My madcap adventures in Germany during my year as a Fulbright Scholar.

24 May 2007

Kiel and Lübeck

A couple weeks ago I took a weekend trip to Kiel and Lübeck, and, slacker blogger that I am, I neglected to write about it.

You can see photos here.

I wanted to see an exhibit about nutrition and propaganda in the Third Reich at the Stadtmuseum in Kiel, so that was my first stop.

The city was nothing special to look at:


...but it has a really great energy. The main street was packed with shoppers and the boardwalk was full of people walking, running, biking and rollerblading. It seemed like a busy, active community, quite unlike slacker Berlin.

There was some fabulous public art and statuary, though:



I also stopped by the aquarium to see the seals at feeding time:


They were very cute, but it was a little sad to see so many seals in such a tiny pen, being forced to perform for their food instead of hunting it in the open ocean.

I also spotted some fearless sparrows:


Then it was on to Lübeck. I love, love, love Lübeck and I feel confident in listing it as one of the must-see towns in Germany.

This is the image that greeted me shortly after leaving the train station:


I was continually blown away by how beautiful the city was the entire time I was there. I kept snapping pictures of random streets because they were just so damn picturesque. Example:


Beautiful!

This is the Holstentor, one of the most recognizable buildings in all of Germany:



Lübeck also boasts some truly lovely churches:








Lübeck also has literary connections. Günter Grass lives just outside of town and Heinrich and Thomas Mann both grew up here.

The inner courtyard of the Grass museum:


One of the Mann family's homes in Lübeck, set up today as the Buddenbrookhaus:


When I was in the Buddenbrooks exhibit I was scolded by one of the guides for never having read the book.

Lübeck is also known for its marzipan. In fact, the Niederegger marzipan shop was just about the only thing in town that was open. I was there on a Sunday and even the tourist information booth was closed. While lovely, Lübeck was also sleepy.

Inside the marzipan shop:

Marzipan fruits on display:


Marzipan model of the city of Lübeck:


It felt wrong to go to Lübeck and not buy some marzipan, but when I actually ate some, I realized that I don't like marzipan. A friend assures me that flavored marzipan is better than normal marzipan, but I don't really get it: if you need chocolate and flavoring to drown out the icky marzipan taste, why eat marzipan? Why not just eat flavored chocolate?

And, finally, because this is Germany and this is Spargelzeit, there was marzipan asparagus:


I kid you not.

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