In the UK, very few Indian restaurants seem to open at lunchtime in some sort of moral statement, but across northern Europe there are no such restrictions. Given the very high online reviews for Namaste, which was also opposite the museum I was visiting, it proved to be sufficiently tempting for me to pop in for lunch.
I went for the chicken madras which seemed slightly expensive, but then I realised it came with rice which was entirely agreeable.
The environment was clean, modern and felt on-trend. The welcome from the team member, who helpfully spoke English, was immediate and he was personable and helpful. The surfaces were clean, the atmosphere was comfortable and it seemed an inviting location, it seemed a good choice at this stage.
The beer is the Duckstein Rotblond which I haven’t had before and it was inoffensive, malty and didn’t annoy me. I mean this wasn’t going to change humanity I suppose, but the beer went well with lunch and not every drinking option can be rated highly on Untappd….
After trying the food, I was pleased with my decision to go here. The chicken madras had some spice, although it wasn’t particularly hot, but the meat was tender and plentiful with the sauce being rich. The coconut added texture and the rice was light and fluffy. The peshwari naan had coconut and almonds running through it with a slight crispiness to it.
Overall, I very much liked it here with the service being attentive, the food and drink being of a good quality and the atmosphere being inviting. All really rather lovely and I can see why they’ve picked up so many positive reviews. I like making sound decisions.
This is a thirteenth century font and I always very much like these because of the history and heritage that they hold. It’s from the church in Behlendorf, located a little to the south of Lübeck, which was built in around 1250. The church partly fell down in 1837, so it was decided that they’d build a new one as they didn’t want the old one that was evidently not structurally sound. They got themselves a new font, designed by C. A. Schönemann, as they thought the older one was getting a bit worn. They kept it for a bit, perhaps to see if they liked the new one, but then decided that it would be sent to a museum (or somewhere, I’m not sure where as this museum is from the early twentieth century) in 1882.
I accept that it’s a bit knocked about, but I think that’s part of the charm and it would have seen nearly 600 years of baptisms. When this was installed in the church, the area was part of the Holy Roman Empire before becoming part of the Hanseatic Free City of Lübeck. The stone from the church had been imported from the island of Gotland in Sweden, so it had been on a bit of a journey to get there.
I think it’s rather charming and it has pride of place in one of the exhibition rooms of the museum.
Hans Kemmer’s (1495-1561) portrait of Hans Sonnenschein shows a wealthy Lübeck merchant with the calm expression of a man who has no intention of being impressed by frivolities. I like that sort of realism. The artwork was painted between around 1520 and 1534 and it belongs to a moment when Lübeck was not only a prosperous Hanseatic city but also caught up in the great religious and political changes of the Reformation. Indeed, this must have been a confusing and often sub-optimal time to try to be a political or business figure, the whole religious movement of the region was changing quickly and that direction wasn’t clear.
Sonnenschein was not just a wealthy merchant but he was influential, playing a role in promoting the new evangelical movement in the city. The artwork didn’t originally look like this, it’s assumed that his widow had his clothing painted black to use the portrait as something of a memorial and he was given a citrus fruit to hold as a symbol of eternal life. On the reverse of the painting, a skeleton was painted which is really cheery for all concerned.
AI has had a go at restoring the painting to how it might have looked and this doesn’t feel like an unreasonable attempt. It certainly looks better than the later efforts to blacken his clothing and shove fruit in his hand….
These are the Salzspeicher, six old salt warehouses beside the Holstentor in Lübeck, next to the River Trave. They are among the city’s most photogenic buildings, which seems slightly unfair given that their original purpose was basically storage. Built between the late sixteenth and eighteenth centuries, they were used to hold salt brought from Lüneburg, much of it arriving via the Stecknitz Canal before being exported onwards through Lübeck’s Baltic trading networks. Before refrigeration, salt was not just something delicious to add to crisps, it was used for preserving food and, in particular, fish.
The buildings look more decadent than perhaps any warehouse has a right to, but that is rather the point. Lübeck was one of the great Hanseatic cities, and its wealth came from the practical business of moving useful things around with ruthless efficiency and the occasional architectural flourish which is evident here. Over time, the warehouses were adapted for other goods as the salt trade declined and they are still used for commercial purposes.
Having already written about the Holstentor Gate, I thought that I would have a little look around the museum which is located inside it.
This was one of my favourite exhibits at the museum, it’s the sixteenth century oak double eagle that was originally on display above the outer gate. For hundreds of years, visitors to the city would have entered underneath this eagle, I like the significance of that.
