One of the best altars I've ever seen. Jakobkirche, Lubeck.
October 2
We awoke to the sound of silence in our room. The pitter-patter of rain that had marked our previous day was gone. Instead, there was only the sight of cloudless skies and Lubeck’s magnificent skyline. After spending most of the previous day being wet, touring in dry conditions was very appealing to us.
We went downstairs to the Radisson’s lobby for the breakfast buffet. We were happy to see that this buffet rivaled the one at Reindl’s in Garmisch. We had no problem filling our stomachs with as much food as we wanted.
After breakfast, we went back to our room and finished packing. We then headed downstairs to check out. I was dreading the checkout because it meant that I’d have to attempt to communicate in German again. Since I was having no luck recognizing any words that even resembled the German I’d heard on my language tapes, I figured that checkout would be another exercise in futility that would end with a German looking at me pitifully and all of us speaking in English. But, I was determined to give it another try. So, I approached the front desk clerk and told her in German that I wanted to check out. Sure enough, she started speaking in a dialect that I didn’t understand. But, instead of recognizing that I didn’t understand, she focused on a computer screen and running through the checkout procedure. Every now and then, she’d say a word that I would understand, like “mini-bar.” I’d respond with a “Nein” or a “Ja”, and she’d continue through the process. Finally, she presented me with my bill and said “Auf Wiedersehen.” Dianne and I smiled broadly. We had survived a business transaction in German! Even thought we understood only about five words of the conversation, our one sentence introduction was enough to carry out the transaction in German. We were clearly on our way to being full-fledged Germans!
While the skies were clear, the air was briskly cold. Fortunately, we didn’t have to linger long in the cold, because we had planned our itinerary for the day. Our itinerary included a lot of visits to churches. However, because it was a Sunday, most of the churches we wanted to visit wouldn’t be open to tourists until noon. So, we decided to start our sightseeing with a boat cruise around Lubeck’s old town. We walked across the Trave River and found a cruise line (the Makki-Line) that was taking passengers for a one-hour cruise departing at 10 a.m. We paid the €7 per person, and boarded the boat. Soon enough, we pushed away from the dock and headed northwest on the Trave. The first part of the tour took us through the industrial part of the City’s waterfront. But, the boat soon made a u-turn, and we headed south to Lubeck’s residential sections. While the industrial sections provided the best views of Lubeck’s skyline, the residential sections were much prettier. We glided past beautifully manicured lawns, dense groves of trees starting to show their fall colors, and wonderful little houses that were crammed on tiny islands. The only downside to the trip was that the cruise was narrated entirely in German. While we didn’t understand a word of what was said, we didn’t need the spoken language to enjoy Lubeck’s charms.
After the cruise, we set off to visit the churches on our list. The first two churches on our visitation schedule were both deconsecrated buildings, which meant we could visit them without interrupting a service. Our first stop was Peterkirche, or St. Peter’s Church. This church is noted for having one of the tallest steeples of all Lubeck’s churches. It’s also the only one where a person can climb the tower for views overlooking Lubeck. We didn’t climb the tower. But, we did go inside for a look. I was a bit surprised to find Peterkirche with a stark, white interior. However, once I learned that the building had been nearly destroyed in World War II and only rebuilt in the 1960’s, the interior started making more sense. Even without ornamentation, it was easy to become impressed with the building’s size and fascinating brick architecture.
We left Peterkirche and walked several blocks to get to the next decommissioned church on our list: Katherinkirche, or St. Katherine’s Church. Katherinkirche is now a museum, housing several works of religious art. I wanted to visit it to see a painting by Tintoretto that was purchased a few hundred years ago by a wealth Lubeck merchant. It turns out that the museum had several other pieces that were worth observing, including a stunning St. George and the Dragon sculpture. The museum was also housing an exhibit on the life of one of Lubeck’s favorite sons: Thomas Mann. Unfortunately, the exhibit was in German, so we didn’t get to appreciate the exhibit. Another disappointment that we encountered in Katherinkirche was the same ridiculous prohibitions against photography inside the building that we experienced at Birnau. So, I wasn’t able to get a picture of the Tintoretto (which was impressive). Despite the disappointments, the visit to Katherinkirche was worth our time and the €4 per person entry fee.
We left Katherinkirche just after noon. Services had just concluded at the churches which were still operating as churches. So, we walked to the one nearest to Katherinkirche, Jacobkirche (St. Jacob’s Church) for a visit. Jacobkirche suffered minor damage during World War II, meaning most of its interior decoration is original from the 16th and 17th century. And what decoration it is. From the majestic organs to the ethereal altar, Jacobkirche was a treasure trove of Baroque ornamentation. I was particularly struck by the altar, which housed one of the most majestic and lifelike Pieta scenes that I’ve ever seen in my life. The building also housed an interesting memorial which echoed Marienkirche’s bell memorial. This memorial was a wrecked lifeboat, which was dedicated to the victims of the “Pamir” sinking in 1957. It was kind of odd to see a battered lifeboat in a church. But, it just brought home the link that Lubeck and its citizens have to the ocean. All in all, it was well worth a visit.
