Hamburg - DAY THREE (Trip to Lubec)

Day 3
June 4, 2006

Today we took a day trip to Lubec, a small cobblestone city. After breakfast we took the metro to the train station and caught the train to Lubec. The trip was only about 40 minutes and it was a very comfortable trip. The German trains beat the Dublin DART any day. Very smooth ride.

The weather was not so great as we left Hamburg, but on our arrival in Lubec the clouds parted and the sun came out. From the train station it was just a short walk to the main part of the old town.

As we crossed the street and entered the cobble stone streets we could hear music down the river. We assumed it was some sort of festival but didn't bother to go there right away. We started to walk around the main shopping streets (which were closed). No one works on Sundays. The streets were actually pretty deserted, so after a little while we decided to walk towards the music and crowds of people. We were pleased to find that this was the Lubec 2006 Dockfestival (or something like that, one of those "we have boats, and a river let's have a party" festival). Anyway, there were bunch of little stands with everything you could imagine. There were also lots of sausage vendors with Bier Von Fass (Beer from tap-probably the 3 most important German words you should all remember), so we decied to stop, sit down and have a bite to eat and a little beer. We took our time sitting there enjoying the surroundings. After we were done eating and drinking, we decied to cross the river and see what the other side had to offer, since that's where the music was coming from.

While crossing we noticed there were some boat races going on as well, all in all quite the festival for a small city and it was all done on about 4 city blocks. Lots to see and do. The other side had 2 stages with 2 crappy bands, plus a little fair park for kids and more beers and sausage stands... so we kept on walking down the river. Eventually we got to the harbour where we, like the other 50 people standing there, stopped to look in awe at this monster yacht. It was big, bigger then anything Jess and I saw in Monaco or Cannes. HUGE. About €250,000,000 huge. But after all it's just a yacht and can only keep your attention for so long, so we kept walking.

From the harbour we crossed back into the old town, and just walked anywhere and everywhere. We were checking out all the small streets and all they had to offer. To get to some of these streets you had to go through these little tunnels and then you would come out in a courtyard or in someones front yard. Very creative buildings and streets, very pretty houses.

After walking some more it was about that time again... beer time. At this point the sun was out in full effect. We walked to the main square in the old town and sat down and enjoyed a pint on one of the out door patios.

After the beer and some conversation the ladies wanted to head back to the festival and buy some gifts, so we headed back there. By this time there were more poeple out and the real party was about to start but for us it was time to head back to the station where we barely managed to catch the train and after another train ride we were back in Hamburg.

We had some sort of dinner plans, but after getting back to the hotel around 8pm we all sat down opened a bottle of wine and started talking and talking then talking some more, then some more wine and beer came out, then had some little snacks, and more talking and then it was after midnight. That's A LOT of talking. Very nice day over all. One of my favorites.

Mike had to work in the morning, so Marilyn, Jess and I decied to take a boat crusie the next day before we had to go to the airport. We said out goodnights and headed off to bed.