each day during Advent in Lübeck.


We bought some "poffers" (little pastry puffs) from a vendor, who fried them on the spot and added vanilla sauce and applesauce. Then we picked out a loaf of "seelenbrot" from this baker, who had six wood-fired ovens fired up. My Google translator tells me that seelenbrot is "souls bread," and it looks like this: