Dec 29 – Bremen: Sunday morning in Bremen. Turns out everyone is either in church or asleep until noon because when I walked out at 10:15 it was a ghost town. Not a creature was stirring. Here’s a picture of my walk into the center of the old town. Not many people in view at almost 10:30am.
The center of the old town is where the town hall and St Peters cathedral are. Cool area. Bet it's hopping in the summer. It’s a huge open area that is probably full of tables during the summer with people eating and drinking. Here is a picture with the town hall on the left and the church on the right and a panoramic shot from the
Also in this town square area are two cool statues – The first is the Town Musicians of Bremen. It references an old Grimm’s fairy tale. That's a rooster on top of a cat on top of a dog on top of a donkey. Google that if you want to learn more about these guys.
They say wishes come true if you touch both legs of the donkey and the legs are well worn and not discolored from all the people touching them. I grabbed the legs with both hands. We will see if my wishes come true (you will know they have if you see me with a huge American Girl doll collection). The other statue is the statue of Roland installed in 1404; it faces the church. He is the protector of the disorder. According to legend, Bremen will remain free and independent for as long as Roland stands watch over the city. Also, I read if you touch his knees it means you will come back to Bremen. Both of his knees are well worn.
Right off the main square is a street called Böttcherstrasse. Narrow streets, artsy stores all around. There was a glockenspiel that goes off three times a day so I stuck around to see that at 3. The bells were nice but the only thing moving around was a small panel in a brick wall. Check the picture below, the part that spins around is just to the left of the top of the Christmas tree.
Since nothing around here was open, I had to kill some time so I walked along the river. This is yet another city with cool parks along the water features that wind thru the city. My next stop was the Kunsthalle, or the art museum, and checked it out. A few cool Picassos, Renoirs, and a few other good impressionists where in there. But it was pretty small though so I was done in an hour.
Back out into the cold and wandered in the neighborhoods around the museum -- narrow streets, lots of bikes parked everywhere, and not a lot of cars. Walked back thru these neighborhoods back towards the church in the town square that opens at 2pm on Sundays. I had a little more time to kill so I walked through a little area full of cool shops. Schniorviertel is the area. Would be cooler if I saw something I wanted to buy but there were lots of tourists and the area seemed interesting.
I finally went back to market square because it was now 2 and I could get into the church. It's pretty big. Organs playing. Very colorful. Must be recently remodeled because there were colors all on the pillars. Blues and reds. Not as impressive as some of the churches I have seen but better than the one in Hamburg yesterday. This one is much bigger, higher ceilings. But kind if a low key altar piece. Jesus would not be pleased! Here’s a panoramic shot of the inside of the church
And with that, I had seen everything on my list of “to sees” in Bremen. 4+ hours was all it took. I wanted to see city hall but it was closed. And there is a tower in the Dom that is closed from November to April. WHY??? So I walked back along the river to my hotel. I saw tons of open space along the river that is probably used for tables during the summer w people out there drinking beer and having fun. But on an overcast winter day it is just a bunch of empty space. So sad. I spotted a church by my hotel that I hadn't seen before and went to check it out. Looked old but like almost everything else in this region it was destroyed in 1944/1945 during the war and was rebuilt in the 50s. Lots of stuff got rebuilt in the 40s and 50s in this part of Germany.
So then I went back to my hotel to kill some time before my 645 train to Amsterdam. I sat around there for almost two hours going thru emails, surfing the internet. Zzzz. Boring. Time came to go to the train and I walked the almost 20 minutes to the train station and got a little bite to eat before my trip. Then it was a 4.5 hour train ride to Amsterdam. Pretty easy with just one change of trains but pretty boring because I ran out of reading material and I am not that interesting of a traveling partner. Got to the hotel in Amsterdam then just wandered the city for a little bit before going to bed. Only 1 more day of sightseeing to go.
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