Lübeck weekend - Travemunde

Lübecker weekend

Saturday

Today we had set aside for visiting the suburbs and various districts, and going to the Travemunde week (this is their answer to the Kieler Woche, ahem, Kiel no need to worry) let me put it this way it was quaint hee hee. Travemunde is the seaside town at the mouth of the river Trave. It is only a few kilometres away and in all reality like Bad Schwartau runs into Lübeck.

We reached Travemunde at about midday after visiting the Lübecker market, again Kiel has no competition, it was nice and compact and is on 3 days a week, but after being spoiled by the "vielfalt" of Kiels super weekly markets it did seem a bit provincial.

After parking the "Chevvy" we stopped at the first stall, it was selling freshly roasted Praguer ham, row on row of the lovely beasts all turning in front of the gas grills. It was Linda’s fault she wanted one, I was just the supporting act.

But it did taste rather nice, we walked along merrily munching away watching the river traffic, the sailing ships and yachts tied up, until we came opposite the Passat.

Krik Vig

Eldorado

Lisa from Lübeck for'n

and Lisa's after parts

The Passat was one of the largest and one of the last German working 4 master Barques, she rounded the horn 36 times, she was due to be scrapped, but was saved at the last minute from the breakers yard by the kindness of the Lübecker people, she now stands under a preservation order, permanently moored on the other side of the Trave, for all to see in all of her former glory.  

We had a bit of difficulty finding a parking space when we arrived (as much to do with BMW drivers taking more than their fair share of parking space), but when we left they were trying to kill one another over the few remaining parking spaces. But that’s much the same in Kiel when the regatta week is on but 100 times worse.

On the way back to the car park I took a shot of some ugly ducklings and mother. Quite unperturbed at the large container ship leaving for one of the other Baltic ports.

Above the Bank was a swifts nest, as we stood and watched (I was unsuccessfully trying to catch the moment when the mother actually fed the young while still in flight) a crowd grew, wondering what we were looking at, I was able to explain to much ooing and ahing, that the swift spends most of its time in flight, drinks by flying low over water and dipping its beak in, it is even able to sleep on the wing, it has a hard time if it is on the ground to get back into the air, so most things are done while in flight, yes even mating! The Latin name for the swift is Apus Apus comes from the ancient Greek and means without legs, it does have legs but they are very short and only used for clinging to vertical surfaces from where it will drop into flight , hence the German name Mauersegeler (Wall Glider)
The swift is one of the fastest birds in flight, if in the nest it will not fly out but drop and will by using aerodynamics glide the first few meters before soaring into the sky. They love hunting over water and seem to arrive at the beginning of May just as the May and Damsel flies hatch. They will catch up to 50g of these and airborne spiders, which cemented together with saliva are carried in a pouch in the throat to the nest and while still in flight be passed to the open beaks of the ever hungry chicks. At about the 1st of August, the breeding and feeding done the chicks with no training will drop out of the nest and take flight, within a few days they have gone, left for their journey to Africa to spend their winter holidays , but they are very faithful and will return each year at the beginning of May  to the same nest site, repairing last years nest with material caught in flight or mud scooped up while on the wing. 

We decided to take a drive out along the Baltic coast, there are some wonderful tiny seaside resorts, that only come to life during the spring/summer season, the rest of the time they just hibernate in the winter Baltic storms and Artic weather. We went through Timmendorfer Strand, Scharbeutz and Haffkrug before turning back towards Bad Schwartau the home of the Jams (according to our friend Carol the best in the world). Bad Schwartau has its own pucka-gen dyed in the wool, hot water thermal bath.

We had been on the go for a good few hours so decided to head for our hotel and a bit of a kip, I also wanted to see Wiggo in the time trials, I had been listening to the cricket test on radio 4 during our journey, so was reasonable happy, though not with the results.

That evening we decide to go into the Altstadt for our evening meal, Linda has a friend who lives not far from Lübeck and she will sometimes stay over and they will go to the Cinema. Right next door (in fact they have a door into it) is an proper Italian restaurant, as opposed to a pizzeria. They have a chalk board with the various changing Tagesgerichte (meal of the day). It was the first one that we hit after we crossed the bridge and I said why not here as you have always said it is so good! So in we went, now this is a massive restaurant with about 60 tables inside and a large number in the beer garden that overlooks the Krähenteich (crow pond) , connected to the Mühlenteich (mill pond) , this was the area that milled the corn for the bakers to bake their bread, very cosy arrangement.

 But back to the food, on the black board was chalked that they had Ossobuca , this is what Linda chose.

I selected the lambs rucken  in a Gorgonzola sauce with spinach, potatoes and carrots, but first a half litre of Chianti, and the free obligatory bruschetta, we had ordered a plate of Anti-pasta, just to get us started (we hadn’t eaten since lunch) . Well now I have seen some plates of starters before, but this one takes the cake, what fantastic value, what a fantastic selection, it was just fantastic.

my first plate:

After the anti-pasta, came the main course of course, I honestly thought they were trying to outdo each other. Mine was really good, still a bit of blood in it, the Gorgonzola sauce not too overbearing and well I do love spinach as an accompaniment.

 Linda’s was just dropping off the bone and what a size, she said I will never finish this and she didn’t.

After we had eaten as much as we could, Linda asked the waiter if it would be possible to take the last remaining slice of thigh home, no problem, he took it away and back it came all packed in a foil receptacle (a la Chinese take away). Well that’s a place well worth a second and third visit, well done Sanct Marco a big thumbs up.

We then walked a bit of the meal off by going up to the medieval  Rathaus (town hall) this is still the seat of the provincial Government and is a most impressive building, the court yard is the scene of the famous Lübeck Weihnachtsmarkt, I have never been, but I believe that the marzipan manufacturers have a large input.

Next to the Rathaus is the Marienkirche (the church dedicated to the Virgin Mary) Lübeck has plenty of churches (most with twin towers) for those interested in Ecclesiastical Architecture and history from the Middle Ages complete with a devil sitting on his stone, but more about that tomorrow.

That done we headed back to the hotel as we had the whole of the Altstadt to do on foot Sunday morning.