Northern Germany- Baltic & Lübeck

So, the first picture on this entry is a bed. Now, don't get any ideas... these European beds kinda facinated me. All of them France and Germany they are two twins stuck together. AND not stuck together very well because either Geoff OR I would wake up in the hole. IT was very fustrating and I had a hard time sleepin and getting a good nights rest. But a small price to pay for an amazing trip. Overall we didn't get to explore a lot of Northern Germany. I heard it very industrial and only a few select town have the cute German feel. The couple of cities that we did visit were very cute. Also, one of the main reasons we wanted to take a trip up North was Geoff had meet Katia on the Camino de Santiago three years ago and have kept on touch since then. Katia is a carpenter and had constently stained finger nails. We were fortunate enough that Katia's Aunt let us stay in her extra loft upstairs. He aunt owns several properties in a town named Lubeck. So, lucky for us we had a whole apartment to ourselves. Let me tell you the Europeans are not afarid of stairs. Up, up, up we go to the top floor. Beautiful views and sea breeze (20min from the Baltic Sea). Lubeck is where Katia was born and most of her family still live. It's an old fishing village of 250,000 people. The houses were huge in her neighborhood but the cool thing is the yards were very rustic looking. Not too maintained not too mainicured. Which was really cool to see this georgous house with a sorta beauitfully messy yard. Katia also told us her Grandparents who ran at Hotel in Lubeck housed Jews during World War II. She showed us this Hotel and that there was a line out the door to get in and it ended up being this huge party house in town. Katia now lives 3 doors down in an aprtment above a Restureant that we ate at twice. The owner looked like the Bounty Hunter in full mullet status and lived in Miami in the 90's and moved back to his hometown and opened up this BBQ place. The ribs were amazing and just a gret place to get the local feel. The Bounty Hunter also made his own schnapps from his own herbs from his garden. Lavander, peppermint, other weird hearbs that I don't know what they are and we were all passed around shots of this home make concockson. I had one shot. That's enough for me. Geoff had like 3, 4 or 5... he got pretty messed up. Thankfully we were only 2 blocks away and helped him stumble home. During the three days we were in Lubeck Katia took us to the Baltic to check out the German Beach life. Believe me the men are not afarid to flaunt their tan bodies and their speedos. One thing that is really interesting is these basket chairs. You can rent them and just sit in them and sun bath. They look funny because the Germans like to create a mote around their basket so people don't cross into your space. After our day hike Katia's Dad hooked us up with his friends that have a 18th Centry Pirate Ship. We got on board and just relaxed for the next four hours as we sailed on the Baltic. It was a beautiful boat and the crew offered us beer, food and the best seats on the ship. After the ship ride we strolled Downtown and it's amazing such rich in culture and history. We attended a St. James service Sunday since that's how Geoff and Katia meet is on the walk of St. James. It was very interesting to listen to a service 1. In German 2. In a church that was build 600 years ago. So, beautiful and amazing. I couldn't stop looking around at all the wood work and all the painting of the church. Just imaging how people lived back then by candle light and that so many people were heavily rooted in their religion. To think that there were not as many "things" to keep us busy and that church back then was the entertainment and the thing to do. Our last night we were invited to Katia's Dad's house (her mom was on the Camino so she was not there) for dinner. So, we cooked a meal for everyone and his house was beautiful and the lifestyle is so great. The Dad was learning English so commication was limited but we was so interested in conversing with us that he was very engaged and wanted to get to know us. PS- I didn't spell check... to be updated more soon.