A few weekends ago I decided to skip the heat wave coming in to the Netherlands and jumped in my air-conditioned car. Destination: Lauenburg in Schleswig-Holstein (Germany).

This little historical town lies at one of the major rivers in Europe, the Elbe. While my parents just docked their little boat in Lauenburg and I never been to this area, I took the opportunity to explore together with them.

For centuries, Lauenburg is important for shipping. It has a major shipyard and the old town, lying at the foot of the Elbe, is (partially) built around this shipyard. It was a worker’s village, and although the shipyard is still active, the village became a quiet place for skippers to enjoy their old age.

The street close to the shipyard. These buildings are now housing museums and the likes. In the past, they were in use by the shipyard.

The old town is transformed into a historical place where visitors can wind down from the hustle and bustle of the city life in Hamburg. The houses in the main street are very picturesque as you can see.

The centre square has the usual church.

Everything in the village smells history; Even the mail box...

...and radio in the local ice-cream shop.

The old town is built against a hill, and residents and visitors enjoy a great view of the Elbe and the shipyard.

Since the Elbe doesn't have locks, the water level rises and falls with the amount of rain. The Elbe start in the Czech Republic and Lauenburg is almost at the end of the river, it sometimes must cope with very high water levels.

Historical water levels are marked for the visitors to show the impact these water levels can have. The highest point the river got to was almost 10 meters above normalised water level and happened in the year of 1855. As the Dutch, also the Germans know how to build dikes; The scale shows the dike to be as high as a good 10 meters, therefore the residents could always keep their feet dry.

To allow shipping towards the coastal city Lübeck, regardless of water levels, the Elbe-Lübeck-Canal was created more than a century ago. Here is a view from the bridge located just outside the old town.