Festivities and a glorious weekend.

It was, let me tell you, an absolutely and utterly glorious weekend that I had in Lübeck. OUr train there was actually on time, and we had the afternoon to spend in the city, looking at the curious little spaces filled with small houses in the former backyards of larger houses. We also had a look at the ships in the museum harbour, at the beautiful cathedral St. Mary, and at a tea exhibition and medieval artworks in St. Annen. 

Then there was delicious cake and coffee, to get us a little warmed up again after being outside for a while. The weather was half not-so-nice and cold, half sunny-but-windy-and-quite-cold, so both Friday and Saturday morning saw us pretty frozen after a while, and on Saturday noon my fingers felt really frozen, so much that a fresh cup of tea was not enough to fully warm them up again.

And then, on Saturday... festivities! First me and Kathrin Hüing from the Hansemuseum did our workshop/guided tours through the Guter Stoff exhibition, then there was a little "danse macabre" show performed by the Hansevolk zu Lübeck, and the evening was spent with celebration of the 30th birthday of the FGHO. That meant meeting and chatting with lovely people, with delicious finger food and drinks. It was the first party of that kind for me in a long, long while, and it was absolutely wonderful.

I also had time in the museum this visit to play around with some of the interactive bits in the special exhibition. My favourite one? Emboss your own "cloth seal". It's not a real cloth seal, of course - but you can, as a souvenir, emboss a silvery carton roundel with one of three different designs. One of them is the sheep "Locke", who also leads children through the special exhibition. It's probably not hard to guess which one is my favourite of the three...

... and the embossed Locke is the perfect thing to personalise my laptop.

Much, much nicer than the manufacturer's seal on the laptop cover! This delights me no end. 

Also delightful: There is a cloth measuring tape, especially made for "Guter Stoff", with medieval fabric design on one side and the measuring tape on the other side. And yes, I am now the proud owner of one of them. You can get them in the museum shop in the main house of the EHM in Lübeck. And the really good news is that you have until October to do so - the exhibition has been extended!