In Lubeck

Today I have been being a tourist. After the necessary camping stuff I set off into Lubeck, found tourist information, parked my bike and set off to explore. 

My first stop was a little disappointing - the puppet museum was closed - but after that I visited Günter Grass’s house and the Hanseatic League museum. 

I’m not a huge Grass fan but the house was interesting as was his life. He had lots of grandchildren and the museum seemed particularly child friendly. The guest art exhibition (Johnathan Meese) was of a familiarly shouty style.  I liked the shock of climbing the stairs and the light suddenly turning on. It made me say oh! I think it was about an invasion of art in many sense of the phrase but the primacy of text and my paucity of German meant that I missed quite a lot. 

After that I made my way under ominous skys to the Hansemuseum. I sat down to eat a beetroot smorbrod just as the heavens opened. Luckily I was inside. Then I accidentally discovered the German for Creme Brûlée isn’t creme brûlée when ordering what sounded like ice cream and felt even happier. 

The museum was excellent. I loved it. The subject matter could be a little dry and from what I could discern they weren’t overly blessed with original items (apart from the building itself) but, it was really engaging. 

Before you go in you programme your ticket telling it what language you’d like information in, which Hanseatic City you’d like to find out more about and which area of life you’d like to investigate.  Then, as you tour the building you pop your ticket onto various information points and it tells you what you need to know. Genius. 

After my cultural afternoon I made my way back to the site via the supermarket. I swear I’d have 2 fewer panniers if I didn’t cook for myself.  But then I’d spend a fortune and be permanently starving. Swings and roundabouts don’t you know. 

Tomorrow I’m heading north on my way to Denmark.