Sightseeing in Lübeck in North Germany
Medieval Gables and Marzipan in Lübeck, a UNESCO World Heritage Site
Jul 23, 2009
Lübeck’s St Mary’s church contains a dramatic reminder of the air-raid in 1942 which destroyed much of the town centre, though everything there has since been meticulously rebuilt. The bells, which crashed down from the tower, have been left where they fell as a permanent war memorial.
Holstentor Gateway
The town’s most distinctive building is the Holstentor, a massive twin-spired arched gateway completed in 1477. Inside it, in a maze of passages and staircases that children love to explore is a museum about the town with exhibits ranging from model ships to branding irons.
A close look at the exterior of the Holstentor reveals how it leans slightly to one side due to the marshy ground.
Niederegger Marzipan
Lübeck’s best-known shop is Niederegger, the home of its famous marzipan for over 200 years. This comes in presentation boxes and also modelled to look like objects from houses to vegetables or even mobile phones.
The Niederegger shop also has a café which serves enormous cream cakes and a museum which features life-size marzipan figures.
Boat Trip on the Trave
A boat trip on the River Trave around the town centre provides splendid views of the skyline, notably the tall green copper spires of its Gothic churches and the massive old brick warehouses used for the salt which brought it prosperity back in the Middle Ages.
Christmas Markets
Lübeck is also famous for its Christmas markets, two indoors and four outdoors, so visiting it in the run up to Christmas is a great way to start the festive season.
The most famous (2 weeks from late-November to early-December) fills the 13th-century Heiligen-Geist-Hospital, formerly a geriatric hospital. Nearly 200 stalls sell top quality arts and crafts including china, glass, pewter, wood toys and carvings, jewellery, basket work and hand-made clothes.
St Peter’s Church
The other indoor market (3 weeks from late-November to mid-December), also specialises in individually-made crafts. It occupies the former St Peter’s Church, now converted into a gleaming white exhibition hall. Its tower, reached by lift, offers a bird’s-eye view over the town and to the Baltic.
Among the outdoor Christmas markets, which open from late-November to Christmas Eve, the main one which covers the Market Square sells imaginative Christmas decorations and crib figures as well as gift items from music boxes to cosy lambskin slippers.
Glühwein and Jagertee
The markets all have food stalls too, so the air is filled with the enticing smells of roasted nuts, grilled sausages, spices and baked apples. Visitors are constantly offered mugs of Glühwein (mulled wine) and Jagertee (tea laced with rum).
More Christmas stalls line part of Breite Strasse, the main shopping street, and Koberg Square which also boasts a Christmas funfair and big wheel. A children’s market, with animated scenes, is set up in the grounds of St Mary’s church.
Schiffergesellschaft Restaurant
Lübeck’s most famous restaurant is the Schiffergesellschaft, a 600-year old panelled room with benches, scrubbed wooden tables and model ships hanging from the ceiling. Another good eatery is the wine cellar underneath the Heiligen-Geist-Hospital, which specialises in fish.
Local dishes include grouse, venison, dumplings, red cabbage and Rote Grütze, a delicious dessert of lightly stewed strawberries, raspberries and cherries. Be sure too to try the town’s famous Rotspon wine - a Bordeaux stored in barrels at high humidity which gives it a highly distinctive woody flavour.
Hamburg-Lübeck Airport
While Lubeck offers opportunities in equal measure for excellent sightseeing, shopping and dining, it is easy to explore on foot and handily located for flights, being only a 5-minute drive from Hamburg-Lübeck airport.
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