A Birthday in Bremen

We gave the birthday boy his choice of how to spend his day today and as a result, we went by train to Bremen.  It’s an easy hour’s ride away and the trains are comfortable and frequent.  Good decision!

So, we caught the 1015 from the Hauptbahnhof, just five minutes walk from our hotel.

It’s a busy station and both public transport professionals in the family were agreeably interested whilst we waited for our train to arrive.

Arriving in Bremen, the outlook was a little stark – railway stations seldom have the best approach, we find.

Until we turn around, that is.  What a great building – true Playmobil-style, suggested the youngest member of the family!

From there, we caught a tram around to the old town.  Our rail tickets were valid on the local transport too, which was useful.

We are a little worried about the poster advertising Cornwall, however and fear tourists may be a little disappointed when they find the White Cliffs of Dover are not to be found there.

Anyway, we are here, in the Rathausplatz, outside the Dom and all is looking good so far!

Inside the cathedral, we are immediately captivated by the beautiful interior.  It’s solid, Northern European in character, the vaulted ceilings and patterned archways are lovely and we like the quiet, unassuming atmosphere in here.  It’s grand but not ostentatious and there’s nothing showy about the place.

The floors are pretty amazing too.

The way out takes us through the Bible Garden, where this small figure is in keeping with the whole place.  I’m so pleased we came here.

Out into the square, then, and time to have a mooch around “Bremen’s Parlour”.  I rather liked this knight’s moustache and the detail of his features, too.

There weren’t so many people around on this Tuesday morning, so we could wander about without hassle, taking photos, admiring the buildings and generally enjoying being here.

In the centre of the square there is a Hanseatic Cross in the cobbles and a group of people were meeting there, watched by a group of four policemen standing on the town hall steps.  Were they expecting trouble?  I thought it funny that all the women stood together and all the men stood a few steps away.  Maybe they were planning something!?

Our eye had been caught by “a gold thing” over there, so we followed it up and found ourselves in the Böttcherstraße.

This small passageway was a curiosity and another example of brick expressionism – of which I’d never heard until I came to Hamburg!

Our guidebook offered some information to be going on with, then we read some more on the way home later.  I’ll leave you to read about it for yourself though!

Suffice to say there were some interesting corners.

A small carillion up there between the gable ends which chimed the half hour as we passed.

A few interesting architectural details.

Some colourful stained glass.

And possibly the weirdest brick wall you ever did see.

At the other end of the street is the River Weser, where a broad promenade invites a walk along its banks.

A simple bit of graffiti made me smile.

We were soon at another quaint old district, the Schnoor

Here were more little streets to explore and small shops to peer into. 

No doubt these small corners are packed in summertime, but on a day in early January, we had plenty of time and space to enjoy and appreciate them.

I really loved being here and was delighted we had come to Bremen.

My favourite small house/shop, perfectly proportioned and beautifully decorated, too.

The door had a splash of blackboard paint perfectly placed for the three kings to record their 2015 visit – the only such door blessing we’ve seen during this visit.

After a short exploration of the shopping streets in the modern city centre and a stop for coffee, our feet were complaining again.  Keeping up with a youngster is a challenge!

So we found our way back to the tram,

went back through the station, noticing murals we’d overlooked whilst walking in the other direction

and caught the train back to Hamburg.

There was another feature of Bremen that was everywhere we went – I’ll share it in a separate post.

Hamburg Monday morning

Every morning as we’ve left the hotel, I’ve admired the Christmas decorations.  All variations on a theme of straw stars, twigs, huge fur/wool snowballs and small lime green baubles, this one in particular hits the spot for me.  Sadly, this is possibly the last day we’ll see it, for I expect all signs of Christmas will disappear very soon.

It was a very different crowd on the street this morning, the first day back to work for many and unfortunately, it was a grey morning lacking any of yesterday’s sunshine.

We were heading for the station again, this time to catch the S-bahn to Altona, where our guide book promised an interesting walk. 

Unfortunately, first impressions didn’t suggest much, though we understood that Altona used to rival Hamburg as a fishing port.  This morning, it simply felt like a pretty ordinary suburb.

We set off optimistically, following the route as set out and soon found ourselves in a small garden with this monstrosity of a fountain.  Two centaurs fight with one another over a fish – they represent the two cities, of course.

Apparently in summer, water spouts from the fish and from several places elsewhere but for now, we were happy to let this one go and to move right along to the next attraction.

Dear old Kaiser Wilhelm 1 stands placidly in front of the Town Hall, flanked by all manner of figures representing business and culture of the area.

