Day 17: Bremen to Buecken

April 29, 2022

The Musicians are all over town

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The tourist map of Bremen lists 24 must see spots around the town. Just by visiting the market platz yesterday we knocked off quite a few of them. But when Dodie went in search of the Tourist Information yesterday she spotted one that she wanted to show me. It's called Bottcherstrasse, and it's a narrow street off the main square. Dodie spotted it because that is where the TI is! The other thing is called the Schnoor Quarter, which is actually mainly another narrow street, lined with 15th and 16th century houses. I spotted it while reading the tourist map in the rather great bathtub our room had last night.

We began by returning to the main square, where we found a small market being set up. This was not going to be the equal of even a small town in France, but the floral display was nice, so I snapped that.

Part of what would be a very small market in the square

I had noticed in stock photos of the Roland statue that the buildings behind looked quite interesting. So I went for another look at that:

Also there was the ugly glass building that I had called "some sort of government office". I was close, it's the state parliament! Still ugly.

From here we headed down that Bottcherstrasse. Aside from the very old and unique buildings, it had shops with stuff that seemed to me to characterize the Bremen and the general European sense of style.

These kitchen items are Ikea-like. I'm not sure I would buy any, but they are clearly meant to be stylish.

The oldest house on the street has foundatins from the 14th century, but the building now standing is from 1588. There is also a carillon building that is quite recent - early 20th century.

We withdrew back to the square, and noticed yet another Musicians statue, this one very fanciful.

At our feet was a manhole cover, that also carried a small history lesson.

You have to blow up the photo to see it, but the manhole is inscribed "Freie Hansestadt Bremen". This denotes Bremen's membership in the Hanseatic League of freely trading towns. The town is still very proud of this status. I assume that this Hanseatic stuff lies behind the name of Lufthansa.

The Schnoor district was just as expected, and really interesting in terms of buildings:

The house behind Dodie is from the 1600's

But the thing that very much interested me was the Schnoor bakery. I had read in the tourist literature (same bathtub) that there are a number of Bremen specialty baked goods. I assume that this chalk board covers it, but I have not been able to really figure out which is what.

OK, here is one, the fruitcake thing. The tourist literature said this would be more fruity than any normal fruitcake. But, nah. (Dodie's is way better!)

Dodie made the mistake of sending me into the bakery. I was instructed to get only the Bremen specialty cookie like items in bags, not any heavy and gooey stuff, which is what I would normally go for. I thought i did ok, but when I got out Dodie had already spotted an assortment bag in the window. So I went back in and got the lady to swap around my purchase. The assortment was the best choice, and the bag has the Musicians on it!

Trying these now while writing the blog, I can they they are unique, and pretty good as cookies, but you can never beat the gooey stuff!

In parting from Schnoor, we noted this cafe. Don't know if it's good, but we love cats.

Once you exit Schnnor, you are immediaely back to city normality, here along the river. No matter, we would soon be back in idyllic dike-land.

The cycling from this point was really nice, but plain. Dodie had thought that yesterday's account of dike riding was kind of dull, something I really disagreed with, because it had, and described, sheep!. But today the ride had few if any sheep, so what is there of interest to describe?

Here are a few bits.

CARS

We passed under an autobahn, wth an amazing continuous flow of cars and heavy trucks. Dodie was thinking that a Reason fr Living today would be not having to be on road with cars. Cars, yeech. Just ths side of the autobahn was a car dealer touting 3000 cars! Once in the Black Forest we bought a cuckoo clock from the Haus of 1000 Uhren. Now that was cool. But 3000 cars!

...and not even a VW Transporter in the bunch!

WIND IN THE WILLOWS

A scene from the Weser, plus lilacs are not in bloom here everywhere, and more on that mystery crop.

That mystery crop has now grown a bit. With the close up look, can we now say it's a bean or pea?

Quite late in the day we got a really nice surprise, and even a Reason for Living today, as we cruised into the town of Verden. For the first time in this tour we had hit a true walking street, with beautiful buildings, a Dom at one end, a bakery, and as it happens three (!) eis cafes. This really was an extensive thing, covering several long blocks.

Of course I saw my chance for eis, and dove into the first cafe. I found I was able to do the whole ordering process in German. It's amazing what you can do when eis is at stake. I could understand that I could choose three flavours to go in the large cone, and I was also able to ask for hot chocolate "for my wife" and "ohne sahne" (no whipped cream) as a diet measure. The result, a clear cut Reason for Living for today, and of course, always.

Side note, the grass behind me says this is an old cemetary and not a dog toilet.

The Dom at the end of the street was sutably ancient, with the land having served as a "place of justice" from the 9th century, and the original church having been built in 1150. The present "modern" building was put up in 1578. Since this is not a catholic cathedral, it is fairly plain, but it does have elegant cloisters and a nice if plain ceiling.

Bolstered by eis and hot chocolate we cruised the remaining 20 km to our guesthouse easily.

The towns coming up along this Weser section of the tour are rather a mystery to me, so I have enjoyed the many trailside sign boards showing what is coming. The lineup of the main places coming looks like this:

Epilog: Dodie's Fingers

For the past several days Dodie has been suffering with what we assumed was sunburn on her knuckles of the right hand, not to mention her nose. So she has been taking care to wear full gloves and put on sun screen. But it has now dawned on us that this is likely not a sun burn but some sort of irritant - sort of like poison ivy. Does anyone have a theory? We think the problem is slowly resolving, so it's mostly curiosity.

Today's ride: 80 km (50 miles)
Total: 933 km (579 miles)

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Tricia GrahamAs I enjoy your blog I am finding it fun to read our own journey along the Weser
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1 year ago

Steve Miller/GrampiesTo Tricia GrahamWe enjoyed reading it the other evening also.
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1 year ago