Bremen, Germany: An unlikely tale of animals

August 8, 2015

Roadside amusement on a house in Bremen's suburbs. The neighbours must have been ever so pleased

THERE were once a donkey, dog, cat and hen. They're getting on and so their farmers throw them out. They go to Bremen to become musicians.

(Yes, I know these things don't normally happen but, look, this is a fairytale...)

They come across thieves counting their loot in a cottage. So they climb on each other's back and scare the men away. Not being too honest themselves, they move in and eat the robbers' food.

When a thief comes back, the animals scratch, bite and kick him and the hen chases him out the door. The man tells the others he was attacked by a witch who scratched him (the cat), an ogre with a knife (the dog), a giant with a club (the donkey), and someone screaming (the hen). They abandon the cottage and the animals live happily ever after.

The animals that never made it to Bremen, although you'd never think so

You see, the animals never got to Bremen. But that hasn't stopped Bremen making the most of them ever since. You can't get a photo of them standing on each other's back without fighting off tourists. You can't take five paces without an opportunity to buy postcards

But, who cares? If you're a tourist, you're supposed to swallow the legend and enjoy it. And I'm a tourist.

I'd expected the worst of my ride into the city. Others have written of "nothing but warehouses and offices". But that must be another way in. My own route started with half-dark farm roads of rabbit-nibbling calmness, then a long bike path beside a quiet, straight road that led straight into the suburbs. From there I could ride a signposted route through parks and beside the water into the city's heart.

No cleverness on my part. I'd obviously just come in from another side.

Bremen's mill. You see it from one of the main bridges, so naturally there's a gasp as people pass and they (like me) get out their cameras

You'd think Bremen had come through the war unscathed. In fact it was bombed to bits, its price for being an inland port rivalled only by Hamburg to the north.

Bremen rebuilt wartime destruction into the beauty you see today

The only building to survive was the cathedral. The rest was rebuilt. In fact, I passed a statue as I walked into town of the local politician most responsible for the reconstruction. Beside it was a picture of the mess he faced.

Thousands died in air raids and the Russian and Allied advances through Germany. But the only memorials you'll see to them are modern. In a move of what seems spite, the Allies denied Germans the right to mourn their dead in public. Even now, German war cemeteries are maintained not by the state but a charity and its volunteers.

If you put "Bremen" in a GPS, by the way, it will offer several towns of the same name. One will be shown as "Bremen, Bremen", like "New York, New York" but different. It's Bremen, Bremen, because it's a merchant state, established in the middle ages by traders and clinging on to its independence within Germany to this day.

Love on two wheels: the owners are inside getting married

I'm staying in a travellers' hotel tonight, a few streets from the station. There seems little point in riding out of one city and then pretty quickly riding into one even bigger, so tomorrow I'll take the train to Hamburg.

Today's ride: 44 km (27 miles)
Total: 3,489 km (2,167 miles)

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