Kieler Förde

After a calm night at sea, Stena Scandinavica made it to the shores of Schleswig-Holstein or “Der echte Norden” as it likes to call itself (which, after all, makes perfect sense from a German perspective). This is one part of Germany that I have travelled relatively little in before, so I was quite excited to take the Regional Express across the “Holsteinische Schweiz” to Lübeck. Listening in on our biweekly workplace Zoom meeting as the beech forests and patchwork of lakes passed by, I was reminded of my many Schönes-Wochenende-Tickets in the late 1990s, and how I used to crisscross the country, far beyond the beaten track.

Once in Lübeck, we walked through the 15th-century Holsten Gate, with its inscription Concordia Domi Foris Pax (“harmony within, peace outside”), and took in its rich Hanseatic heritage before catching yet another Regional Express, this time down to Hamburg, a city I last visited with my dad in August, just before boarding the Queen Mary 2. Though only a few months ago, that trip already feels as if it belonged to a long-gone alternative universe.