For my third trip in northern Germany, I decided to go to
the city of Lauenburg. It is a town east of Hamburg and in the state of
Schleswig-Holstein. It is also known as Lauenburg an der Elbe due to its
location on the northern bank of the Elbe. It has a population of 11,436 as of
2008. The weather was a little chilly with 42*F but it looks like later in the
week it is supposed to be a high of 61*F. Whoa so crazy that it is going to be
over 40*F!
This town was founded in 1182. Most of the historic
buildings are from the 17th century and sometimes earlier but they
have mostly been destroyed and new modern buildings put up in their place.
For my trip I took the train from Lüneburg to Lauenburg
which was only a 15 minute trip. That has been the shortest train trip out of
my adventures.
I decided to go get some lunch at Lauenburger Mühle
restaurant which also has an awesome museum for the mill that is on the
property. The mill was built in 1871 and it is a landmark for the area. The
restaurant focuses on regional and rustic foods to match the barn and mill room
that they serve dinner in. They bake their cakes and bread in an oven that
matches the buildings that they serve in. Lauenburger Mühle also can provide a
whole suckling pig for all of your party needs. It’s nice to find a place where
I can get a whole pig because that was something that was really missing from
my parties.
My activities for the day were pretty much just walking
around and admiring the Elbe and all the beautiful buildings. Some of the
things I saw when I was walking around was: the boat Kaiser Wilhelm which is
only in the city from May to September.
I saw Maria-Magdalenen-Kirche which is the old church that
you can see in any picture of Lauenburg. The foundation was built in 1227 but
it was not finished until 1300 and then the point was added in 1598 by Duke
Francis II but it expanded in height in 1902.
It is really a beautiful building with a long history.
If you go to Lauenburg, you have to walk down Elbstraße!
It’s really the center of the town as is where you will see all of the historic
buildings from 16th and 19th century. On the street you
can visit the Elbschiffahrtmuseum which is focused on river travel. It’s not
really my cup of tea but is something to do in Lauenburg.
And here is a different view of the street when they had flooding problems related to the Elbe in 2013. I guess there are prices to pay for living so close to a river!
My trip to Lauenburg was beautiful and really allowed me to
experience the beauty of being on the Elbe river and seeing all these historic
buildings. I would really recommend visiting just so you can say you have seen
and been that close to an important river in Europe. After my day I hopped back on the train and
headed home to Lüneburg!
If you want more info here are some websites:
