Bremen - the Family Hometown Through Visitors' Eyes

As we were going to be so close, we decided that we would spend some time in Bremen before going home. The last time we were here was in 1992 when we did that big driving trip with Mom and Dad, so it was high time for another visit.

Since it seems to be impossible to rent a car in the Netherlands and drop it off in Germany, and taking the train is an all-day affair, we flew from Amsterdam to Bremen. They allow an hour and a half for the flight, mostly because the taxi from Schipol's terminal building to the runway takes 15 minutes and crosses one of the main streets between the city and the airport. We may have spent a total of 15 minutes at cruising altitude before we came back down for landing.

After picking up our car and setting the Navigation System, we drove to our hotel. We chose the Atlantic Hotel Bremen because of its proximity to the old downtown area - we didn't realize just HOW close to the old downtown it is! We could walk to the Town Square, or Marktplatz, in about 2 minutes, and from there just about anywhere else in the old town in less than 5.

On the rooftop across the street, a humorous version of the
famous Bremen Town Musicians, along
with the similarly famous Glockenspiel in the background

The cathedral in the Markplatz from the
hotel's rooftop terrace

Once we got settled, we set out to start finding the places we remembered from before and the ones Monica's Mom and Dad always talked about. Rather than a daily play-by-play, we'll just say we saw many of these sights more than once, and post some photos.

The Marktplatz of Bremen is quite large compared to some we saw on our cruise. The city itself is quite old, and even though much of it was bombed during World War II, the Rathaus (Town Hall) and the Roland Statue have remained standing since 1405 and the cathedral, The St. Petri Dom, dates to the early 1600s.

Summertime patios reach into the centre
of the Marktplatz

A wide-angle view of the Rathaus and old trade
buildings, now mostly restaurants

No, the Dom is NOT falling into the Rathaus; it's amazing
what a camera lens can do!

Roland - a medieval knight who is one of the
symbols of the city. This isn't the only statue;
we found another one in Bratislava, though not
as big - he was quite the traveler for his time.

The Bremer Stadtmusikanten, based on the fairy tale
by Hans Christian Andersen. Germany has what is called
the 'Fairytale Road'; each town on the route that has been the location
for a fairytale also has a little monument to its story. Bremen is the
last stop on this road.

The Rathaus, built in 1504. The outside has been restored recently
and a lot of the gorgeous colours have been brought back to life.

One of the statues at the main entrance, around
the side from the arched walkway

In the Ratskeller, Larry with his dinner of
pork and beef medallions - and his half litre
of beer!

Don't forget dessert. This is the renowned Bremer
Rote Gruetze, actually a thickened 'stew' of berries
with a little vanilla custard sauce.

The Cathedral of St. Peter, or the St. Petri Dom.
It dates back to around 1621. There are 4 bells
in the towers, one huge one in the clock tower and
3 smaller ones in the other. It is beautiful to hear them
ringing on Sunday morning.

Some of the statues and friezes under
restoration.

Not to be outdone by Amsterdam, there is also
a big daily market near the Dom, with flowers,
cheeses (even Dutch!), butchers, bakers...

Of course, part of the reason we came here was to revisit the food! One of Larry's favourite stops was always the 'Wurstbude', the sausage stand just off the Marktplatz. Since it was already almost 2:00 on the first day and we were getting a little peckish, that was our first stop. The funny pose goes back to 1980 and our first visit - the original photo is immortalized on one of his barbecue aprons.

Not to be outdone, Monica also had one or two must-visits on her list. The big favourite which has been a family tradition since she was old enough to remember going, was the Konditorei Knigge. This bakery cafe has been around since 1889. It is the best source of Bremer Klaben, very similar to the Stollen cake Monica bakes at Christmas, but without the almonds and the powdered sugar. But when you go to have coffee and cake, this is what you have to get:

A little carafe of coffee, and a big piece of cake,
with whipped cream....Heaven!

The end of the main pedestrian shopping street - the Soegestrasse,
or Sow's Street. Not sure why it is called that.

Another little corner of the old town is the Böttcherstrasse, or the old Cooper's Lane. The area was established in the early 1900s as an artists' colony, and now houses some small museums, galleries and shops. One of the major draws of the street is the Glockenspiel that plays a lovely tune every hour between 11:00 and 6:00. We know that because our windows (which opened) overlooked the Glockenspiel and we heard it many a time.

Spitzen Gebel, an old house that has been
a pub, or kneipe, for a long time

The Glockenspiel from street view.

Another one of the very old areas, made up of a couple of streets, more like alleyways, is called the Schnoor. This area is crowded, literally, with cafes, shops and artists' galleries. One of Dad's favourite places was a little pub/restaurant called, aptly, Becks In'n Schnoor. Becks, being the big local brewery, has lent its name to a few places around town. This one is the coziest.

At the bar in Becks In'n Schnoor

We also took a walk along the old city moat. Bremen originally had a wall around the old town, much of which no longer exists, but the meandering moat is now a park. There is still a windmill along this moat where it is nice to stop for lunch or coffee (and cake, of course) on a warm, sunny day.

Gorgeous roses on the terrace outside

One area that we had not been to before is along the riverside near the old town. Bremen is located on the Weser River, and was historically significant as a large, safe, inland port. The shipbuilding that used to go on has moved elsewhere and the large container port has shifted to Bremerhaven, along the river closer to the North Sea.

There is an effort underway to 'reinvent' this area of waterfront, called the Schlachte, with restaurant boats, tour boats and a number of beer gardens. We walked through there on Friday when it was hot and sunny, and there certainly were lots of people there!

Along the river

The view from the footpath under a bridge. We had just walked
from the Dom (those 2 little spires) to the Becks Brewery on
the right and were walking back along the Schlachte on the left

One beer garden after another....

On Sunday since it was a little cool and overcast, we took the car out and plugged in Monica's grandmother's old address in the Nav System. As we got closer, we both started to recognize more and more of the area, and once we turned onto the street it was as if nothing had changed in 40 years.
The only difference we could see from last time was that some of the greenery around the edges of the lot had been trimmed back, but otherwise it was a real trip down memory lane.

Monica's grandmother's old home - her grandparents
built it in 1960

Since we needed some exercise, and it was close by, we stopped at the Rhododendron Park, one of the botanical gardens in Bremen, and wandered around there for a couple of hours. The rhododendrons are almost done for the year, but some were still showing their colours.

One last thing we had to do was pay a visit to Dad's cousin Hildegard in the little town of Diepholz where he was born. Hildegard and her husband Hubert still live in the original family home that started life 100 years ago as a farmhouse. We had a great afternoon - Sehr vielen Dank, Hildegard und Hubert!!

Now that we've done everything we had planned, and after a last dinner at the Ratskeller, we're preparing for our flight home tomorrow. Bags are packed (including a whole pile of shopping we hadn't expected to do), so we'll say thanks for following along again, and see you soon for the next adventure!

A Few Days in Amsterdam

The last full day and overnight of the cruise was spent in Amsterdam. We arrived very early in the morning, and once we got up we noticed that there were another four river cruise ships in the area. It seems that Amsterdam is 'the Miami of the Rhine', even though it is on the Ij River. For much of the late evening and the overnight we had been cruising through a long canal that connects the Rhine River with Amsterdam. The Rhine itself disperses into a fairly large delta in the form of lots of small rivers - and remember the Dutch are the masters of reclaiming land - so much of the landmass used to be the river delta. The Rhine River now flows out into the North Sea through Rotterdam.

We of course had one more day of touring here, which included a short bus tour, a canal cruise and a visit to the Rijksmuseum, or the National Museum, one of the finest in Europe. We'll continue our explanation in photos:

One of the last 6 windmills in Amsterdam,
according to our guide

Some of the old houses on the canals.

One of the houses on the Herengracht, that used to be where the rich
merchants lived. We checked out a few real estate offices and found
one like this with 5 bedrooms going for a mere 6.8 million Euros!!

The view along the 'Seven Bridges'. When lined
up properly, from a boat you can see under
seven bridges in a row

The outside of the Rijksmuseum. It just underwent
a massive renovation that had 3/4 of the building
shut for about 10 years

The new main entrance foyer

Most people come here to see Rembrandts. This
is one of his early pieces.

One of the few landscapes Rembrandt painted. He is much
better known for portraits and 'life scenes'

There is also space devoted to other Dutch artists. This is a
small Jan Vermeer painting. When looking at it, the
little red shutter seems to jump right off the canvas

The world famous 'Nachtwacht' or Nightwatch. Art historians now
believe that Rembrandt didn't paint the whole thing, but had some of his
students help out on the background figures. A small copy of the original had
also been commissioned which now hangs next to it. From that, you can
see that sections on the left side and bottom of the large painting have been
cut off, apparently to make it fit into a space in the Royal Palace. The small
copy shows all the missing bits.

Back on board in the evening, we were treated to a performance by La Strada, a violin and guitar trio based in Belgium, that travels around Holland and Germany as well. Tauck obviously has them entertain on many river cruises as we were told they were not to be missed.

As it turns out, they were every bit as good as their billing. Their music was from a wide range, and their performance was excellent. What a nice way to end off the cruise!!

On Monday morning we were transferred to our hotel - as it turns out, we could easily have walked, but it might have been unwieldy trying to drag our suitcases across the cobblestones. The Grand Hotel Amrath is very interesting. It was built around 1912 as the combined head office of six shipping companies all based in Amsterdam. It was built in the Amsterdam School of Art Nouveau with lots of embellishments and decorations. The shipping companies moved out after the war, and ultimately the city sold the building to a developer who made huge renovations to turn it into a hotel. It certainly is quirky - the rooms are all in wood; ours had the bathroom in an adjoining room, and it seemed like they had just lowered a modern, glass enclosed bathroom into the middle of it!

The hotel from outside.

As we stepped out of the hotel on one of our walks, the Google Maps camera car came down the side street. We'll have to keep checking to see if we've been immortalized (at least for the next year or so). Look for Prins Henrikkade 108 and check the street view. Who knows??

The view from our window.

The 'room within a room' bath. We could walk all the way around the
bathroom insert. The door on the other side doesn't open any more.

The elevator lobby. Everything has been redone in the
Amsterdam School Art Nouveau design.

We had lots of time to walk around the central city, and also joined some of our former shipmates on a walking tour they had booked ahead. Our guide was a retired professor of history from the University of Amsterdam,  very knowledgeable and interesting. He showed us parts of the city we would not have seen at all on our own. Here are some photos of our combined wanderings through the city:

                        

With our tour guide at the Anne Frank House.

The small statue of Anne around the corner from her house.
Many people don't even know it is there.

The Royal Palace

Near the Botanical Garden

All buildings need to be on some kind of support or
they will sink into the soft ground. Some of these
have been around since the 1600s, and have consequently
shifted a bit. These are some more extreme cases.

The Amsterdam Flower Market. All sorts of flowers, plants and
bulbs. And each one of these shops is actually floating in the canal!

As always, we had to find something interesting and different to eat - although apparently if we let Teresa's Larry make our pancakes for us, they would look something like this:

A proper Dutch Speckpannekoek - crepe-like pancake
with bacon cooked right in. Slather it with syrup
and dig in!

Delicious! That wasn't the only good meal we had, but we figure that all the walking we were doing was keeping us from putting on any weight. Our clothes were still fitting - but then we hadn't reached Bremen yet!