We went to a body of water that’s technically a SEA (Baltic, y’all)!
This morning, four of us had planned (well, Adam had planned) a trip to Lubeck (Northeast Germany) and Travemunde (THE BALTIC SEA-TOWN!) and we all headed out on less than three hours of sleep. When we left the Hauptbahnhof at 5:54, we might have been a little bit delirious. Everything was funny for a couple of hours, but eventually we all started to doze (quite unsuccessfully), and pretty soon four hours had passed and it was time for our first train exchange. We knew it was a quick exchange (11 minutes) and we were going to arrive at platform 40 and need to run to platform 141. We all joked about how ridiculous it would be if somehow the numbers 40 and 141 were close: they were literally one platform away (the number sequencing for that gate was 1, 40, 41, 140, 141. Go figure). We were confused about which train to board (there were two right beside each other) and the Lord must have smiled on us, because this (also) confused woman saw the conductor hanging out of the first train and said, “Lubeck?!” approximately ten times, and he nodded every single one. We had a quick 45 minute jaunt to Lubeck, and upon arrival Adam and Katie bought a tiny map and off we went! Lubeck is super-compact and ridiculously easy to navigate, so we were in luck. We dubbed Lubeck Church Tour 2010 because of the probably ten places we visited, eight or so were churches (two dating back to the 13th century, two dating back to the 14th century, and a few from the 16th century and beyond and we even visited an original structure castle from the 15th century)! I think my FAVORITE part about Lubeck was the Marzipan shop. Lubeck was the creating city of Marzipan (crushed almonds, sugar, etc) and they are SERIOUS about selling it. All four of us cramped into a store with about forty other people or so to buy Marzipan goods/souvenirs, but we ended up with some really neat trinkets and such. I really think I enjoyed our mini-tour of Lubeck more than Berlin, but it was probably just because I (we all) felt so independent finding our own way in a super-historical German city! We took a short twenty minute regional train to Travemunde, the closest German Baltic Sea town, and it is definitely no Panama City Beach, Florida. The architecture was mostly white, and kind of reminded me of a beachy Greek theme, and even what would have been labeled the “strip” of the beach was quaint, cute, and not overly populated! From our stop, you could practically see the water (another blessing that it wasn’t very far away). We changed into swimsuits and mostly laid on blankets and such to people-watch. German beach-wear is super sketchy, and I think we’ll just leave it at that. The Baltic Sea was a very beautiful deep, dark blue and it smelled a little bit more salty, but less sea-weedy than the Gulf. We picked a great beach day at a breezy 83 degrees and not a cloud in the sky; we did pick up on that, though, because the beach was packed with families (even on a Monday). We all dozed on the beach, people watched, and of course waded in the Baltic for about two hours, then headed back to our stop. We took a nauseatingly hot and off-balance bus back to the Lubeck Hauptbahnhof (the low point of the trip, and even it wasn’t that bad), then took our short train and had quite a layover in a tiny little train station in some city that starts with a B. I am clearly tired. Anyway, we had about an hour layover in a train station with eight tracks, no restrooms or restaurants, so we played card games (Spades and ERS, just in case you were wondering: Katie and I were losing pretty badly to Adam and Kathleen).Then we boarded our train for a fairly uneventful five-hour trip home (DB trains are weird. One direction can be a different duration than the next) and here I am…awake…for the past eighteen hours…living on three hours of sleep. Aaaaannnd goodnight!
This morning, four of us had planned (well, Adam had planned) a trip to Lubeck (Northeast Germany) and Travemunde (THE BALTIC SEA-TOWN!) and we all headed out on less than three hours of sleep. When we left the Hauptbahnhof at 5:54, we might have been a little bit delirious. Everything was funny for a couple of hours, but eventually we all started to doze (quite unsuccessfully), and pretty soon four hours had passed and it was time for our first train exchange. We knew it was a quick exchange (11 minutes) and we were going to arrive at platform 40 and need to run to platform 141. We all joked about how ridiculous it would be if somehow the numbers 40 and 141 were close: they were literally one platform away (the number sequencing for that gate was 1, 40, 41, 140, 141. Go figure). We were confused about which train to board (there were two right beside each other) and the Lord must have smiled on us, because this (also) confused woman saw the conductor hanging out of the first train and said, “Lubeck?!” approximately ten times, and he nodded every single one. We had a quick 45 minute jaunt to Lubeck, and upon arrival Adam and Katie bought a tiny map and off we went! Lubeck is super-compact and ridiculously easy to navigate, so we were in luck. We dubbed Lubeck Church Tour 2010 because of the probably ten places we visited, eight or so were churches (two dating back to the 13th century, two dating back to the 14th century, and a few from the 16th century and beyond and we even visited an original structure castle from the 15th century)! I think my FAVORITE part about Lubeck was the Marzipan shop. Lubeck was the creating city of Marzipan (crushed almonds, sugar, etc) and they are SERIOUS about selling it. All four of us cramped into a store with about forty other people or so to buy Marzipan goods/souvenirs, but we ended up with some really neat trinkets and such. I really think I enjoyed our mini-tour of Lubeck more than Berlin, but it was probably just because I (we all) felt so independent finding our own way in a super-historical German city! We took a short twenty minute regional train to Travemunde, the closest German Baltic Sea town, and it is definitely no Panama City Beach, Florida. The architecture was mostly white, and kind of reminded me of a beachy Greek theme, and even what would have been labeled the “strip” of the beach was quaint, cute, and not overly populated! From our stop, you could practically see the water (another blessing that it wasn’t very far away). We changed into swimsuits and mostly laid on blankets and such to people-watch. German beach-wear is super sketchy, and I think we’ll just leave it at that. The Baltic Sea was a very beautiful deep, dark blue and it smelled a little bit more salty, but less sea-weedy than the Gulf. We picked a great beach day at a breezy 83 degrees and not a cloud in the sky; we did pick up on that, though, because the beach was packed with families (even on a Monday). We all dozed on the beach, people watched, and of course waded in the Baltic for about two hours, then headed back to our stop. We took a nauseatingly hot and off-balance bus back to the Lubeck Hauptbahnhof (the low point of the trip, and even it wasn’t that bad), then took our short train and had quite a layover in a tiny little train station in some city that starts with a B. I am clearly tired. Anyway, we had about an hour layover in a train station with eight tracks, no restrooms or restaurants, so we played card games (Spades and ERS, just in case you were wondering: Katie and I were losing pretty badly to Adam and Kathleen).Then we boarded our train for a fairly uneventful five-hour trip home (DB trains are weird. One direction can be a different duration than the next) and here I am…awake…for the past eighteen hours…living on three hours of sleep. Aaaaannnd goodnight!
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