Then just to one side, on the edge of the park stands Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher, who appears strangely small in stature here.

Did we come all the way for three statues, then?  For a while, it seemed so, but following the pathway a little further we found ourselves within sight of the Elbe again, so of course, we continued.

The waterfront here is referred to as the Altona Balkon – the Balcony – since it overlooks the river and all the passing traffic.  Homes along this stretch of the riverbank/coastline fetch high prices and this particular part of Altona is the place to reside, it seems.

I rather liked the fishermen standing with their oars aloft, even if they did look like bats!

Having absorbed the atmosphere of the riverside pathway, we chose to follow it back towards the city, to St Pauli.  It was a fine morning and the signpost suggested it wasn’t much more than 1km to walk.

Soon we found ourselves heading back towards the Fischmarkt, where we had been so very early yesterday morning (was it really only yesterday!?)  We noticed a large ship over there in the dry dock too – had that been there before?  We hadn’t spotted it, if it had.

Actually, the Fischmarkt Auction Hall looked rather nicer this morning, in the daylight and we were pleased to see where we’d been in the dark!

For now though, we were spotting other landmarks, such as the Elbphilharmonie there in the mist behind the …oh, isn’t that a U-boot?  How easily overlooked it was

In no time, we were back at the Landungsbrucken, where we sat down with coffee and the guidebook to plan our next activity.

Harbour ferry number 62 would take us on much the same route as the pricey harbour tour ships, and since our Hamburg card gave us free travel on the ferries, it seemed like a no brainer.  Having finished our drinks, we made our way to jetty 3.

A #62 was waiting, more or less ready to leave, so we hopped on board and took our seats.  We’d worried that a harbour cruise might not be a comfy option on such a chilly morning but oh my goodness, we needn’t have worried.  The whole cabin was superheated to sauna level!

We passed several candidates for my Tugs of the World Flickr group, and quite a few smart riverside apartments.  Easy to see why this would be a desirable place to live.

The whole journey was punctuated with interesting sights – an icebreaker ship here, in a collection of old ships available to visit.  We were far too comfy to get off the ferry though, so sat tight and stayed on board all the way there and all the way back again!

We sailed close enough to the Blohm und Voss drydock to spot the Cunard Queen Victoria undergoing some repairs and refurbishment, too.  But then it was time to leave our warm and cosy haven and venture out onto the U bahn again and back into town where we planned a little shopping.

We’ve found Hamburg to be a very walkable city and the shopping areas are interesting and rather attractive.  I was in search of the OSKA store, which was not so far from here in a smart shopping street.

My hero is good at spotting such things, thank goodness, or else I’d have missed it completely, having been distracted by all the grey things for sale in this shop on the corner.

Shopping complete, then, the only challenge remaining was to identify where to eat dinner tonight.  Once again, my hero rose to the challenge, finding Das Dorf where we have just enjoyed one of the most memorable meals in a really atmospheric building.

The end of another marvellous day here – and the boy’s birthday to look forward to tomorrow.  Oh yes, thirty years ago this evening we were at home in Avening, taking down the Christmas tree when…you can guess the rest!

A day of culture

It’s been a long day.  After our early morning fishing expedition, we returned to our cosy hotel and relaxed for a while before meeting for our second breakfast.  Needless to say, it was rather more substantial than the first!

Suitably fortified, we set out under blue skies towards the station where just across the street was the Applied Arts Museum – the MKG. 

We’d decided to make today a cultural one, with three museums on our list.

This one immediately won me over, with a temporary exhibition of fashion illustration.  Having chatted to the Kingston University students recently about this, the subject was up there in my mind and the Gustafson sketches which were in the first room caught my eye straight away. 

In a different way, so did the illustrations by Antonio.

I especially enjoyed seeing the original sketch alongside the eventual magazine spread.  Fascinating!

The museum itself was really well laid out.  Fairly small, the temptation to put everything on show had been resisted, though it was amusing to see part of the archive laid out as an exhibition too.

In the Buddhist themed room, the white space flattered the few exhibits and showed them to best effect.

But just around the corner hung a beautiful William Morris tapestry, effectively lit and sadly not at all well photographed by yours truly.

As always, the fine details made the whole and the placing of the piece was perfect.

Because, just through a door we found ourselves in a rather less bountiful Wiener Werkstatte setting.  Two sides of the same coin, so to speak.

Throughout the museum we’d come across fluorescent orange flashes, highlighting the exhibits of doubtful or unconfirmed provenance, but in the last room, this theme was clarified and extended to tell the story of Raubkunst – looted artworks.  Really interesting for us to learn about and prompting us to find out more, the story of several pieces featured in the museum highlighted the issue very well indeed.

