Lüneburg

Once upon a time... in mid-April... Carolyn and I decided it was high time to go explore the picturesque little town of Lüneburg, which is about half an hour south of the Hamburg and a free train ride for those of us with city transportation passes. We'd heard lots of good things about its cute little streets and lopsided buildings, so off we went.

Lüneburg's biggest economical strong point for a while was salt. As the story goes, a hunter over a thousand years ago shot a wild boar in the area and found that its coat was covered in salt crystals. With further investigation, a salt pool was discovered, the town grew, etc... The down side of the story (literally) is that the whole old town was built on top of this giant salt dome and after years of mining it out, it started to sink. Many parts of the old town have had to be demolished because of structural damage, though there is still MUCH evidence of the sinking that remains today. It's a little sad to see, I guess, but mostly I found the tilted doors and bulging walls of the cute little old houses both adorable and hilarious. Today there is a nice salt museum that has salt packets for admission tickets, as well as other touristy salt/salty tourist things.

There was a great farmers' market going on in front of the Rathaus, where I picked up some super cheap, super yummy yogurt-covered apricots.



Definitely the creepiest church window I have seen to date, including the Totentanz window in Lübeck. I mean, dripping blood? Was that really necessary?

Note the unnaturally slanted wall on the left.

Forsythia! Oh, so pleasing.

Sun shines on the old gypsum quarry from atop the Kalkberg.

A little Carolyn takes a big picture.

And, in case anyone is wondering, the streetlight fascination is alive and thriving.

Cheers!