Luebeck
UNESCO World Heritage Site: Hanseatic City Of Luebeck (1987); The Brick Gothic Capital Of The Hanseatic League, With The Holstentor, Seven Spires, The Salt Warehouses And The Marzipan Trade · Luebeck, Schleswig-Holstein
Luebeck was the leading city of the Hanseatic League, and its old town - an island between the Trave and the Elbe-Luebeck canal - was inscribed on the UNESCO list in 1987 as the model of north German brick Gothic. The entrance is the Holstentor of 1464-78, whose two fat round towers lean inward and sink into marshy ground, and whose image has been on German money and in every school book. Behind it stand the salt warehouses on the water, a skyline of seven green-black spires over five churches, the gabled brick Rathaus, the Marienkirche with its record brick vault and the fragments of its bells left where they fell in the air raid of March 1942, the Hospital of the Holy Ghost of around 1286, and roughly ninety courtyards and almshouse lanes you can walk straight into. The city gave the world Thomas Mann, Guenter Grass and Willy Brandt, and it gave Germany its marzipan, which is what most visitors actually come for. Hamburg is three quarters of an hour away, which is why most people see it far too fast.
The old town island between the Trave and the Elbe-Luebeck canal, entered through the Holstentor, northern Germany, Luebeck, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany
The old town is a living city, open at all hours and free to walk; the Holstentor, the Trave bank, the courtyards and the spires cost nothing to look at. Church naves are generally open daily outside services, often with a requested contribution of a euro or two, and close to sightseers during worship and concerts. Museums here follow the north German pattern: open daily in summer, closed Mondays for much of the year, last admission about half an hour before closing - confirm each one. The Petrikirche tower lift runs daily in season with reduced hours in winter. The Christmas markets run from late November to shortly before Christmas. Travemuende's beach and promenade are open all year, with most beach services from roughly May to September.