Our next stop was to be the Art Museum – the Kunsthalle.  Now here I felt we ought to have done our homework a little more effectively, because it’s undergoing renovation.  OK, so as the banners state, it’s still open and indeed, the people were still flocking through the doors.  But sadly, there are so few artworks to see, it’s hardly worth the effort.

The building itself is lovely.  But this is all the part undergoing restoration and the exhibitions are currently only in the new concrete part at the end of the pathway.  So, a good 75% or more is closed.

The cafe is still open, though, so we were ok for a while!

A few choice pieces have been singled out for exhibition during the works and so it was here we began our visit.  At the black spot.

Beyond the stark white reception area, a more conventional gallery space had been engineered and inside were hung a concentrated collection of the stars of the show.

That meant that all the visitors to the gallery found their way into these dozen or so smallish rooms too, making for a somewhat crowded and overwhelming experience.

The special exhibition was still more crowded (in spite of the image the photo offers) and eventually I decided to focus on observing the people rather than the paintings.  The characters with whom we shared the lift were worthy of a study alone – expensively dressed in a very European style (a little haute OSKA!) and ever so slightly vague, if you get my drift.

But actually, I found the building rather interesting too!

Time to move on, then.  Never far from the “ugly” church near our hotel, we made our way to the U Bahn and took the same route as we had this morning, staying on for one more stop to St Pauli.

We’d planned to make the Hamburg history museum the last stop of the day and just as well, for at least four of our six feet were beginning to protest.

Eventually we found our way in and sure enough, here was another wonderful collection of interesting ephemera which told the story of the city.

The thing is, whilst the other two were admiring model ships and suchlike, I was trying like mad to remember what I did with the cloakroom receipt for our coats.  I wondered if I’d actually been given one at all and then came to the rotten conclusion that I’d probably wandered off before the cloakroom attendant had returned and tried to give me the thing. 

Oh heck.

Oh well, I’m sure I wasn’t the first to do that and at least I could explain auf Deutsch that I’m not so good at conzentrieren at times!

So we enjoyed the rest of the museum, finding pictures to make one birthday boy’s heart sing and learning a bit about the Hansestadt as we went.

We learned about ropemaking and how the Reeperbahn came about.

Finally, the historic exhibit to make us all feel ancient – a room from 1990.  It wouldn’t be quite so bad were it not for the fact that our studio desks are rather too similar to those in the display.

And of course, now I had to retrieve our coats without a ticket.

I grovelled in my best German.  “Es tut mir sehr leid, aber…”   But the cloakroom attendant was having none of it.

“Ohne ticket, keinen mantel”.

“Was?!”   My German began to flow, as it does in such circumstances!  I suggested that perhaps we’d need to wait until the last people had left the museum and then there would be three coats left…and if she insisted we do that, then……well….

She quietly picked up a ticket from the desk at that point.  How many coats were there?  Off she went to retrieve whatever was hanging on that particular hook.  Sure enough, there were our three coats.  Unsmiling, she handed them over and unapologetic, we took them and left.

Harrumph!

We love it here though, and moments like these are few and far between.  We satisfied the inner Bavarian in us all this evening with supper at the Hofbräuhaus just down the street and agreed that however tasty and locally authentic labkaus might be, there’s nothing quite like a solid dish of Schweinshaxen and Knödel to keep body and soul together.

Good grief, blogging before breakfast?

It’s almost as if we are taking over where we left off yesterday – standing on an U bahn station, waiting for a train.  But as you can see, it’s just past 6.35am and we are heading in the opposite direction – towards St Pauli, in fact.

The concierge had looked at us askance as we went out at such an ungodly hour this morning, but undoubtedly he’d guessed where we were headed.  Along with a few other visitors, we were taking the advice of our friends and the guidebook and going out to the St Pauli Fishmarket.  Well, two of us were, anyway – the youngster preferred to stay in bed!

Almost everyone on the train got off at the Landungsbrucken stop and crossed the bridge littered with more silly locks to walk the 1km to the market.

As we understood it, the market would be in full swing.  The guidebook described how the market traders would call their wares, our friends described the fun of a live auction, music and Gemütlichkeit.  So we continued past these first stands selling the same trashy clothes seen on any market stall and continued on towards the market proper.

There was some beautifully fresh fish on offer, that’s for sure.  But we hadn’t come across the market traders, or any “life” yet.  Maybe it’s a little further on?

Even further on, we were still amongst the “tourist tat”, the cheap souvenirs and the hats and handbags.

