Lübeck's old town is an island, wrapped in the arms of the river Trave and its canal, and you cross water to reach almost every part of it. The island was the capital of the Hanseatic League, the trading alliance of north German and Baltic cities that dominated the sea for centuries, and the wealth of those merchants is visible in the seven great church spires that fill the skyline. UNESCO listed the old town in 1987, and unlike many cities, it has the feel of a place still in use rather than a museum.
The Burgkloster, near the north end of the island, was a Dominican monastery founded in the early thirteenth century on the site of an earlier castle, hence the name, which means castle monastery. After the Reformation it became a courthouse and prison, and today the surviving brick halls are part of a museum complex alongside the European Hansemuseum, which tells the story of the trading network. Just along the road is the Aegidienkirche, a Gothic church named for St Giles, in a quiet quarter of old merchant houses and narrow passageways called Gänge, courtyards hidden behind the street front where artisans once lived.
The streets in this part of Lübeck are cobbled and tight, and it is a place to park the bike and walk. The traffic around the island is busy, with one-way systems and bridges that tend to bunch up at rush hour. Expect restrictions in the centre, and look for official motorcycle parking at the edge of the old town. The mood in the evenings is warm, with brick walls turning orange in the low light and gulls wheeling over the canal.
Lübeck is famous for marzipan, and the shop with the best known name sells it in every shape, so a small box in the pannier is a respectable souvenir. Thomas Mann, who wrote Buddenbrooks about the city's merchant families, was born here, and the politician Willy Brandt grew up here too. With more than two hundred thousand people, the city has fuel on its main arteries, and Bad Schwartau and Stockelsdorf are good for supermarkets and stations on the way out. The coast, with the long beaches of Travemünde, is only about twenty kilometres away, and the air has a salty edge when the wind comes from the Baltic.