Luebeck

Please forgive me my holiday slacking off on the blog. Here's a post about what I did before Christmas:

I went to Luebeck with my friend Kaska for the weekend. There was no real reason for the trip, other than that we wanted to go away for a couple of days and see somewhere else in the world. There was also the fact that Kaska is having a baby in May and after that it won’t be so easy to pick up and go anymore.

Luebeck is a small city that used to be a big city. From the 11th to 17th centuries,  Luebeck was really rich and important. It was the capital of the Hanseatic League and the main port out to the Baltic Sea. The Hanseatic League was an trade alliance of cities in northern Europe - sort of like the EU but richer and with fewer members.

Luebeck is cool because its entire city center is historic. Many German cities, Hannover included, have a distinct historic district that is reconstructed and deliberately quaint. Much of Luebeck’s downtown, however, looks just like it did in the 17^th century. It's quaint-ness is more sincere. Allied bombs in WWII were considerate enough to explode outside the city center, hitting places of more strategic importance than the city’s seven gothic churches.

Our trip had two goals – Christmas markets and a swimming pool. Luebeck has several different Christmas markets that ooze down the streets and around the churches and melt together in a sticky, smoky, cinnamon-scented mess of Christmas cheer. At the center of it all is St. Mary’s Church and the devil. No, it’s not Krampus. It goes like this:

As the people of Lübeck were building St. Mary's, along came the devil and asked what they were building. "A large tavern", they lied so as not to anger him. A tavern? A place of vice and drunkenness?" This pleased the devil and he gave a hand so that the building quickly grew.

Only when the church was nearly finished did the devil see that the people of Lübeck had tricked him. Furious, he picked up a huge boulder so as to destroy the building. The people pleaded with him and promised to build a large tavern right next door, the Ratskeller. The devil dropped the boulder so that it fell close to the church and it stands there today.

Kaska, the devil, and me

Luebeck is also home to Germany’s famous marzipan. I have a confession to make – I think marzipan is gross. This is why, no matter how well I learn to speak German or how many scarves I buy, I will always be a foreigner. Germans love the stuff. Marzipan is around all year, but takes center stage at Christmas, when it lures you with pretty shapes and chocolate coverings until you are convinced that there must be something delicious inside, then dashes your hopes with its pasty, grainy guts.  

In Luebeck we met up with friends of Kaska's, drank Gluhwein (warm, spiced wine) in the Fishermen's church, had a conversation in four languages with a Polish jewelry maker with dreadlocks from Tenerife, and spent a morning in the swimming pool and the sauna. We also visited a museum exhibit on Nativity scenes from around the world. It was a festive, fun and Christmasy weekend. Even better, I was not tricked into eating any marzipan.