Lübeck

The city of seven spires sits on a river island that was once the unofficial capital of the Hanseatic League, where delegates from up to 200 towns gathered to haggle over salt, timber and legal standards. Today it's an easy day trip from Hamburg, and many visits run to a photo of the Holsten Gate, a bag of Niederegger marzipan and the train back.

VoiceMap's self-guided audio tours trace what all that trade left behind, from the Füchtingshof, a courtyard a merchant paid for in 1639 to house the widows of sea captains, to the Kaak, once a pillory with butter sold below and offenders on show above. You'll duck into alleyways named for the trades once worked there, and pass the houses tied to three Nobel laureates, among them Thomas Mann, whose Buddenbrooks is a Lübeck trading family seen from the inside. And if the farmers' market holds you longer than planned, just hit pause.

Put your earbuds in and give the island an afternoon.