Lübeck & Travemünde

So, my Troy friends and I love Dresden, but we've been itching to see more of Germany. So last Monday on our free day, we planned to go to Lübeck, as small northern town about 20 miles of the BALTIC SEA.

I'll admit when I went on this trip, I didn't expect to go to the Baltic sea, I probably couldn't have even pointed to it on a map. But I miss the beach!!!!! And after all this oil spill stuff, we were dying to go. SO - we got up at 4:30 (you know me, this was a BIG deal) and caught the train at 5:37 to Buchen, (middle of German NOWHERE) then to Lübeck for a few hours to see the historic spots, then on to Travemünde to stick our feet in the Baltic water:)

I know its not a secret that Germans speak German... but even though I've been here almost a month, I still can't EVER figure out what they are saying over the loudspeaker. So the whole trip (4 hours, plus another hour on a regional train) we were all pretty tense... one wrong idea and our 5 hour trip could have turned into 13 hours. BUT that was part of our fun! We were tired and American and out on our own in the middle of nowhere... we loved it.

Lübeck is a quaint little town and it seemed like a great place to grow up. There was a church on every street corner and because the town wasn't damaged from WW2, most of these churches were over 400 years old, still intact. One of the cathedrals we entered had an altar from 1477! And organs that were still playable, dating back to the 1600s. I sometimes forget that America is still such a baby.

We ate lunch, wandered for about 3 hours & went on what we kept calling 'Church Tour 2010'... I think we toured 10 or 11. Also, marzipan was apparently invented in Lübeck so we found a little candy shop & tried it... I'm still not sure if I liked it.

Then we grabbed another train (20 minutes north) to the BEACH! And the weather was flawless. We walked down to the shore with all our stuff in our regular clothes... but then we were surprised.

This was a Semi-nude beach.

Instead of using changing rooms, they just changed in front of everyone. There were old women oiling themselves up, completely topless and nearly bottomless. And these people are NOT pretty. A million pot-bellied men in speedos. Naked little boys, at least 5 years old, running around with sand on their butts. 9 year old girls with no swimsuit tops. 

We could NOT stop laughing. No one was offended, we were just caught off guard. Boobs everywhere. I'd post a picture but I'm sure you'd be mad at me for showing you after!

But, like I said, the weather was BEAUTIFUL. So after some giggles, we changed into our suits (privately, in the bathroom unlike EVERYONE else), and took a little nap on the shore. I collected some rocks & took a million pictures and  love love loved it. I want to go back right nowwwwwww.

Because we were so far from Dresden, we had to grab our train back around 4, and we were so sad. But I had another homework assignment to turn in, and we were worn out from getting up at 4. Its still a miracle that our plan went off without a hitch, every train was on time and every ticket worked! We got back around midnight and I passed out until 10:30 the next day. :) :) :)

I loved that day.

p.s. I'm in PRAGUE right now and its INCREDIBLE!  I'm off to go on a dinner cruise tonight, I'll tell you all about it later!