GaryCA

I'm thinking of visiting both of these towns in one day. Interested in opinions if this does justice to them. According to the DB site, they are an hour apart by train.

One of the reasons for Stade is the little open air museum which would give me a little taste of one without having to spend the good part of a day.

hsv

I think half a day for each of them is basically fine and find Lueneburg much more scenic and appealing than Stade.
They are quite a bit apart, though, if not distance-wise, but time-wise.

Stade basically can only be reached via the B73 highway, which for the most part is single-lane only. It counts as one of the most dangerous stretches of highway in Germany as there are a lot of trucks commuting between the port facilities in Cuxhaven and Hamburg that make overtaking tempting, but dangerous due to the frequent curves of the road.

The more scenic (but slower) route would indeed lead you via Cranz, Jork and Steinkirchen via the K39 to Stade, following the river and taking you through one of Germany's biggest fruit-growing regions with very pretty farmhouses. Maybe stop in Jork at the Herbstprinz restaurant for refreshments ( http://www.herbstprinz.de/ ).

GaryCA

I knew you would be the one to give me a good answer. I will be going by train and have checked the connections. I think my strategy will be to go to Stade first and then have the rest of the day for Lueneburg. The museum I want to go to in Stade is open at 10:00am and I will also look around the old harbour area. I should get to Lueneburg by 1:00pm at the very latest and I can have dinner there in the evening. Thanks.

GaryCA

hsv, I looked at the restaurant website and it's very appealing. I'm wondering you consider Jork a more attractive destination than Stade. It looks like there are attractive traditional buildings there, which is what I'm interested in. I can get to Jork from Hamburg by a combination of train and bus via Buxtehude.

hsv

Jork is very small, not sure if it's worth the hassle. But then I find Stade bearable, but not exactly spectacular either. I would rather cover Luebeck and Lueneburg and maybe add Schwerin if you are looking for a third destination. You could do Jork and the "Altes Land" fruit growing region if the weather is exceptionally good and in a season when the apple and/or cherry trees are in blossom. But then you should probably rent a bike in combination with the train to fully appreciate the outdoors (and actually rather than the train I'd recommend the ferry from Blankenese to Cranz, schedule:
http://www.hadag.de/fahrplan-pdf/HAD...Blankenese.pdf

GaryCA

OK, thank you. I'll think about these options.