The outer gate (on extreme left of this model in the museum) was removed in 1853 to allow the railways in as plans started to demolish the entire structure, with the inner gate (the other side of the river) already having been demolished in 1828.
I’m not entirely sure that I made much effort to try local German cuisine, but this independent pizza restaurant is run by two brothers and has excellent online reviews. The restaurant state that all the dough is left to mature for 48 hours and the Neapolitan style pizzas are heated in an authentic oven to 450°C.
The menu options and the service was friendly, personable and efficient. The server, who appeared to be one of the owners, spoke fluent English, Italian and German which is a skill that I never cease to be impressed by.
Firstly, the beer is the Krombacher Weizen, which is a gentle and slightly sweet wheat beer with the expected banana notes.
Onto the food, the ‘nduja pizza was really rather very lovely, the base was light and fluffy, with the toppings being generous and there were plenty of ‘nduja. Cooked perfectly with some leopard spotting, this was suitably decadent. I’m not sure how healthy the whole arrangement is, but there we go, it tasted delicious.
I suspect that reservations are usually helpful here, there were only a couple of non-reserved tables when I visited early on a Friday evening, so I imagine that walk-ins would have been less likely later on during the evening.
These stolpersteine (stumbling stones) are located all across Europe and there are now over 100,000 of them, mostly in Germany. They mark the last place that an individual chose to live before they were killed or persecuted by the Nazis. This stone was laid on 21 April 2010 at St. Annen-Straße 20.
Frieda Bär (1891-1943) lived here with her husband Selig Semmy Bär, who was born in the city on 14 January 1891. Frieda, nee Kronenberg, had come from Gierhagen in Westphalia and was born on 24 August 1891. In 1935, they moved into a flat together on the first floor at St. Annen-Straße 20 from their previous residence at Königstraße 45.
The Jewish couple avoided the deportation to Riga in December 1941, although soon after this they were forced out of their flat and had to move into the asylum of the Jewish community at St. Annen-Straße 11. There was space at this location because 90 Jews had been sent to Riga and they were nearly all killed. On 14 April 1942, Semmy died at the age of 57 at the house, with the doctor noting that he had a heart weakness and the cause of death was a stroke.
She lived next to the Jewish synagogue, although this was destroyed internally in 1938 during to Kristallnacht. It’s thought that the building wasn’t demolished by the Germans as it was next to St. Anne’s Museum. The building has since been restored and returned to the Jewish community, remaining as a synagogue.
On 19 July 1942, Frieda was sent to Theresienstadt, leaving Hamburg on the following day. On 29 January 1943, she was sent from Theresienstadt to Auschwitz where she died.
I visited St. Anne’s Museum during my day in Lübeck, the area is now middle-class, clean, refined and peaceful. It is difficult to imagine the synagogue being trashed and residents of the street forced out of their homes, ultimately to be killed at concentration camps.
The airport has helpfully signposted the nearest bus stop which is a walk of around 150 metres as the bus doesn’t come into the airport itself. I thought that I could manage that sort of distance.
It might have be handy to pop this bus stop just a little nearer to the airport, but there we go….
Paying for this bus was not obvious as information online isn’t consistent, which is the main reason for this post. I downloaded the bus company’s app, but they don’t let passengers buy single tickets, they have to be purchased from the driver. It says that drivers may accept cards or notes, which seemed vague to me, but it’s clear that the bus company wants the exact change or for passengers to use season tickets. The bus in the photo is the one going the other way as I was trying to see if they had a card machine.
I’m pleased to note that the driver accepted cards, which was handy as I wasn’t going to be able to be able to pay with cash. A fair number of passengers paid with card, so I assume that it is now a standard thing on the buses in the region.
This maximum number of standing passengers seemed a bit aspirational. I assume they mean that passengers should hold the pole rather than they should be some sort of warlock with a stick.
There’s a bus every thirty minutes during the day from the airport and it takes around thirty minutes to get to Lübeck City Centre.
The entrance to the security area at Stansted looked a little more glamorous than when I was last here. It was also a quick process with staff members that looked buoyant and not entirely worn down by life. The security process here means that liquids and laptops don’t need to be removed from bags, so it’s a bit quicker.
There’s currently no lounge available at Stansted Airport, other than for certain flights, as Escape has closed (and I don’t know what is opening in its place). However, my Priority Pass card gives me £18 to spend at Camden Bar & Kitchen, so I popped there.
I’ve never been upstairs in here before and it was much busier than I had expected, although that’s true for the entire airport. The team members here were particularly friendly and engaging, despite how busy they all seemed to be.
