In Luebeck Safe and Sound

Hello from the Free Hanseatic City of Luebeck! We arrived at 9:55 AM local time after a very smooth trip- everything went like clockwork! The flight from Newark to Hamburg was great- just under 8 hours (no sleep for me, but Jim said he got a couple of hours in.)

We landed a little early, breezed through passport control, gathered our luggage, and went in search of transportation to Luebeck. As we did so, we were VERY glad to see a small grocery store open for business, right in the airport! You see, in Germany, stores are closed on Sundays for the most part, and that includes grocery stores. So we were just going to "make do" until Monday morning when our local grocery opens at 8 AM. So this was a very pleasant surprise, and we got some fruit, milk and breakfast items.

Jim read online about a bus service which runs directly from Hamburg airport to Luebeck, so we took that (it saves you going in to Hamburg proper to take the train- the airport is quite a ways out of town). It was a nice ride of about 1.5 hours through a lovely rural landscape, including bright yellow fields of rapeseed in full bloom.

On our way we passed through Bad Oldesloe, which Buxtehude scholars have named as a possible place he might have been born. (All information about the time and place of his birth has been lost.) I guess there's some document that places Buxtehude's father Johannes in Bad Oldesloe around 1637. (Johannes was an organist too, BTW). 

When we got to Luebeck, we had a couple of hours to kill before we could take possession of our apartment, so we locked our suitcases in lockers at the train station and headed into town on foot! It was a gorgeous morning- about 70 degrees, breezy, no clouds to be seen. Weather like this causes the inhabitants of Northern Europe to head out of doors en masse, so there were plenty of people walking and biking around.

First we walked to St. Mary's (of course!) and took some pictures. There was a big banner advertising "Buxtehudetagen 2011" Then we walked to the Rathaus (Town Hall) and the central market place, then along the Trave River. We sat there for a little while, then started to get hungry for lunch. (One of the problems with jetlag, besides the tiredness and general confusion of the internal clock, is that one gets ravenous at the oddest times.) 

So we sat outside at a restaurant called "Am Ratshaus", which is sort of nestled between St. Mary's and the town hall. When I looked up from where I was sitting I could see the two towers of St. Mary's pointing to a deep dark blue sky. We both ordered the same thing: "Hollandische Matjesfilet" (Dutch herring fillet in cream sauce with potatoes) and Weissbier. Wow, did that hit the spot!

After that we retrieved our luggage from the station and headed to our rental: "Ganghaus Domblick", where we also stayed in 2007.  The little houses in the Gangen, or alleyways, were built around little courtyards behind the large patrician houses, and they were originally inhabited by tradesmen.

Now we're going to clean up and head to the Jakobikirche to hear an organ concert at 5 PM. It's a tough job, but somebody's got to do it!