Travemunde & Lübeck
As we sailed out of Laboe it suddenly hit us that we are in the Baltic Sea – our summer destination! It certainly brought a smile to our faces and we are certainly ready for summer – even if the weather isn’t quite ready yet.
Making our way to Lubeck we anchored overnight in Grovenbrode a small bay which has a buoyed channel to enter, a small marina and an area suitable to anchor (free – that’s us). When we awoke the next morning however we discovered we were not alone, millions and millions of bugs (absolutely no exaggeration at all) had decided to join us and the whole boat was covered, so thick you couldn’t see the deck in places – YUK! They were everywhere. I tried brushing them away but they just resettled, I tried washing them away with buckets of water, but there were always more. As we began to sail they then made home either around my face as I was on the tiller steering – not so nice, or on the white sails (leaving thousands of squashed bugs imprinted on the sail when we furled it up later, a disgusting green/black squashed gut/dot that I can’t get off). Really hoping it was a one off as we were anchored close to a rape seed oil crop (much like canola back home). It explains the tapping on the deck and hull overnight, which we now understand to be the ducks and birds eating them, shame they didn’t eat them all.
With the sun up we soon shredded additional layers and enjoyed a warmer day sailing to Travemunde, being a Sunday (especially a sunny Sunday) as we got closer there was a lot of weekend sailing and water activity going on, providing a really nice view and vibe.
As we entered the river, which is shared with large commercial international vessels, shipping containers and huge international passenger ferries we sailed past the “Passat” a german four masted steel barque which used to sail grain between Europe and South Australia. The ship later went on to become a training ship for young sailors, before eventually being preserved in it’s current location and now used as a hostel and even venue for conferences, weddings as well as tourism.
We originally planned on taking Red Roo right up the river to Lubeck but after finding a nice (cheap) spot along the wall in fishing harbour at Travemunde we decided to catch the bus to visit for the day instead – a good call.
Lubeck, the old city it’s self provided a great day out (but after inspecting the yacht pontoon and facilitates we were especially glad we stayed where we were and caught the bus to visit).
Loads of history in Lubeck and it was great to able to do a self guided walking tour to the major sites and for once the map and flyer to guide you were free. We are finding it more and more common that places are charging for town maps these days (even with it only being a euro or two we find it strange and not exactly promoting tourism?).
Lubeck is/was a major port for Germany (now with most of the infrastructure and shipping coming into Travemunde, and not quite all the way to Lubeck). The old part of Lubeck has extensive brick gothic architecture and is now a UNESCO world heritage site. Again the original or old city is on an island enclosed by the river Trave (hence Travemunde). Now this place is old, when I say old I mean 9700 BC. There is evidence of humans here at this time after the last ice age (mainly neolithic dolmens). Castles were build here from 1143 onwards, and the city gates (standing today) are dated back to 1444 and 1478.
Also in Travemunde Maree hand repaired a small tear we had noticed in the top of the mail sail. We managed to be able to feed the sail into the cabin through the saloon hatch – nice work, meaning it could be sewn in comfort inside the cabin.
Red Roo 
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