I was now ready to go back to Marienkirche to see what it looked like in the daylight. We passed by the famous “devil stone” at the back of the church and went to the side entrance. After entering the building, it became pretty evident that the church looked a lot different in the daylight than it did at night. The paintings on the ceiling that were murky at night were particularly vivid in daylight. But, what was really fascinating was the building’s architecture. I had marveled at the size and construction of the building the previous evening. But, the brick architecture was even more impressive in the daylight. After getting a better look at how the columns were made, I was astounded that a building as big as Marienkirche could be made of brick.
We spent about 45 minutes inside of Marienkirche, and then started walking to our final destination: the Dom (or Cathedral). The Dom was about a 20 minute walk from Marienkirche. Of course, for a walk that long, we needed some sustenance. So, we stopped at the world famous Café Niederegger for some of its marzipan. After €80, we had marzipan for ourselves and our friends.
With our energy levels up thanks to the marzipan sugar rush, we finished walking to the Dom. The building was as large as Marienkirche, but older. However, because it’s built of stone, it doesn’t get as much architectural recognition as Marienkirche. That’s a shame, because the cathedral was kind of a “best of” the Lubeck churches. There were the stark white walls of Peterkirche (another result of reconstruction after a World War II bombing), the size of Marienkirche, and the art of Katherinkirche and Jacobkirche (especially the cross carved by Bernt Knoke in 1464). What was unique to the Dom were the large number (compared to other Lubeck churches) of tombs. I thought it was a testament to the Dom’s prestige that the upper class families chose to be buried in the Dom when there were other churches that were equally as magnificent.
Since we had met our goal of visiting Lubeck’s key churches, we started walking back to the train station. It wasn’t long after we left the Dom that we came across another church that we hadn’t anticipated finding: Sacred Heart church. Sacred Heart was much newer than the churches we had been visiting (built in the late 1800s). Additionally, it was a Catholic church, as opposed to the once-Catholic, now-Lutheran churches that we had been visiting. Sacred Heart wasn’t as majestic as these other churches. However, there was some beautiful red stained glass in the building, as well as the same air of quiet reverence that was present in the older churches.
After a few minutes in Sacred Heart, we continued on to the train station. We crossed the Trave River and walked through the famous Holstentor Gate (which was covered in scaffolding). As we looked back at the Holstentor, I reflected on our time in Lubeck. As a whim addition to the itinerary, Lubeck turned into one of the highlights of the trip. Touring the old town gave us a “Scandinavian” feeling that we hadn’t experienced (and wouldn’t experience) anywhere else in Germany. It was a perspective that showed that Germany isn’t just beer and skiing. There is a depth to the country that isn’t seen if one focuses on just the big cities or stays in one region. We wouldn’t have appreciated that depth had we not visited Lubeck.
We got to the train station at about 2:15 p.m. We had just missed the train to Hamburg, so we grabbed a bite to eat at the train station and waited for the 3 p.m. train. The train to Hamburg departed on time, which made it easy for us to catch our transfer to Hanover. However, the train for Hanover didn’t depart at 4:06 p.m. as scheduled. It instead departed at 4:12 p.m. This was a problem, because we only had eight minutes of layover between arriving in Hanover and departing for Cologne. With six minutes of that eight minute cushion gone, I was worried that we wouldn’t have the time to make our train to Cologne. My worries magnified when we got to Hanover and found that we had arrived one minute after our scheduled departure time for Cologne. As the train pulled to a stop, Dianne and I sprinted from the train and ran across the train station, all the while praying that the train for Cologne was late leaving the station. After a two minute sprint, we found our prayers answered. The train to Cologne was still at the gate! We hurried on the train just as they were closing the doors. Even though we didn’t have seat reservations, we were glad to stand in the aisles for this leg of the trip.
We arrived in Cologne at about 8:15 p.m. Upon exiting the train station, we got our first look at the Cologne Cathedral. I had to stare for a few minutes. Illuminated in lights, the cathedral looked more like a mountain than a church. Still, we didn’t have much time to enjoy. We had to get to our hotel…the Lint Hotel in Cologne’s old town. On the Lonely Planet map, it looked like it would be easy to find the hotel. However, we kept going through the old town’s square, not finding the street (Lintgasse) where the hotel was located. After a half hour of searching (and walking through the courtyard of what appeared to be someone’s residence), we finally found the Lint Hotel. The front desk was closed for the night; but, we got our key through a very convenient automated security box. Of course, our room was on the hotel’s top floor, which was only accessible via a spiral staircase. Such are the challenges of staying in a 200 year old building that has been converted to a hotel. I said a quick prayer of thanksgiving for not having to struggle with luggage along that staircase.
After leaving our backpacks in the room, we headed out to grab a bite to eat. Our search for the Lint Hotel had taken us past several restaurants, including a Chinese restaurant called the China House (or China-Haus in German) at Heumarkt 67. After a week of German food, Chinese sounded good to us. The food was perfectly passable Chinese at a reasonable (about €8 per person) price. The only odd thing was the sight of a person of Chinese ethnicity speaking German.
Our stomachs full, we walked back to the Lint Hotel and quickly collapsed on the bed. We had another busy day planned, and I was starting to feel the first tickle of a cold at the back of my throat.
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