My work with medical devices took me to Lausanne, Switzerland last month, and since I was already halfway around the world my advisor and I decided a trip up north to Lübeck, Germany to visit medical device manufacturer Dräger made sense. The work I did there was really cool — in contrast to the conference in Lausanne, where I was the only person talking about medical devices, the Dräger work focused on nothing else. Also, I had a little over an hour for my presentation instead of 12 minutes.
I really enjoyed meeting some people who work in medical device connectivity research at Dräger, and I hope that we can continue to interact in the future. I also really enjoyed exploring Lübeck, which, like Lausanne, had a number of neat historic buildings. Communicating with people was definitely easier in Germany than it was in Switzerland (with the exception of one very insistent fellow in a train station) so while there were still challenges — mostly related to getting around: the mass transit is impressive, but it’s also sort of difficult to understand at first — it was all in all pretty smooth.
I managed to grab another geocache in a really scenic downtown park, eat a ton of marzipan, and get (briefly) addicted to currywurst. I also went to a number of very cool churches, saw the famous city gate (“Holstentor”) and even walk through a puppet museum. You can see some photos of the churches and outdoor areas below!
Lübeck’s Churches
The organ in Lubeck’s St. Mary’s church
The stages of the construction of St. Mary’s Church
A crucifix in a Lubeck church
A marble crucifix in the St. Mary’s Church
A triptych from a Lubeck church
A large (~20ft) astronomical clock in Lubeck’s St. Mary’s Church
Part of a huge astronomical clock in the St. Mary’s church
One of a number of sculptures that adorned many of the main columns in Lubeck churches
One of a number of sculptures that adorned many of the main columns in Lubeck churches
A high-relief from St. Mary’s church in Lubeck
An incredibly detailed triptych in Lubeck’s St. Mary’s church
Choir stalls in a Lubeck church
A stained glass window in the macabre chapel section of the St. Mary’s Church
A section of a photograph of the St. Mary’s “Lübecker Totentanz” (Dance of Death)
A replica of the Gutenberg press, from Lubeck’s St. Mary’s Church
Some of the churches are still under heavy renovation
A large sculpture at the front of one of Lubeck’s churches
A small version of the one of the churches in Lubeck, viewed as you descend from its belltower
A renovated church that is now used as an art gallery / concert hall
Some art on display in a renovated Lubeck Church
Some sort of frightening artwork on display in one of Lubeck’s churches
A poster showing the church on fire during the night of March 28, 1942
A poster showing the church after the 1942 bombing
The St. Mary’s Church bells, which fell as the church burned after being bombed in WWII. They have been left where they fell as a memorial.
Lübeck’s Old Town
The Lubeck town hall
The Lubeck town hall
A view of Holstentor, the gate to Lubeck
A hastily-taken (people were staring) photograph of a giant Marzipan version of Holstentor
A model of Lubeck in the late middle ages
A model of Lubeck in the late middle ages
Elaborate ship models, shown in the interior of the Holstentor
A view of Holstentor and the Salzspeicher, (or salt storehouses) where Nosferatu was filmed
A statue of Kaiser Wilhelm I, first emperor of Germany
More of the water bordering lubeck’s old town, and some fishermen
A view of the Stadtgraben as you enter into the old town section of Lubeck
A section of a footbridge with a large number of locks placed by couples
A (nearly?) life-size statue of Johanne Brahms
A quote from Brahms, and a pretty brutal font choice.
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