Now I must apologise to the Dane’s. Having had a very comfortable night in the B&B just outside of Hirtshalls (which was actually owned and run by an Icelandic couple) I set off in the morning directly south with the aim of stopping at Lubeck in Germany.
In the planning stages of this trip I had deliberately left a spare day at the end to allow any significant issues to be easily absorbed, but I hadn't had any. So I now had a choice of taking 3 shortish days to get to the Hook of Holland and my ferry back to the UK, or two long riding days and stopping somewhere for 2 nights.
I did a bit of research and thought Lubeck looked a good option as it was about half way and had an interesting history and old town - so that meant just pushing on through Denmark without stopping.
The other factor was (again) the rain. Although it was a sunny start to the day, heavy rain was forecast for much of it.
Any boy did it rain - for the middle 4 hours of the journey it was basically a deluge and at a couple of points I had to pull off the road simply because I couldn't see where the edge of the road was, let alone what was in front of me.
By the time I crossed the border into Germany though the rain was easing and by the time I arrived in at the Holstentor Gate in Lubeck, it was sunny!
In the planning stages of this trip I had deliberately left a spare day at the end to allow any significant issues to be easily absorbed, but I hadn't had any. So I now had a choice of taking 3 shortish days to get to the Hook of Holland and my ferry back to the UK, or two long riding days and stopping somewhere for 2 nights.
I did a bit of research and thought Lubeck looked a good option as it was about half way and had an interesting history and old town - so that meant just pushing on through Denmark without stopping.
The other factor was (again) the rain. Although it was a sunny start to the day, heavy rain was forecast for much of it.
Any boy did it rain - for the middle 4 hours of the journey it was basically a deluge and at a couple of points I had to pull off the road simply because I couldn't see where the edge of the road was, let alone what was in front of me.
By the time I crossed the border into Germany though the rain was easing and by the time I arrived in at the Holstentor Gate in Lubeck, it was sunny!
So it was off with the bike gear and on with the shorts and tea shirt and a then off for a quick evening stroll around the town and something to eat.
Lubeck was capital of the Hanseatic League, a powerful trading organisation, in medieval times and its gothic brick architecture dates back to that time.
The old buldings are scattered around the ‘old town’ , in places competing for space with modern shops and department stores including TKMax, Woolworths, C&A and other higher end brands.
One of Lubeck’s claims to fame is being the origin of the marzipan industry and the town includes a museum and other attractions focused on this.
Compared to Scandinavia it seems to be quite ethnically diverse, though I am not really making a fair comparison here as I didn't visit any cities in Scandinavia.
The Hospital of the Holy Spirit, shown below, is one of the oldest social institutions in Lubec dating back to 1260.
It is generally a nice city to spend time in and worthy perhaps of a weekend break.
Sadly in WWII Lubeck suffered a lot of damage and was the first city to be heavily bombed by the RAF, destroying much of the old centre. This was heavily re-built over many years and is now a UNESCO world heritage site.
The city was first and foremost a trading city, sitting as it does on the river Trave’s estuary into the Baltic Sea and with access also to the North sea via the Trave-Elbe canal.
So that’s Lubeck in a nutshell. I had a nice walk round in the evening and following morning but by afternoon the rain had caught up and the rest of the day was consumed by torrential downpours and thunderstorms.
Tomorrow its across Germany, into Holland and an overnight ferry to the UK.
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