rose to prosperity during the middle  ages thanks to salt aka white gold  

this is a legacy that is still visible today  namely in the form of dipping streets and  

leaning buildings but we'll get to that part  a bit later in the video in today's tour we'll  

show you where to get the best panoramic views of  luna bulk the views are just so spectacular we'll  

admire that gothic red brick architecture that  dominates the town we'll walk along the river  

and spot the old medieval crane we'll sample  some unique chocolate flavors including salt  

the local favorite and we'll finish off the day  with some hearty dishes in a cozy german pub  

the following is our luna book travel guide and  in this video we're going to be sharing 10 things  

to do in lüneburg germany during your visit so  guys that is what we need to climb let's go do it  

the water tower the water tower our first  stop of the day was the water tower and  

fun fact this is the tallest building in  luneburg's old town that is not a church  

the tower stands 55 meters tall and offers great  panoramic views okay so we made it into the water  

tower and we are currently taking the elevator all  the way to the top and then you get to come down  

by the stairs so they've really made it easy for  visitors we are saving our legs for the way down

so we have made it to the top and this is  definitely where you're going to get your best  

city views i'm talking 360 degree views you can  see in all directions i actually didn't realize  

how many churches there were in the city but being  up here i am surrounded by church steeples in all  

directions so that's pretty cool to see we've  also got windmills off in the distance you can  

see the beautiful historic town red rooftops all  around and then just forest off in the distance  

like this town is surrounded by so much greenery  so yeah it is so worth coming up here so worth it  

and something else that's really cool is that this  place gets a hundred thousand tourists a year yeah  

and about i think 220 weddings two out of every  three days there's a wedding being held exactly  

and they also put on concerts a few times a month  but yeah if you find yourself visiting the city  

definitely definitely make time for this activity  because the views like i'm saying the views are  

just so spectacular they are wow cool little find  here yeah we were just about to leave and this  

caught my eye and i was wondering are these donors  no these are the all the couples who got married  

look it has their their names and everything  and the date and uh sometimes a little message  

beside it too very cute yeah married at the water  tower yeah what a cool place to get married huh

then it was time to make our  way down the tower this is the  

part where you get to descend through the  old water tank which is 500 cubic meters

we then continued over to plat amzande  which is one of the oldest squares in  

luneburg germany and also one of the most  important medieval squares in all of germany  

medieval trade routes used to run through here so  if you were to travel back in time several hundred  

years you'd find merchants bringing their goods  by cards to trade and haggle in this very spot  

we tend to enjoy wandering around the new  place without much direction and in this  

instance we ended up in front of the basilica  of saint nicolai this is one of the three main  

churches in town and it was built between 1407  and 1440 in the gothic style don't forget to  

look up at the star rib vault which is a  pretty unique design for northern germany

okay so we just finished visiting the basilica of  saint nikolai here in the old town and apparently  

this used to be the church for the sailors and the  salt barrel coopers so that's a cool little bit of  

history right there and just as we walked in they  were starting concerts an organ concert so we gave  

a donation and we were able to just sit there on  the pews and enjoy the music it was very peaceful  

they also have a nice collection of artwork so we  kind of walked around enjoyed a bit of that and  

then they have what we thought was a crypt but  actually when we went down there it's a room of  

silence where you can sit in prayer and meditation  and ponder um so we visited that as well and yeah  

i really like it it's gothic architecture once  again it's modeled after saint mary's in lubeck  

and yeah a very beautiful church it's not the main  one the main one was closed when we tried earlier  

after our visit to the basilica we walked over  to the banks of the river ilmanal which flows  

through the town this is a really picturesque area  and if you're looking for postcard perfect photo  

ops this is where you'll find them you have the  weeping willow swing next to the river you can  

see buildings in a variety of architectural  styles all standing next to each other  

and you also have the old wooden crane which was  first mentioned in documents in the year 1330.  

this crane was mainly used for the  transport of salt and salted herring  

and although it is not in use today its current  state is still operational which is amazing

so we've just been walking down to the river  here and this is probably the most iconic view  

of the city i mean you just have the old crane you  have the restaurants that are located right by the  

riverbank and then you also have the stream and  the bridge i mean i also noticed some love locks  

as well well we found a restaurant with a view  we decided not to eat at the river closer to our  

place i know look at that since we visited the  water tower in the morning we chose a restaurant  

by the tower so we can continue enjoying the  views yeah and you've got to enjoy outdoor dining  

and fall as long as we can so we're we're milking  that uh mid-teen weather the restaurant we ate at  

is called frida's ambassador and we had a lovely  meal i got their parmesan cream soup with pesto  

and sam went for a giant burger oh so this is a  wonderful looking burger this is the haida burger  

let's open the hood wow look at all the greens  up here looks like we have a kind of a salsa  

dressing on top with some onions pickles loads  of cheese and oh wow a nice stick burger you  

think you can get all of that in one bite i  don't know it's pretty big guys do the test

wow that looks juicy that is a juice  asaurus rex that is a beautiful burger  

wow but then i have some seasoned fries  over here check those out mayo dip

that afternoon we visited johannes kierke  which is the oldest lutheran church in luneburg  

much like the basilica we visited earlier this  one is also built in that red brick gothic style  

it was here that johann sebastian  bach composed his first works  

and don't forget to turn around when you reach  the altar because the organ is a work of art

