We have been driving our motorhome Vanni, through northern and eastern Europe, and just been in Warsaw, Poland. From there, we drove west and crossed the Poland-Germany border heading to the centre of Berlin, where our first stop was the iconic Brandenburg Gate.
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| The Brandenburg Gate, Berlin, Germany |
This impressive monument has over two hundred years of history. But since the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, it has become a symbol of Germany’s reunification. From the Gate, we drove to Berlin’s northern suburbs where we found a campsite, then settled in for a few days.
While in Berlin, we caught up with our friend Simona. She zoomed into the campsite in her little red car armed with a picnic basket, then drove us to a local lake where we enjoyed a shared lunch. Later we had a look around Berlin. This is our second time in Berlin, and as with our first trip there, we loved it.
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| Liebfrauenkirche, Halberstadt, Germany |
Our next mission was to get to Palmowski’s campervan dealership in Bielefeld where we bought Vanni, as we needed to get a few things sorted. So leaving Berlin, we drove west across the top of Germany keeping to the minor roads. On the way, we stopped at the quaint town of Halberstadt.
The town is known for its attractive historic centre and we sat in Cathedral Square admiring the Liebfrauenkirch, the Cathedral, and other ornate churches on the square. After a walk around, and treating ourselves to a slice of amazingly wonderful chocolate cream cake, we drove on to Goslar to see its fortified city centre.
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| All roads blocked in the fortified town of Goslar, Germany |
However, there was a major festival or something on in Goslar, with cars parked absolutely everywhere, streets closed, and definitely no Vanni-sized parking anywhere. So we didn’t stop, but drove on to Hamelin where we saw a monument to the Pied Piper.
The Pied Piper of Hamlin is a medieval story about a man who lured the town’s rats away by playing his pipe, and when he didn’t get paid by the citizens as agreed, also lured the town’s children away. A sobering story about broken promises!
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| Vann in Bielefeld, Germany |
Eventually, we found our way to Palmowski’s in Bielefeld, but our GPS malfunctioned on the way so it was a bit of a circuitous drive. We parked and spent the night near their sales yard so that Leigh could get in early the next day with our list of things to be sorted.
The next morning, we were delighted when Palmowski’s sorted everything quite quickly. They also repaired the GPS, and upgraded our audio system. After spending another night there, we set off north, driving along the minor roads and through several quaint German villages, to arrive in Lübeck.
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| Quaint houses and cobbled streets in Old Town Lübeck (UNESCO), Germany |
The medieval city of Lübeck was founded in the 12th century on an island in the Trave River near northern Germany’s Baltic coast. The historic centre is called the Old Town, and known for its quaint buildings and meandering cobbled streets which have helped make it a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
We soon found a pleasant campground with plenty of trees in modern Lübeck, and settled in there. Later, at a nearby restaurant, we met a Dutch couple who were mad about our New Zealand (NZ). They have visited friends there several times, saying that they would live in NZ if they didn’t have grandchildren in the Netherlands.
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| The Holstentor Gate, Lübeck (UNESCO), Germany |
The next morning, Marg cycled into Lübeck Old Town, entering through the city’s iconic Holstentor Gate. Lübeck was the base of the Hanseatic League, a medieval federation of merchant guilds. The beautiful gothic Holstentor Gate is a symbol of the city from that time, and marks the old Hanseatic city’s western boundary.
She was solo in the sightseeing, as Leigh was tucked up in bed with a bad chest infection, and was most unwell. We stayed in Lübeck a lot longer than planned while she recovered, but it worked out ok as the camp facilities were good, and there were shops and pharmacies nearby.
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| The Salzspeicher, Lübeck (UNESCO), Germany |
After parking her bicycle, Marg walked around Lübeck’s beautiful Old Town seeing many of the sights. Highlights were the historic Salzspeichers (salt storehouses) next to the Holstentor, and exploring some of Lübeck’s small quaint alleyways.
She also stopped to admire Market Square, the main square of the Old Town. The square is bordered by several red-brick buildings that include the beautiful Gothic Rathaus (City Hall), one of the oldest in Germany.
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| Lübeck Spires: Rathaus & Arcade then Churches, Holstentor Gate and Heiligen Geist Hospital |
The Rathaus and the adjoining Market Square arcade have more than eight magnificent spires that soar into the Lübeck sky. In fact, Lubeck is a city of spires. Nearby are the double spires of St Mary’s Church, the double Holstentor Gate spires, and the single spire of the 800-year-old St Peter’s Church.
Other beautiful spires dotted around the Old Town include those of the Heiligen Geist Hospital, Lübeck Cathedral which has two spires, St Jacob's Church, and St Giles Church.
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| Gothic town houses in Lübeck (UNESCO) Germany |
Over the following days, Marg popped in and out of the city several times, managing to see many of the residential houses, as well as more institutions. A delight was the medieval townhouses that are clustered around the Old Town. They may be admired for their history, but they are still in use today.
Other key sights were St Catherine’s Monastery, St Anne’s Monastery, and Castle Gate which, along with the Holstentor Gate, are the only two or the original gates that have been restored. They are both still used for entry into the Old Town.
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| The Trave River around Lübeck (UNESCO), Germany |
Leaving the main squares and the centre of town, Marg wandered along the riverside walk to admire the river and its townhouses. There was a lot to see including a corn mill, intriguing lanes, and workers cottages.
After her final trip, she headed back to camp with lots of photos to share with Leigh. Meanwhile, after a week in bed, Leigh began to recover enough to enable us to move on. Several days later, we drove northwards, stopping at Kiel and the Kiel Canal (aka North Sea Canal) on the way.
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| Ship at Kiel Canal lock, Kiel, Germany |
Along the Canal, we saw a huge container ship waiting to go through one of the Canal locks. The Kiel Canal, is the world's busiest man-made waterway. It runs for almost 100 km across the top of Germany, connecting the Kiel Fjord on the Baltic Sea, to the mouth of the Elbe River on the North Sea, passing through towns and farmlands on the way.
Then we decided we wanted to see more of the Canal, even though it goes west and we were headed north. So we headed for the nearby quaint town of Rendsburg for the night.
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| Ship at the bottom of the garden in Kiel Canal, Germany |
Making our way to the Canal the next morning, we were amazed to see a big barge glide by. We were even more amazed when an extremely large cargo ship hove into view and glided past us really slowly. It was so very, very close!
This remarkable waterway goes right through towns and is at the bottom of people’s back gardens. It must be awesome having that view out of your kitchen window! We were so pleased that we had ended up in this interesting Canal.
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| Art on the lake in Schleswig, Germany |
The next day we drove further north stopping in Schleswig, a very lovely large town on a lake. Schleswig dates back to 1066 when it was a part of the Danish kingdom. Its history showed in the architecture but the city also has some modern and lovely public art.
Leigh was still feeling unwell and it was raining heavily, so we didn’t get out of the car. After a fairly thorough drive around, that included the town centre, pedestrian mall and Schleswig Palace, we moved on.
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| Vanni in Flensburg, Germany |
We then drove on to Flensburg which is on Flensburg Fjord near the north-eastern coast of Germany and the border with Denmark. While it had a fairly commercial feel to the surrounding areas, the centre included some lovely old buildings and old houses, with a bustling harbour.
As it was still raining we didn’t stop, but drove onwards toward our next destination which is in Denmark, but you can read about that in the next blog.
This blog describes part of our 6-month motorhome trip around north-eastern Europe, which began in Prague.