Pat-a-cake, Pat-a-cake, Baker’s Man – Sand Sculptures in Travemünde

Who doesn’t know that little children’s song. It’s a play where children or an adult with a child clap hands in different ways singing the song to give the rhythm. And it lets you also think about little children sitting in a sand box or on the beach and ‘baking’ with sand little cakes. Sand sculptures essentially are nothing else than that, just on a higher level.

Unusually the sand sculpture exhibition of Travemünde this year is located in a boat hangar. Normally you find such huge and sandy art work on beaches. Maybe the fear of rain which would destroy immediately all work was big enough to find this place. Anyway: I went to see the exhibition with a couple of friends of mine.

The exhibition opened on the 11th of May and can be visited until the 20th of October. Plenty of time to go and visit, folks! The huge boat hangar by the fishermen’s harbor in Travemünde is easy to find and there is enough parking space right in front of the door. 5.600 sqm are divided in three sections: one with the sculptures, one for a cafeteria and one for books.

The sand is not from the local beach but from a river and fine enough to ‘stack’ in meter high sculptures. And very much detailed, too. The theme is definitely everything around Lübeck, Hanseatic League, pirates and sea life. The artists, or better sand-carvers, came from 25 different countries and worked for many days to create really impressive sculptures out of sand. Very ‘photographic’ the figure of Captain Sparrow of the ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’! But I personally liked also very much the many mentions of historic moments like the death of Störtebecker, the reference to the life on a cog during the Hanseatic period, myths of the sea and much more. Definitely the sand-carvers did a great job and every single work is really made in detail.

I was a little disappointed by the big cafeteria and even bigger book section. That has nothing to do with the sand art. I like very much instead the section reserved for children to try sand works by their own. It is inspiring and I could imagine a lot of children playing in the sand after they saw all those huge sculptures. There are 22 different and each tells a story, all with a little information target.

If this summer you happen to be in Travemünde, you should have a look here. It’s a jump into Lübeck’s history and the Hanseatic League.


















Travemünde, Schleswig-Holstein/Germany:


For further information:
Travemünde Tourism
Sand Sculptures in Travemünde 2019  (in German)
By car: Car park “Am Fischereihafen”
By train: Train station “Skandinavienkai”
By bus from Lübeck: Bus stop “Bahnhof Skandinavienkai”, line: 30, 31, 40
Entrance: via Travemünder Landstraße
Entrance fee: Adults € 9.50 • Reduced Tickets € 8.50 • Children (4-14) € 6.50


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