We stayed in Lubeck one night. I think by this time in our trip, a visit to another beautiful little historic German town was wearing a little thin. So while we had planned to stay in Lubeck for two days, we ended up going out of town to near by Travemünde .
Travemünde is an old sea-side resort, with a little warf replete with fishing boats, and more importantly a variety of sea-food restaurants. Along the beach front are some more up-scale restaurants, but on the warf is a simpler style. A hearty meal could be got for just a few Euro’s.
The tedium of visiting churches, walking through small cobble-stoned streets, visiting castles, etc. was resolved in the only way it could. We played golf! This was the first of 3 game we played in Germany. Not a bad course; situated on the Baltic Sea, the course has wide-open fairways built for people who like to smash their driver (and who have a noticeable slice or hook). It was great to get back to the “tees”.
Some observations: The pro shop didn’t open until 9:00 AM; Germans seem to play only in pairs, not foursomes; for a course that had a stated minimum handicap requirement, there were a lot of balls flying around; it was fun; people were nice.
A bit of history of the Lübeck-Travemünder Golf-Klub, 1927 [ref]: It was in 1927 that Morrison was approached by the Hamburg based Garden architect Bassow to draw plans for a new 18hole golf course at Travemünde, on the Baltic Sea, some 80 km north of Hamburg. The Lübeck-Travemünder Golf-Klub (founded 1921) had lost its original site when as part of a race course in Lübeck some years before, the race course went bankrupt.
The new 18 hole course was opened in 1928, the original layout by Morrison was changed during the early 1930s, because the original holes number 2 to 8 were separated from the rest of the course by a footpath and proved to be too far away from the rest of the course.
After the Second World War the course was operated as a twelve hole course during the time when Travemünde was part of the British zone and from the early 1950s the course was reduced to 9 holes. In May 1992 the course was again extended to 18 holes and an additional 9 holes have been opened since to make up three 9 hole loops. Only four or five of the original holes from 1928 still exist, and most of them have changed with a new bunker or a bunker gone here and there.
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