Bremen, Bremerhaven, and Hamburg (and a little soccer)

June 21-22

Bremen was a bust. Turns out you can see everything there in about two hours. Also, I highly recommend sight-seeing early in the morning! No one's around to get in your pictures or walk slowly in front of you.

After my train got in and I dropped my stuff at my hotel, I walked around Bremen's Old Town for a little while and hit everything on my list: Mühle am Wall, Bremer Stadtmusikanten, Rathaus, Dom St. Petri, Böttcherstraße, Schnoorviertel, the river, and I'm sure some other stuff. I realized pretty quick that there was no way I'd be able to spend all day in Bremen--there just isn't enough to do. It's actually a beautiful city and I think it would be a really nice place to live; there just isn't enough going on to make any trip longer than a few hours really worth it.

Park am Wall

So, I went to the train station to try to figure out where I could go for the rest of the day. I really wanted to go to the North Sea, but it's kind of hard figuring out where to go when you have NO IDEA what's around there. I decided to go to Bremerhaven, which is the other city, along with Bremen, that makes up the state of Bremen. Bremerhaven is right on the mouth of the Weser River, which means it's also right on the opening to the North Sea. Close enough.

I walked from the train station in Bremerhaven to the city center, stopping on the way to eat a crepe for lunch (there was some kind of festival going on, just like in Bremen and Hamburg). I walked around the harbor in front of the German Maritime Museum looking at the cool boats they have, and even went on one called the Seefalke. I really only went on it because it has the most awesome name ever!! but it turned out to be pretty amazing. The entire ship was open to be walked around in, so I even saw the engine room and all that good stuff.

In the engine room of the Seefalke

After that I went to the German Immigrant Museum, which was amazing! It was huuuge. Walking through the museum takes you through the entire "immigrant experience"--leaving home, boarding a ship, arriving in New York, then finding a place to live. It was definitely one of the best museums I have been to in Europe so far. I wouldn't say I learned a ton (just because in the US, being the immigrant magnet it is, we learn a lot about immigration in school), but it was really interesting. A very engaging museum. Wow, I sound like a loser for saying that.

Well, I was pretty tired after the museum, but I forced myself to walk through the main pedestrian zone (seriously--did all German cities get together and decide that they were ALL going to have these? I haven't been to one single city here that doesn't) hoping to see something interesting. Unluckily, there wasn't much. Instead I walked back to the river, laid down, and almost fell asleep. The temperature had finally reached the perfect point, so it was really nice laying there, even though the beach had disappeared due to high tide. I can't believe how weird the weather is here! The end of June and I legitimately needed my (admittedly thin) jacket most of the day.

The next day I ate breakfast (included, yay!), checked out of my hotel, then took a train to Hamburg. On the train I was coincidentally sitting right in front of a British lady, who also coincidentally had problems with her ticket, and the conductor barely spoke English, so I got to translate! That is seriously my favorite thing. It makes me feel so cool, even though it maybe shouldn't. Once I got to Hamburg, I walked from the train station down the pedestrian zone (see?? everywhere!), but since it was Sunday, all the stores were closed and it was boring. After that I hit up the Rathaus, where there was yet another festival-type thing going on, the former St. Nikolai Church (bombed during WWII and left as is as a memorial), St. Katarina (?) Church, Deichstrasse, and then HafenCity, which is a huge complex built out on the river.

Tour boats docked along the Elbe

I walked all the way out to the end of it, but it kind of sucks because it's mostly apt/office buildings, and they're doing a ton of construction, so there was no shade and it was HOT. After that I went to Miniatur Wunderland, which is the largest train layout in the world. That was pretty disappointing. I thought it would be one huge gigantic train layout, but it was divided up into separate rooms. And there weren't nearly as many trains as I thought there'd be! Roadside America is better.

After that I walked some along the river, while it off and on thunderstormed (is that a word?). I decided to put my day pass to good use and rode the U-Bahn up to the Justice Palace, then walked back down through the park in front of it (very nice, but not that great in the rain). Then I killed time for a while before going to see DIRTY DANCING!!!! Which was a big disappointment. I was really really looking forward to it (who wouldn't???) but it ended up being pretty much a stage version of the movie. It was exactly the same, with a pointless side story about the civil rights movement in the 1960s that never got resolved. I have a feeling that all Germans who saw Dirty Dancing the "musical" probably now think that blacks didn't have the right to vote in 1963. That's another thing! It totally was NOT a musical. Yes, there were songs, but most of them weren't even played live!! They were piped in over speakers. There were a few live songs, but they were sung by the two--count 'em, two-- singers in the show. Of course the end dance scene was AMAZING. How could it not be? Although apparently the German version of "Nobody puts Baby in a corner" translates in English to "Baby belongs to me. Is that clear?" Umm, that is nowhere near as good as the original.

After DD, I rushed to the train station, only to find out that my train was delayed 70 MINUTES, which meant I'd miss my connection, but luckily the train I was supposed to connect with was also leaving from Hamburg and was delayed, so I could get on that one. Unluckily, it also ended up being delayed 90 minutes. Whatever happened to German efficiency? Can't I just once have a train experience where I do NOT have a delay?

Oh, in other news: Germany lost to Spain in the EM final last night :-( Very disappointing. It would have been pretty amazing to be here for such a huge win! I'm glad to have been here for soccer at all though, and especially in a year when Germany did so well! It was really cool to see everyone get so excited. I don't know anyone who didn't watch the game last night, and I also don't know any big soccer fans!

Next weekend is Vienna, next week sometime Stuttgart, then the weekend after that Jugendtreffen in Schwäbisch Gmünd. I can't believe that I have less than 5 weeks left here. Crazy! I really wish I could stay after and travel. It went by so fast.