Lauenburg
The old town of inland sailors Lauenburg on the River Elbe has about 12,000 inhabitants and, as the southernmost town in Schleswig-Holstein, borders Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and Lower Saxony. Lauenburg is called the balcony of Schleswig-Holstein because of its moraine ridge from the Ice Age, which drops more than 50 meters down to the Elbe. From the upper edge, there are magnificent views over the Lower Saxon Elbe meadow area, and in clear weather, you can see the church towers of Lüneburg. While the historic old town, with its cobblestone streets and lovingly restored half-timbered houses from the 15th to 17th centuries, is a tourist attraction, the newer "upper town," except for the castle, is rather plain and functional than worth seeing.
For visitors to Lauenburg, in addition to the old town, the Palmschleuse from 1398, one of the oldest chamber locks in Europe, and the operation of the relatively newly built lock for entering and exiting the Elbe-Lübeck Canal are particularly worth seeing. From there, a walk along the canal to Buchhorst is recommended, with a return route through the Buchhorst Hills—which are quite hilly for our flatland region—back to the town of Lauenburg.
There are plenty of cycling and hiking trails, but most of them are not well maintained. In some places, the bike paths are no longer easily passable in the summer. As can be seen in some photos, the situation during floods (most recently in 2024) is catastrophic. To this day, the state of Schleswig-Holstein has not implemented any visible solution for flood protection in Lauenburg.
