More from Bremen

The most famous part of Bremen is the old marketplace by the town hall.  The town hall and the statue of Roland in front of it are Unesco World Heritage Sites.  It just so happened that we were there the week before the national elections, so there were a lot of political rallies going on in that square.

I was also fortunate to get a spot in one of the guided tours of the town hall which is just as impressive inside as out.

What is that strange light fixture?  It’s the jawbone of a whale that was unfortunate enough to swim up the river all the way to Bremen in the 1600′s.

Beside the town hall is the famous statue of the town musicians (a donkey, dog, cat, and rooster) based on the Grimms fairy tale.  Bremen has a lot of other nice statues too, but one doesn’t have to be a marketing genius to guess which one adorns key chains, t-shirts, and mugs all over town.

On either side of the town hall is an enormous church, though one is very famous and the other is not.  Behind church is another market place.  One had a farmers market, the other flowers.

Mini Vacation in Bremen, Germany

I recently got home from a short vacation in Bremen, Germany.  My husband went to a conference there, so I tagged along.  I really enjoyed the quaint narrow streets in the Schnoor district.

As with most European cities, there are churches everywhere.  This gothic church in Schnoor is not one of the largest, but it is an active Catholic church.

The historic part of Bremen is bordered by the river on one side and a moat on the other.  There’s a nice walking path along both.

I tried to do a lot of walking whenever it wasn’t raining, and it turned out that Bremen was a pretty good town for shopping too.