Exploring Luneburg

The town of Luneburg became prosperous in the middle ages when salt was discovered underground.  For many years the town was booming from the salt mine business and it was the trading center for the region.  Many buildings built during that time and are still standing.  

Luneburg is quite small and E and I had a goal of making sure we saw every single street in the town center. We were only in town for three days but we did it!  E loves reading maps.

The still functional Old Crane, built in medieval times to load salt onto ships.  

The market square in the center of town was hopping. 

After many years of salt mining underground, the town began to sink.  As we walked along some roads we noticed that suddenly they sloped down several meters.  The buildings in these areas show the result of the sink. Everything is slanted.  I'm not sure if it is obvious in the photo below, but the red brick house looked as though the roof was on crooked. 

After a while, everything started to look slanted.  This is a photo of St. John's church and its slanting
tower.  It appears more slanted when viewed in person.  I first noticed this when I was looking at
postcards of the skyline of Luneburg, at first I thought the postcard photos were crooked.  Then I
realized the church itself is tilting.

After all the interesting buildings we saw in Luneburg, this continued to be a spot of interest for the girls.  This shop, selling eye glasses and hearing aids, was close to our hotel so we passed it several times a day. 

Many buildings suffer some kind of age and/or sink-related changes.  A former student explained to us that the city wants to condemn many of the buildings but students like to rent them because they can be a cheap place to live in the center of town.  He said that at after a drink or two at a party it can be a little disconcerting when you can't figure out if that's the floor tilting or maybe you're just a bad dancer. 

See the bulge at the bottom of this wall?