later that afternoon we joined the guided  walking tour of luneburg which was super  

informative and taught us a lot about the history  of the town and its relationship with salt one of  

the first stops was the building known as the  pregnant house due to its huge bulging valley  

this occurred because the walls were built using  plaster that contained a large amount of calcium  

and because the bricks were fired for too  long they absorbed and accumulated moisture  

resulting in the walls expanding outwards  

we also visited the town hall building  which came into being over the course of  

several centuries and therefore comprises  an eclectic mix of architectural periods  

which range from north german brick gothic  to baroque this is the largest medieval town  

hall in northern germany and it also  has a beautiful rose garden out back

during our guided walk we learned how luna bulk  found its wealth through salt in the middle ages  

during a time when table salt was almost as  valuable as gold the problem is that the salt  

was underneath the town and water was pumped down  to extracted creating cavities this resulted in  

parts of the town sinking and it's something that  continues to happen to this day you can see this  

as you walk past medieval houses that aren't quite  level and whose doorways and windows are slanted

we also noticed this when we visited saint  michael's church and saw its leaning columns  

they actually have a plumb line  hanging to the left of the nave  

where you can clearly see  how slanted everything is

after we finished our walking tour it was time to  try some chocolates we ended up at shokotek which  

is a chocolate shop that carries a wide variety  of hand-selected chocolates from across the globe  

we did a little tasting and also bought  some chocolates to take home as gifts  

some of the highlights included  the salted caramel chocolate  

pistachio and nougat and then black licorice for  sam if you've been watching this channel for a  

while you know full well about his salted  licorice obsession one bite there you go  

i don't think i've had salty chocolate before  but it's very mild yes and it's a nice saltiness

all right guys we have had a very fun afternoon  we just came out of the shokotek it is basically a  

chocolate shop that sells chocolates from all over  the world and we got to do a tasting and mayo mai  

we ate some amazing chocolates in there seriously  we had a canadian chocolate surprise surprise  

that is made with goat milk and it has goat cheese  and it just had like this nice like saltiness to  

it it was so good then sam tried a salted caramel  that just like oh that was the best and then it  

melted in your licorice as well so i'm going to  show you what we got we just couldn't resist we  

had to buy some chocolate this one here it's  a marzipan chocolate with almonds i'm gifting  

these to my mom because she loves marzipan  she lived in northern germany for many years  

so her taste buds are accustomed to it and  this is another marzipan chocolate with orange  

and then along with her chocolate tasting we did  a little bit of a wine tasting the lady who owns  

this chocolate shop is originally from franconia  in southern germany and she brings franconian  

wine let me turn it around franconian wine that's  the very distinct shape of the bottle from that  

area and it's won a number of awards we tried that  one very good yeah and so that's another gift the  

see nirvana grape so overall yeah a really good  experience we highly recommend going there yes  

we would choco tech a lot of fun and some tasty  chocolates to take back home with souvenirs yes

by then it was dinner time so we went off in  search of food we ended up at klone for some  

hearty german pub fare and a beer of course  hello from the german pub we are at crone  

so i am having right now the local pilsner it  is called officially the lune burger pilsner  

and this is the big one of course 400 ml  my first official beer here in germany

with you with your apple juice by the way

that's a great pilsner always good  to go local guys if you're traveling  

go for the local beer and yeah we're gonna have  uh we haven't even actually ordered our food yet  

but we're going to get some hearty potato dishes  for supper tonight that's what we've decided on  

came out here fast so i got a giant  baked potato with what appears to be  

like a bit of a yogurt sauce yeah it's got  pickled herring and apples fancy schmancy

looks so good that's good i feel  like i'm having a potato salad  

with a bit of herring on the side look you  can see the chunks of fish there oh you can  

so nice look at that there's the fish it's like  sweet and sour cause it's been marinated yeah so  

you get that sourness and onions as well and it  came with a side salad trying to balance things  

out here because we are eating quite heavy nice  hearty meal for a fall evening though is it not um

you know what i love about pub food they  do not mess around with the portions  

this is a big plate so i'm basically having  a potato pancake it comes with mushrooms  

chicken and a gravy creamy gravy sauce so first  bite get some chicken in there go to petite hmm

so delicious the crispy  pancake creamy sauce chicken  

mushrooms oh yeah that's so hearty  so good perfect for fall day

all right guys we are back in the hotel  after a very fun day exploring yeah  

how did you like it i loved it i think you know  what it's been my favorite city to walk around  

on foot yes charming everything about it i love i  mean we got to visit some fascinating cathedrals  

the views from the water tower we met some great  local people some guides it just was a great day  

like everything was positive everything was fun  and the weather held off like we did not get the  

rain even though it was teasing us all day i  know so that was great really able to cover  

a lot and yeah as you said we had a great time i  loved the architecture in this place you know that  

hanseatic style with the red brick gothic it was  so cool and right now we are coming to you from  

our hotel we are staying in das state house and  it's pretty cool because it's a historic property  

and that means all the floors are crooked and like  if you look at the doorways they're like slanted  

which is perfect because the whole town is like  this yeah we had a really lovely stay here lots  

of cool artwork in this hotel it's very bright  and colorful so we really enjoyed it and tomorrow  

we are saying goodbye to luna book and we are  continuing on towards cele so we will see you  

in the next episode yeah thanks  so much for watching guys

you