Though there was the occasional fruit seller calling their wares, there didn’t seem to be much spirit around and it wasn’t quite what we were anticipating.

Aha!    We reached the market hall and headed inside, because maybe that was where it was happening?

Well, the hall was full of tables, set out in traditional lines with a band set up on stage at the end.  People were here eating breakfast, but the party had certainly not started and there were no live fish auctions or anything particular to see.

Hmm.  Was this why we’d got up at 6am?  Looked like it!

Maybe it’s the season.  Perhaps the first Sunday after the New Year isn’t the time to get the full experience?  Maybe we were here too early and the activities hadn’t kicked off yet?

Or maybe we had left our own Gemütlichkeit at home?  Whatevs.  Rather than stand and eat a fish sandwich here in the cold, we decided we’d prefer to go back and enjoy the lavish choices of our hotel breakfast offering in comfort.

Which is why we found ourselves returning to the Landungsbrucken station shortly after 7.30am.

Catching a train back was easy and quick and we were soon back where we started.

Had we wasted our time?  Not at all.  We have to do these things, to give them a try and to see what’s what.  If we didn’t, who knows what we’d miss?

I think the Birthday Boy will be glad he chose to stay in bed, though!

Walk a little further in Hamburg

So, where were we?  Oh yes, somewhere along the Willy Brandt Strasse and on our way to the Hafen City, a new development area of Hamburg where there were several places of interest.  First, we have to cross the road by means of the Cremonbruecke which strangely has escalators going down but steps going up.  Never mind, we’re all for building our appetites – or maybe, still working off the rather huge breakfast we’d enjoyed this morning.

Cremon is a street which dates back to the 13th century port and around here are the oldest buildings, many still in use.  Actually, we’ve booked a table for dinner in a restaurant nearby this evening, but for now, we’ll just get a feel for the place and carry on towards the waterfront.

Actually, looking a little more closely down there, we spot the new Elbphilharmonie construction which sadly isn’t going to be ready for quite some time but which looks spectacular from what we’ve read.

Oh, and looking back from where we came, there is the tower of the Nikolaikirche, which offered the viewpoint from the top.  It’s easy to see why it created such a stir when it was constructed, isn’t it?

A few steps further and we’re by the water, in an area of the city which reminds us of Liverpool – warehouses, a few boats here and there and quite a bit of modern development.

They’re touting for business on the small harbour boats, offering tours of the warehouse district and of the wider harbour, but we have plans already, because we’ve just spotted a sign on the building opposite.  The Miniatur Wunderland was recommended to us by our friends and had also featured on Michael Portillo’s programme recently – we’d been told that, however hokey it sounded, it was worth a visit.  So visit it we will!

We cross the waterway to get to it, growling about the silly locks which are all over the bridge as we go.

Reaching the entrance, I am bewildered.  We’ve spent the whole morning in a more or less empty city and here, suddenly we are besieged by crowds of people who seem to have appeared from nowhere.  Come on – let’s not hang about with the smokers, but go straight inside and see what’s what.  We climbed the five flights of stairs inside the warehouse and eventually reached the entrance.

We were greeted by a young woman who asks if we had tickets.  Well, no…we’d intended to buy them here, of course.  At this point, we were herded into an empty room which quickly filled with people, standing around, waiting…for what?  Eventually, when the room was more or less full, the young woman came in, closed the door behind her and proceeded to explain in pretty unrelenting German that there were no tickets available, that the earliest tickets were for 12.30pm (it was now 11am) and those would entail a 30 minute wait.  If we wanted, we could buy tickets for this evening, which would have no wait at all, or come back another time when it was less busy.

Such a complex ticketing system clearly baffled the natives too – it wasn’t just us – and most people shuffled off with a harrumph, which is exactly what we did!  We’d wasted fifteen minutes hanging around here and didn’t intend to waste a moment longer, so we went back down the stairs and out into the fresh air.  What to do now?

 

The answer lay a little further along the street, where a small visitor centre explained the Hafen City concept with some excellent displays and a large model.

The Hafen City is the island with the terracotta coloured buildings on, there in the distance.  The terracotta church left of centre is the ugly church we’d passed first thing this morning, and the curved structures were the Chilehaus and surrounding area.

There was a small cafe here too, so as well as giving us a chance to get our bearings, to work out the city and the environs, it was good to take a small break.  Though we hadn’t walked that far, we hadn’t really stopped since we started, if you get my drift.

It was a good chance to plan our next move as well.  How about the Maritime Museum, just up the road, then?

