Wednesday - A trip to Lübeck
John tells me the sun rises at about 4 a.m.. I try not to notice, but it's hard to sleep past 6 a.m, because of all the daylight. We are normally early risers, so 6 a.m. is good for me.
I fixed breakfast, while John was typing on his laptop computer..... always working on that database. We ate and then got ready for the day.
First stop would be the town center in Burg, where they have a open-air market set up every Wednesday at this time of year. John agreed to a little shopping before driving to Lübeck today. This market in the town square, with all its local vendors is very interesting. Booths and tables are set up everywhere and lots of people are already shopping.
John dropped me off at market, while he parked the car. I just love a head start! It's a small area in the town square, so I knew he'd have no trouble finding me. He found me easily. He said he went looking for the tablecloth booth and just knew I'd be there..... and I was! I find these small, embroidered tablecloths hard to resist, so I bought two more.
There are lots of flowers and fresh vegetables & fruit stands. So I purchased some strawberries, grown in Fehmarn, apricots and plums for our snacking. John found a few large Fehmarn flags to sell on this website in his gift store section. After a few more purchases, we went back to our room to drop them off. With the apartment being only about 6 blocks away, it was only a short trip.
By 10 a.m., we were on the highway to Lübeck for a day of sightseeing. Within the hour, we were wandering around this medieval city when we saw the spires of the gateway to the center of the city. We parked our car in the St. Marion's parking garage. There is very little parking on the streets in the center of the town. A nice woman at the cashier's office gave me a map of the center of town, with points of interest and a big X to mark the parking lot.... So we can find the car!
We immediately walked over to the St. Marien’s Church and went in to have a look. I saw this church last year on a tour of the city, but John was not with me that day. He enjoyed seeing this church, because of the massive size and old church artifacts. Last year, they were under reconstruction and it appears that the project is still going on. This church is very busy with tours and people wandering around because of its central location.
St. Marien's Church in Lübeck
On the outside of the church is a plaque gives some information about the church. It says “Main example of ecclesiastical Gothic brick-building in Northern Germany. For the first time a church was built in the system of French Gothic cathedral architecture with the use of bricks as building material. Model for many large churches in the Baltic region. Built between 1260 and 1350 after the demolition of the former complex that was erected around 1200 and modified to become a hall church around 1250. Totally destroyed in 1942. Restoration works were completed in 1959, ridge turret from 1978/80.”
Then we walked a few blocks to the Lübeck Cathedral, listed as DOM on our map. This church was very impressive also. Originally founded in 1137, this church has evolved into its present size of over 130 meters long inside the cathedral. In 1942, the church was destroyed, as were all the others in this area. Most of the churches have displays showing the photos from the destruction to the reconstruction. It's very sad, but interesting. Sometimes, parts of the destruction is left on display as a memorial, as they did in the St. Marien’s Church, where they gated the area where the massive church bell fell and crashed to the floor.
Destruction from WWII, left as a memorial inside St. Marien's
The Lübeck Cathedral was particularly interesting, because John noticed in some of the rooms along the sides of the church, were mausoleums of some of the past Bishops and other very important people in the history of this cathedral. Some had statues of people on top of the vaults and all were very impressive. There appeared to be about 20 such tombs in the small rooms lining the interior walls. We’ve seen graves in the church floors, which was common hundreds of years ago for the prominent individuals in the church., but we’ve never seen rooms with tombs inside the church before. This was very interesting.
Ornate family mausoleums inside Lübeck Cathedral
From there, John and I walked a few blocks and saw the St. Petri Church and the St. Jacobi Church. As you can tell by now, we have a fondness for the ancient Churches! It goes hand in hand with our love of the cemeteries. There is a certain peacefulness you get looking at the old churches and visiting the cemeteries. And of course, they are beautiful to see, with their tall painted ceilings, alters, epitaphs, crucifixes, paintings, and statues.
We had lunch at an outdoor cafe along the Breite Street shopping area, where only people (no cars) can go. For lunch, I thought I was ordering a beefsteak but was surprised to have a half of a duck served to me. I picked a Holsteiner Ente from the menu, thinking Holsein was a cow, but found out that a "Holsteiner ente" is a local area duck. (Lübeck, along with Fehmarn, is in the Schleswig Holstein area.) And I thought I was getting so smart!
After finding our car, we learned how to use the machine to pay for the time we parked in the garage. Even when you can't speak the same language, people have been very helpful to us. An older gentleman helped me work the machine by doing a lot of pointing. It’s the universal language!
With only a little difficulty, we left the town of Lübeck and found our way to the Autobahn. Headed back towards Fehmarn, we decided to make stops at two more cemeteries for John to collect more photos of the headstones. The first stop was in Oldenburg, which had the largest cemetery we had seen, so far. John had planned to walk thru all of it, looking for Fehmarn names on the headstones. But after walking thru about 1/4 of the cemetery, the weather started to change for the worse. It looked like a storm was coming in as the clouds where rapidly getting darker. We returned to the car and headed towards Heiligenhafen….. in hopes of better weather and another cemetery.
Oldenburg cemetery
As we traveled along the highway, the sky cleared up a little. We thought is would be clear enough for us to try taking pictures at another cemetery. Heiligenhafen was the one that he really wanted to document. Last year, John added Großenbrode’s cemetery to his website and several people suggested he add the cemetery at Heiligenhafen also. Both these cities are very close to the island of Fehman and sometimes the families moved to the mainland to marry and raise their families.
We found out that Heiligenhafen has two cemeteries, by looking at the map by the tourist information building. We chose the one in the middle of the city near the church, as it was probably the older one. We found it fairly easily, and John began taking photographs of the older headstones. I took my camera and helped him, as we were unsure of the weather. By the time we were done, John had collected about 330 photos. I had even found a headstone with the name of "Baade" on it.... our great-grandmother. John had found a "Lehmkuhl" in Oldenburg, another relation to us in this same line.
Soon, we were on the road again, returning to Fehmarn. We decided to stop at Neukauf's Grocery to pick up some bread, and a few other items so we could pack sandwiches to take to Neustadt tomorrow. We remembered from previous years, that this would be a good idea. There are a few restaurants and bakeries in the immediate area, but John doesn’t like to stop once he gets started doing the research. You only have limited time, and coming this far for a few hours of research…. you want to make the best use of your time.
Before returning to the apartment, we made a quick stop at the Internet Cafe to check our e-mail. Back in the room, we fixed sandwiches, kraut salad, and some fruit for a fast, light dinner. John started downloading the photos into his laptop computer, while I started writing in my journal.
Tomorrow will be our most important day, our trip to the Neustadt Archives.