Lisa & Michelle's European Adventure

Somewhat similar to Venice , Amsterdam is a city teeming with water and bridges that enable pedestrians to walk over that water, viewing it from all angles and directions. It's also a city filled with all kinds of boats – from little dinghies that sadly look abandoned with several inches of dirty rainwater sloshing around their hulls to one of those enormous cruise ships we spotted one night parked in the harbor. Houseboats line many of the canals and we were lucky enough to find one whose front (or "aft" as the listing named it) cabin had been converted into an AirBnb. Our hosts, Katarina and Ralph, have been living on and remodeling this former East German ice breaker the Anklam for the last 14 years. Katarina, a singer/musician, has impeccable taste and attention to detail, thus providing us with a cozy, comfortable living space on the water for the last 17 days. We have a neighborhood bar/restaurant down the street that has a pool table. We can walk to a shopping are...

This post is going to be a deep dive into the house where Michelle's mom, Ulla, was born and grew up--at Aegidienstrasse 37 in Lübeck, Germany. Warning: it's a long, detailed post. Below on the left is the front of the house today.  The right image below shows the street, Aegidienstrasse, outside the house today.   Lisa and Michelle were taken on a tour of this house by the architect, Thomas, who bought and restored it after Ulla's sister, Hanne, could no longer care for it. Thomas specializes in historical restoration, which means not only that the house has been treated with love but that he is deeply informed about its history. During the restoration, the front door of the house was moved back to its original center location from its previous position on the right side of the house (which made more room for the store that used to occupy the ground floor). Long history of the house. The house was first built around 1300. We learned from Thomas that the walls between hou...