We're off for our ladies shopping day to Lübeck today. Knud is having a day with Daddy at home, and we are flying the coop.
We picked up GaGa (okay -that's the only name I know her by, it's Vera's Aunty, and that's what she called her as a baby, and the name has stuck. I think her name is Katherine - but luckily I've never had to call her anything.... so far) and we trundled off to Lübeck.
Lübeck is one of the Hansa Cities (you can google this - but it was a league of cities who joined together in the 13th century and ran themselves (instead of the current fuedal system in place everywhere else). They were all cities with goods for trade. Lübeck was the capital if you like - it was here that the decisions were made. Hamburg, Bremen, Danzig, Rostock and many others (but these were the biggies in Germany). The leauge survived over 200 years until an economic downturn, then increasing competition saw it's downfall. These Hansa Cities are justifiably proud of their heritage though, as they managed to govern themselves and get rid of the feudal system long before a lot of other places.
The photos are of the city gate, which is just before the river that seperates the island of the old city from what is now Lübeck (in full).
I bought myself a ring (to replace the piece of crap I had so many issues with), and a new winter jacket. I will still be able to use it in Brisbane, if I don't have the same number of layers underneath :)
We had cake and coffee/hot chocolate at Nederegger. Nederegger is arguably the world's best marzipan (if you like the stuff) and are world famous for it. Personally I can't stand it, but the cafe upstairs has some fantastic cakes and atrocious service. Germany is pretty well known for the crap service you get everywhere - if you get cheerful, good service, it's amazing!
The walk/don't walk traffic lights are really cool. I have no idea what they're doing in Lübeck, but these are actually the signals that were used in East Germany. You can see that they are different to normal ones - even just by the fact that the dude is wearing a hat. You see, the red (stop) man, is holding back the capitalist pigs and protecting the workers. The green man is assisting the honest worker in getting to work.
The Devil and me - well, the story goes that the devil thought this building was being built as a wine bar (which he liked, since he'd got a lot of souls through other wine bars), so he helped and the building was built very fast. When he realised it was actualy a church (St Mary's), he tried to destroy it. The people talked him out of it by promising to build a wine bar nearby. He dropped the stone he was about to throw and it's near the church even today, with the claw marks still visable. (I didn't take a photo of the ball - dammit)....
This evening friends of Marc and Vera's came over with dinner. They wanted to invite them to dinner, but with Knud, it makes it difficult, so they brought the dinner to us... it was really nice, some sort of calamari soup thing. Nice... It was a very long evening, after a long day with a lot of walking and it was a bit too much for Vera (who's got 6 weeks left till she drops kiddie No.2). Tomorrow we will take it very easy.
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