Writing Prompt Story Starter: Warehouses

I have a total contrast to last week’s random story starter image of ties. This week’s writing prompt photo is of a row of old warehouses in the northern German city of Lubeck.

Lubeck is a lovely city, a pretty hour or so’s train ride from Hamburg. As with so many German cities it suffered catastrophic bomb damage during WW2. However, it has been rebuilt in a very sympathetic authentic style. You get no sense of it being a replica when you walk around its “ancient” streets.

Lübeck was a principal city of the Hanseatic League, a powerful commercial organization that dominated northern Europe. These tall Renaissance-style brick-built salt storage warehouses, or Salzspeicher, were used for storing salt mined to the south before it went on to be shipped to other ports.  The six buildings range in dates from 1579 to 1745.

Like many German cities it has an old part, beautifully reconstructed, and if you walk through the renowned Holstentor, the old town gate, the warehouses are nearby.

Bustling port

The peaceful Trave River runs through the city. You can just imagine sailing ships filled with goods travelling back and forth on their way to other ports bearing all sorts of valued commodities. What a bustling and prosperous city it must have been.

It’s now also renowned for its Lubecker marzipan, and a visit to their cafe is always top of our to-do list.

So, does any of that inspire a story? I deliberately chose this picture this week, because we’ve had a few overseas settings in short stories submitted recently, and they’ve been enjoyable and interesting to read. And if that’s how we feel about them, our readers will, too. It’s always good to be offered something fresh, and to know we’re offering Friend readers that, too.

Now it’s over to you to be creative!