Exploring Lüneburg

The weather was a bit overcast and rainy during our stay in Hamburg, but we still managed to find windows to explore. The first days were spent exploring Lüneburg, a suburb to the south of Hamburg where our friends live.

Here is one of the typical buildings in the historic downtown area. I believe it used to be a warehouse during the area's heyday as a salt mining center.

The river where they transported the salt.

Then our friend Raif took us over to see the engineering marvel of the boat lift on the Elbe River.

The kids enjoyed see the huge, long boat go down on an elevator.

We then took a walk along the river which formerly served as the border between East and West Germanies. There, we stopped for a lunch of what we soon learned was the German favorite -- sausage with a curry sauce (basically ketchup with a little curry). Our experience in the restaurant was typical. German couples were sitting and eating their meal in almost total silence. Then we came in, four adults and seven small children, used to the Greek way of eating (talking, laughing, etc.), and they looked at us like we were aliens.

In the afternoon, since it was raining, we took the kids to an enormous indoor playland -- the biggest I've ever seen. 

 Needless to say, they had a great time. Here you can see Phoebe and her friend Mariel driving a motorized car around the track.

And here's Benny building a house out of giant-sized legos.