As we had finally sunshine here in Germany we decided to have a day at another city. My task was to decide which city to visit and I quickly came up with Flensburg. I had been very often there over the years as a very good friend lived there and so I knew at least a bit about what places to check out. Flensburg is roughly one hour away by car from my hometown and is located just a few kilometers away from the Danish border. Initially we planned to have a short stop in Denmark but decided against it as there was just not enough time.
The day started pretty troublesome as we overslept and could not leave till 12 which meant that several hours of precious weekend time were lost. However once on our way everything went well, no traffic jams or the like and we arrived after less than an hour in Flensburg city center. I parked in the harbour area and from there we walked by the sea-side searching for a nice place to eat. Basically we did not even search as we just took the first restaurant with many people sitting outside and a good choice it was. The restaurant was the “Hansens Brauerei” and some of you who might understand little German can see from the name it is a brewery. In fact it is also Germans northernmost brewery as it is a bit more in the north than the bigger Flensburger Brewery. So this place did not only have superb food but also great beer, double yay for me. This food was especially great for as it meant one less lunch served by MIL…
After being stuffed to the brim we continued our trip through the city. The inner city (Altstadt) is very beautiful because there are so many old structures still standing unlike many other cities here. The reason for this is that Flensburg only suffered small damages during WWII through the bombings. For example my hometown has barely any old buildings left as most of the city was destroyed during the war. I must admit that my hometown looks like a grey ugly thing compared to this city but then again there is also a reason why my hometown has been voted before the ugliest city in this state but that is stuff for another time.
Both my wife and my crazy Chinese mother-in-law were fascinated by the Old Town in which also the long shopping street is located. Not only it is full of historical buildings but it is also the place in the city with the most people due to the shopping area and has many sightseeing spots such as several churches, museums and other points of interest. What else makes this city so interesting? Well it used to be a major trading port after the collapse of the Hanse in the 16th century and thus many special things started such as the local Rum production. Here you can find a so-called Rum and Sugar Mile in which all Rum/ Alcohol and sugar production sites are listed and can be visited by eager tourists. We did not follow it but saw several shops selling Rum and the Hansens Brauerei were we had our lunch is also part of this Rum and Sugar Mile.
As we had only limited time due to us oversleeping in the morning we could only have a short tour through the Old Town including a short stop for some nice ice cream and then headed out to visit Glücksburg, the northernmost city in Germany. The only reason for going there was to visit the Glücksburg Castle which was built from 1582 to 1587. It is certainly not the most impressive castle in the world but I wanted to see it already for many years and this trip to Flensburg was the perfect opportunity as it is just few kilometres away from the city. The castle is nearly entirely surrounded by a huge pond which was created as a defence system back in the day. Sadly we could not enter as it was too late when we arrived and thus we started our tour back home after taking few pictures there.
Have you ever visited a city and got the feeling that you want to move there? Have you ever visited any castle?
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Crazy Chinese Family 