Birthday weekend in Lübeck/Travemünde

  Ah winter. You seem so far away, but luckily I have a few cold weather trips to look back upon until you return. First up my birthday weekend trip to Lübeck and Travemünde. Normally we don't do much for my birthday since it comes so close after Christmas and New Years and all the festivities, but I decided a nice trip up to the coast would be fun. It was wonderful. I loved it so much. It might be a yearly thing now. 
We took a train to Lübeck Friday night after Raymond got off work and stayed the night there. It doesn't take long which meant we got in around dinnertime. After dropping our bags off in our room we headed out for some food at Cafe Affenbrot which was delicious! We both decided to get the veggie burger menu which came with a small veggie burger, potatoes and a salad. When it came out it didn't look like a lot of food, but I was stuffed by the end. They did have some treats, but we took them to go since we couldn't eat them there. I really enjoyed this place. The food was good, the people working there were super friendly, it was just a nice restaurant to hang out it. The one guy stopped and was chatting with us for quite a bit and when he found out this was our first time in Lübeck he was giving us all kind of tips and places we should check out. I loved it. 
  The next morning we were up for the sunrise. That doesn't normally happen, or we don't usually see it, but since it was winter it was later than normal. 

  And super cold! The sidewalks were all covered in ice. I remember we had a bit of snow the day prior, but then it got a bit warmer and things started melting, but not enough to keep the sidewalks dry. All day we were wandering around on super slippery sidewalks covered in ice that slowly disappeared during the day, then started freezing over again in the evening. 
  We stayed just over the Burgtorbrücke which was perfect. We could explore the city center all day, make a big loop, then get our bags and head out to the coast. I was really happy it was so cold and everything was frozen over. You can see a bit in the above photo that the sides of the water is all ice. I love the cold, snow and ice, so it was perfect! I have a ton of photos from just wandering the city so enjoy. 
  The Burgtor - one of the two remaining city gates. Downtown Lübeck is a small island that was really beautiful to walk through. 
  And from the other side. 

  St Jakobi
  Heiligen-Geist-Hospital
  And the big frozen square outside the church and hospital. It was just a sheet of ice with a small walking path through. I will say it was surprising that there was not any kind of sanding of the sidewalks there. It was quite slippery at times. 


  The waiter the night prior told us we should make sure to check out some of the really small alleyways - so we did. They were all over. It looks like you are just walking onto someones house, but some of them are thruways - they were even marked on the maps as roads. Most were Raymond sized!



  The pedestrian shopping street downtown


  These next photos are of/by the rathaus which was really pretty





  I had read that St Petri church had the best views over the city and since it was such a beautiful, clear, sunny day we decided to check it out.  
  The inside had sections were you could see the old decorations around the windows and such, but we couldn't go into the church itself just up to the top (and they had an elevator - we didn't even need to climb the stairs!)
  And it was gorgeous! I think the whole time we were up there we saw only 2 or 3 other people. Winter is not prime tourist time. 







  This was also inside the church and the colored lights felt a bit out of place...
  Lots of skinny alley streets
  A theatre puppet shop that was highlighted on all the maps. 

  Salzspeicher (or salt storage houses) across the water

  Holstentor




So cold! But lovely to walk along the water. 

  Lübeck Dom (as well as the next few photos)




  Taking a hot beverage break to warm up









  Apparently the only photo I took at lunch. We stopped by this small Asian place since the other restaurants on my list were closed. It was in a mall and just okay. 
  St Marien
  Tiny flowers between the windows
  And we made it back to Burgtor



  Good to know the tank limits for the bridge
  Once we got back to Burgtor we grabbed our bags and took the bus to Travemünde arriving just in time for sunset! We got checked in, put our bags in our room, then went to explore a bit.


  It was beautiful here. I loved Travemünde.




  The sand was even frozen! I don't think I have ever seen that before. It made it much easier to walk on. 






  And I took way too many macro photos of the sand/rocks/things we found while wandering. But most of them are in the next post. The frozen sand was so cool. I love sand anyway, but frozen sand? Even better!
  The view from our room. Gorgeous!

And I know this probably doesn't look too appetizing, but the hotel had Grünkohl (kale) specials and the one was vegan so we decided to get that for dinner. Then we wouldn't have to venture out into the cold. Plus we were tired from walking all day. I know it looks like just a blob of not so good, but it was delicious! And that is our first day of my birthday weekend in January. Stay tuned for the rest coming soon (hopefully).