Visiting Buxtehude

On July 4, Jim and I visited Buxtehude.

<awkward silence>

No, seriously!

<crickets>

Look, there's even a magic chariot to take you there! 

Kidding! We visited the city of Buxtehude, a so-called 'Hansestadt', which means it was a member of the Hanseatic League. It's about 40 minutes southwest of Hamburg by train.

It was very cute and charming, with lovely old 'Fachwerk' (half-timbered) buildings: 

A pretty church, which was closed, unfortunately: 

And many, many things that said 'Buxtehude', of which we took many, many pictures: 

It had to happen sometime.

Didn't see that coming, did you?

Sara, why are you standing next to a gigantic hedgehog?

I'm so glad you asked! One of the fun things about the city of Buxtehude (besides the name) is that it has a couple of fairy tales associated with it. The most famous one is 'The Hare and the Hedgehog'. You can read it in English here, if you are interested!

Anyway, those two little mascots are everywhere in the city, which is just delightful.

One more thing: in case you are wondering whether the city and the composer have anything to do with one another, the answer is no. We're not 100% sure where Dieterich Buxtehude was born, but it may have been in Helsingborg, then part of Denmark, or a small town near Lübeck called Bad Oldesloe. At any rate, somewhere where his father had an organist gig. But it stands to reason that the family originated in the city of Buxtehude at some point in the distant past. It's not the sort of name you just get by accident.

:-)