This cost just under the £18 that I had, which seemed slightly expensive, but the quality was high. The toast was soft, the tomatoes and avocado had a richness of taste and the eggs were runny when I cut into them. The latte had some flavour and it was an enjoyable breakfast all round.
Back in the busy main terminal and there was a shortage of seating. I think they must be adding more as the overflow seating area downstairs is currently closed, so I’m hoping that they have a plan.
Rather handily all of the screens had this error message on the left hand side, a little sub-optimal for those wanting to see what gate to head to.
Michael O’Leary, the boss of Ryanair, said this week that passengers shouldn’t be allowed to drink alcohol in the morning at airports. I have some sympathy for him on this, there were more drunken passengers than I’ve noted before, some being quite raucous before boarding. Unfortunately, much of this seemed to be facilitated by JD Wetherspoon and they lost a set of Stella glasses from one group who just took their beers to the gate.
Anyway, there was some certainly some vibrant behaviour from a couple of groups which continued all the way to the gate. It was about a ten minute walk and I wondered why they had so many drunken passengers wanting to get to Lübeck. All became clear here though, the left hand gate lane is for Ibiza, the right hand gate lane is for Lübeck. None of the raucous passengers were going to Lübeck and this felt like something of a relief.
I was the first one to the gate, which was more because the flight was quiet than because I had managed to become quite athletic.
There was then just a short walk to the aircraft.
It’s aircraft 9H-QDD which I don’t think that I’ve been on before, but it’s been part of the Ryanair fleet since 2016. The seating Gods had given me a middle seat, but this was ridiculous as the flight was relatively empty so I had all three seats to myself. I assume Ryanair did that in the hope that I paid extra in advance to move to the window or aisle seat. The crew were friendly and the boarding process was efficient and it felt mostly clean, despite the number of empty cans and bits of paper left from the previous flight. With the quick turnaround, there’s only so much that can be done though.
Just after taking off and Liam and I walked the Stansted Stagger a few months ago which went around the airport, so we must have walked somewhere there.
We flew over Groningen.
And safely into Lübeck with the sun still shining so it was still too hot. The flight was only just over an hour and we landed 25 minutes ahead of schedule, although Ryanair do pad their schedules.
The border control process with the new EES was time consuming and took just under 30 minutes and I was towards the front of the queue. The EU passport queue was dealt with quickly, so for those of us without an EU passport it is all a bit sub-optimal.
The flight was £14.99, so more than my usual £8.99 that I pay with Wizz Air, but it’s cheaper for me to get to Stansted than Luton Airport, so it worked out pretty similar. The flight was efficient, the crew were friendly, the pilots were calm, so I thought that I received a bargain flight.
This won’t be the most riveting of posts as there wasn’t really any drama. But, I had the opportunity to pop overseas for the weekend and that’s not something that I was going to deny myself. That meant a train journey from Norwich to Stansted Airport which was a very reasonable £14 booked on a complex ticketing arrangement.
Waiting at the platform on a sunny Friday morning. It was already too hot.
Here comes the train sweeping in and it was clear that there weren’t that many commuters waiting to go to Cambridge, which meant for a quiet journey in.
And there’s my meal deal arrangement from the Co-op, very healthy as I’m sure that everyone would agree. Co-op sandwiches are not of the highest quality, the bacon is usually excessively fatty and the chicken has not been lavished with taste, but the prawn sandwich is agreeable enough.
This was my view for most of the journey. Well, specifically I mean the empty seats, I didn’t have my head on the table.
The waiting room at Cambridge railway station where I had a wait for the next train of around thirty minutes. A quick word on my rail ticket which technically required me to get off at Cambridge North and then get onto another operator’s train to take me the short distance to Cambridge. With the guard’s permission, I just stayed on the same train to avoid that change, but it’s that quirky switch to a Great Northern train which is why the ticket was much cheaper than the usual fare even to Cambridge. To be honest, at times it feels that securing agreement for an international treaty would be easier than getting cheap rail fares, the system really is sub-optimal in many ways.
The view over Cambridge railway station from the bridge over the platforms.
The only photo that I have of the second train and it was also relatively quiet. Fortunately, everything was running on time and there were no delays. As a side issue, I note that my bag looks in excellent condition there.
I got muddled up at Stansted Airport railway station and managed to leave the ticket gates at the lift which I’ve never used before. I didn’t expect it to go straight into the terminal, I usually meander around some ramps to get there, so that was some operational efficiency that I hadn’t expected.
With that, I had arrived on time and I could start to think about my flight….
