Kiel – Snow & Christmas Market

All of Germany is covered in snow which includes Kiel, the capital of the furthest north German state Schleswig-Holstein. Kiel is not the most exciting city in the north and Lübeck is undoubtedly more popular with tourists. But I had more than one reason to go there 🙂

The central station is connected with a shopping mall, a larger shopping centre is on the other side of the street. It’s nice if you have to wait for the train. Kiel Central Station is a so-called “Kopfbahnhof” (terminal, terminus). Trains have to stop there or reverse their direction. Frankfurt and Stuttgart are other popular examples of terminal stations in Germany, although there is construction underway to turn Stuttgart into a through station.

Kiel – Not quite a leisure trip

Time for another trip to Kiel! Okay, this is not exactly one of my favorite cities nor is it one of the cities I dislike most. Although this wasn’t a leisure trip everything went well. The weather was also great so I took a few pictures. They are still working on the “other side”, i.e. the one where the concert hall Halle 400 is situated.

Although I pretty much dislike “modern” glass architecture, this building was amazing:

Stealth office! Other than that, the redesigned area is quite boring and could have used more green.

After a stop-over in Neumunster, I briefly left Elmshorn station to find this forbidden affair between an old and new style display:

Short trip to Kiel

No, this was not a sight-seeing trip (and honestly Kiel has not that much to offer outside the Kieler Woche in my opinion) – this was all business. One thing I noticed was that the “other” side of Kiel underwent development after my last trip to Kiel.

There is one exit at the central station which will lead you to a bridge and on the other side is a concert hall, a big parking space and finally – some shops. Obviously it can’t compare with the mall on the train station side but at least it doesn’t look so deserted anymore.