Day 16: Nordenham to Bremen

April 28, 2022

So many people wrote to wish me a Happy Birthday! I am really touched. Thanks to everyone! I won't try to say thanks one by one!

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Today begins with a bird quiz. What is this guy?

Despite starting with a bird, the story of the first 3/4 of today is actually sheep based. That's because the first 3/4 was again dike riding, interspersed with somewhat annoying noodling through villages or dike side buildings.

In case you forgot what dike riding is like, at its best it's this:

But dikes usually involve sheep, and they can be a lot of fun:

The sheep trim the dike grass, but in so doing they also make a bit of a mess. The Germans are a bit hung up about this:

Here on this bit, they have a point.

There are lambs of all ages about now. Some form juvenile delinquent gangs, like these.

However some go to Nursery and get put down for naps:

Dodie commented that the most iconic thing from today was the continued abundance of houses with thatched roofs, which seem to overhang and look like a warm shawl. A typical one would be like this:

Or this...

We were riding along thinking about these roofs: how long do they last, how much do they cost, why do we not see the reeds on sale at Obi (Home Depot), how much of a fire hazard are they, etc. But there was one hazard (or feature) we had not thought of. The possibility of a goose nesting over your head!

Despite the interesting thatched houses, most were actually pretty dull. A typical scene could be this one:

The part of the day in which we popped on and off the dike, and also threaded our way through the boring houses included us trying to shortcut the rather convoluted track. In one ill fated move we came to a raising bike/pedestrisn bridge that was raised and not about to come down. That cost us about 15 km of backtracking and ultimately limited our time for looking around Bremen.

Bremen made its appearance for us as we cruised along the dike in the form of the usual heavy crane equipment.

The actual city of Bremen resembled Vancouver to me, that is, undistinguished modern buildings and commerce. You have to be right on top of the altstadt to finally say "Oh, yeah, that's really nice". Although there are some cool side streets, the area mainly comprises one major square, on which is found the Dom and the Rathaus and the iconic statues. As part of this we also found the first outdoor cafe scene on this trip so far. It all looked like this:

The Dom. The modern building on the right is some sort of out of place government office.

Statue of the knight Roland, symbol of freedom generally and market and trading rights specifically. This statue is from 1404!

There were a lot of Ukrainian flags in the square.

Here is the most famous status of Bremen, depicting the characters from the Brothers Grimm Musicians of Bremen. The animals, setting off to work as musicians, stacked themselves high like this to ward off some sort of bad guys.

According to the Bartletts blog it is good luck to rub the leg of the donkey.

We passed through some of the rest of the city on the way to our hotel, the Novum Bremer Haus. As mentioned, the general city looks like a general city.

But it does have additional anti-war messaging:

The hotel was sold out of its smaller rooms, so we went for the "comfort room". Wow, 8 feet from the end of the bed to the wall. Room for a dance party, no need to negotiate to pass by! Also there is an almost full sized bath tub, and quite deep. I'm off to give it a try. Until tomorrow...

p.s. Reason for living today, as supplied by Dodie: waiting for the ride to end. (Too many kms today!)

Today's ride: 83 km (52 miles)
Total: 853 km (530 miles)

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Rachael AndersonGreat sheep photos!
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