Lubeck Old Town

Lubeck ran the medieval Baltic as Queen of the Hanseatic League, and its old town - an island ringed by the Trave, pricked by seven church spires - still carries itself accordingly; UNESCO inscribed it in 1987. The leaning twin towers of the Holstentor, the brick gate begun in 1464, make the emblem; behind it rise the great brick-Gothic churches, led by the Marienkirche, whose soaring vaults set the pattern for Baltic brick architecture from here to Riga. The merchant town's fabric rewards slow walking - courtyard passages called Gange tunnel between houses into hidden almshouse yards, gabled facades line the Trave quays, and the Buddenbrooks house nods to Thomas Mann, the city's Nobel-laureate chronicler. The sweet tooth is institutional: Niederegger has made Lubeck marzipan since 1806, and its cafe treats almond paste with the seriousness other cities reserve for cathedrals.

What you actually see

• The Holstentor - the leaning twin-towered brick gate of 1464-78.
• The Marienkirche - brick-Gothic vaults that taught the Baltic to build.
• The Gange courtyards - passageways into hidden almshouse yards.
• Niederegger's cafe - Lubeck marzipan since 1806, taken seriously.

When to go

May to September for quayside evenings and courtyard wandering; December's Christmas markets fill the squares under the spires. Summer cruise-excursion days from Travemunde swell the crowds around midday.

Honest expectations

Churches and museums each take a modest fee that adds up across a day. The Gange courtyards are residential - wander them quietly. An overnight stay is the trick: the brick lanes at dusk, emptied of day-trippers, are the whole point.

Nearby

Travemunde's beach and lighthouse, Wismar's Hanseatic twin harbour and Hamburg under an hour away.