Off we set, through the modern development where a few old ships were moored.  The wind is pretty brisk around the water, though, so we wrapped up warm and didn’t hang about.

Still not so many people around – it feels quite strange.  How many of these apartment blocks are occupied, we wondered?  Would it feel different on a workday?

One small “box” is actually a visitor centre for the Elbphilharmonie and a woman is giving a lecture to a group of people.  We creep around the back and take a peek up in the “cockpit” where there was a model of the main auditorium.  It’ll be nice when it’s finished

Actually, it’ll be like this when it’s finished – quite unusual layout and a multipurpose auditorium with very carefully designed seating.

But come along, having decided we’ll go to the museum, let’s get there, shall we?

We pass the statue of Klaus Stoertebecke and cross the bridge to the museum entrance.

It’s a fine old building, isn’t it?

We decide to begin on floor 9 and work our way down through the exhibits, so jump in the lift and get out on the top floor.  This is what we see.

Can you see what it is?

A little closer.

Closer still.

I think this room contains a model of every ship there ever was.  Each one is carefully labelled, arranged according to country of registration and beautifully, impeccably ordered.

There are rows upon rows of them, tiny tiny little things for the most part.

The men in my family are in seventh heaven!

Actually, I find it quite interesting too and set out to look for my three favourite Nassau-registered ships though sadly, they appear to be missing.  Shame.

So I wander about and marvel at the precision, even where there are numerous variations on a theme, whilst my Hero and his boy gasp at the sight of some aircraft carrier or other.

There’s an interesting display of how the models are constructed, too and once again, the precision and accuracy is faultless.    No wonder this is such an amazing collection.

But of course, it’s time to move on eventually, and working our way down through the floors we are fascinated by the wealth of information contained in this unassuming place.  There are great displays about undersea exploration and oil drilling.

There are displays about passenger ships and liners – here is a mock up of a suite on Sea Cloud, a modern cruise ship.

Sometimes, whilst the men went off to investigate naval history or something, I took the chance to rest my feet and do a little people watching.  That’s as fascinating for me!

Of course, where they came across something which they felt I should see, they came to let me know – like this display about Grand Admiral Tirpitz, whose figure stood alongside his “decorations”

When awarded a new one, Edward suggested he might say, “just put it on the pile”!

I always enjoy learning a little about the individuals, so this picture of KapitaenLeutnant Weddingen and his fiancee prompted me to find out who he was and what he did. 

The display of military headgear caught someone’s eye too.  Always one for a fancy hat, Edward would have given his eye teeth for that little number with the gold insignia, I can tell you!

Nearing the ground floor, the displays of uniforms were fascinating, and in particular I was glad to see that the “Marinehelferinnen” (Auxiliary Naval Women) were “traditionally built”!

No room for arguments here, don’t you agree?

We exited through the gift shop, resisting all kinds of model ship temptation and retraced our steps back through the Hafen City.

The small, original buildings which remain amongst the new builds give a clue to how it might have been some years ago and reminded me a lot of the town docks in Hull, where my Grandad worked in a small Customs house amongst the waterways and warehouses, much like this one.

Soon, we reached the end of the development and stood in front of the River Elbe.

Looking back, there was the Elbphilharmonie and the rest of the Hafen City.  The clouds were gathering and there was an icy blast off the water, so we didn’t hang around.

Instead, we kept on walking, past a bunch of tugs which could join my collection of “Tugs of the World” – yes, really, I have a Flickr set

Originally we’d intended to take one of the harbour tours this afternoon, maybe catch a ferry boat over the river or something, but as it was chilly and we’d enjoyed the museum so much, we simply kept on going, aiming for the tower, there to the right of the picture.

By the Landungsbruecken, in the St Pauli area, there was just one more thing which interested us.  It was to be found under the dome there at the end of the path.

The Elbtunnel, a masterpiece of engineering and well worth a visit, we thought.  Come on though, I’m not walking down when there’s a sign there for a lift!

Sure enough, down there is a tunnel under the river. 

Ok.  Seen it.  Been there.

Time to catch the lift back up again and make our way back to the hotel.  Enthusiasm and our enjoyment of being here tempted us to walk back to the city centre, but weary feet and a drop or two of cold rain led us to the U bahn station.

In no time at all, we were back.  That was easier than walking, wasn’t it!?

This evening, we’ll eat at Deichgraf and then tomorrow, we have a very early start.  Well, two of us have    (One of us fancies a sleep in and a late breakfast)    To find out what takes us out at 6.30am on a Sunday morning in early January, you’ll need to wait till tomorrow.  I hope it’s worth getting up for!