Lubeck

The name might not sound pretty but this charming little city oozes sweetness and charm, literally. Besides its well-preserved ancient city, Lubeck's claim to fame is marzipan, that gooey, sickly sweet almond paste that people the world over either love or loathe. There's, in fact, a museum dedicated to this delicacy, chock full of marzipan versions of fruit, vegetables, meat and other banquet-style dishes. I'm not sure how it's possible that I didn't take pictures but it might have been the month-long veganism speaking.

All this aside, the weather played nice and the city showed us its charm. At the centre of the city lies a St Mary's Church, still being restored from World War II. It's impressive from both the outside and inside:

 

 

 The church is next to the Rathaus, the town hall, also equally impressive.

 

Further through the town, lies a charming series of houses, cafes and museums. We took a casual amble around, a feat that took no more than an hour or so.

It turns out that Lubeck is also home to the Willy Brandt House. For those of you not up on your contemporary German history, Mr. Brandt was the Nobel Peace Prize winning, left-wing journalist turned chancellor of Germany. The museum was surprisingly interesting and at the whopping price of free, a good way to spend a couple of hours.

For those of you up on your German surrealist literature, Gunter Grass's House is also a short walk away. Having never read The Tin Drum nor really enjoying German Surrealist literature, I gave this one a pass. But because Nobel Prize winners are something like London buses, wait and wait and wait and three will show up, you can also go to the Thomas and Heinrich Mann House, also a short walk away. I'm sure this will appeal to a certain set of tourists. But for us, we opted for coffee and (vegan) cake at the Cafe Niederegger at the city's most central branch.

Thus ended our day trip to the north of Germany. We hopped back on a cheap, efficient train and made our way back to Hamburg and 45-minutes later, were transported back to Germany's second city. Onward!

Hamburg

I'll start by addressing the elephant in the room. No, people from Hamburg are NOT called Hamburgers. To say I went to Hamburg solely to find this out would not be entirely truthful, nor would it be entirely false. So there we are.

I ended up in Hamburg because Lindsay, a good friend of mine, is a bit of a Germanophile. The other name for this is a Teutonophile but that makes her sound a little pervy so I opted for the first. Lindsay has spent the better part of a year taking German evening classes at King's College London's well-appointed Language College. She was keen to put these skills to good use and after a drawn-out flight search, we dumped our unknowingly expensive notions of a trip to Morocco and opted for Germany's second city.

I timed the trip impeccably with my forays into the world of veganism and was delighted to find that German food has moved on from my previous trip to Munich. I suppose I shouldn't be surprised; Germany seems to be one of Europe's most progressive countries, embracing trends with both hands. From traditional spatzle (with sauerkraut and smoked tofu, below) to more trendy quinoa burritos, I ate well. And there was the traditional gigantic pretzel with your stein of beer which obviously did not disappoint.

 The city itself is, unsurprisingly, a working city. With the country's biggest port and 1.8 million people bustling around, we got a good feeling for what it might be like to live there.

 February weather was cold and crisp but we got a few sunny moments. In those snippets of time, it was easy to imagine how Hamburg's residents might embrace the parks, open space and pavement cafes. Despite the cold, people did spend their time outside, and so the city did feel very much alive (even though the pictures don't really capture this).

In later wanderings, we made our way to the Saint Pauli neighbourhood, known for its sex shops and sex-trade as well as the Beatles, who played near the Reeperbahn area. As often happens, little hipster neighbourhoods have sprung up next to this part of town and so we wandered in and out of boutiques, museums and bookshops in the Schanzenviertel area too.

Here, the vibe was distinct--a mix of young skateboarders, students, vegetarian hipsters and the like. It felt a lot more alive than other parts of the city which is probably why we spent so much time getting lost amongst the various side streets.

 

 Back in the city centre, ancient architecture, all connected to various trades, continued to intermingle with new commerce and buildings.

And whilst five whole days in this city in motion might have been a bit too much, it was good to see the inner workings of a confident Hamburg. We felt like old pros by the end of our trip, working the metro and trains with ease, and taking in pints of proper German beer in proper German beer houses. For a February half term bit of escapism, that worked perfectly.