Location: Bremen, Germany
To break the long sojourn from finding more interesting or enjoyable sights around, the author had begun a trip that will shake things around. So the author finds himself in Germany, at the home of an acquaintance and in the middle of a confusing and fascinating country.
The city is in the North-western part of Germany, in the neighbourhood of Hamburg and still a very intact city with most of its old buildings in good condition. While it is the heat of summer here, resulting in a fair number of rains, cloud and a lot of time spent indoors, though there have been occasions for exploration around a city with considerably cleaner air than London.
Historically, the location had been settled as far back as 12,000 BC, it is situated around 60km from the North sea. It once had a stone wall around its edge, but in later times this had disappeared when such structures became obsolete, the only indication left of the old city wall is the moat around the old town, now transformed in to a canal with park lands surrounding it.
Some of the more well-known sights around the city have been explored and documented for this post. First and most well-known is the Marktplatz, a cobbled pedestrianised zone of the city, surrounded by the cathedral, town hall, with various bars situated around the oldest standing buildings of the city. A wide open area, it is one of the first places a tourist would come across, with each side-street taking one to any of the main bars and shops in the city.
North, behind the town hall lies the city's main shopping area, with a variety of common high street, while South takes one to some interesting side-streets filled with bars, restaurants and shops aimed towards the tourist directly, known as the Böttcherstraße.
 |  |
Around this platz, one particular statue stands out, one of the most notorious icons of the city; the donkey, dog, cat and rooster statue depicted the Stadtmusikanten (town musicians) from the folklore tales by the Grimm Brothers.
Around the North side of the cathedral, if one looks carefully around the paving there, a difficult to notice and small monument to Bremen's most notorious serial killer, the spit-stone which marks the point of execution of Gesche Gottfried.
The other area investigated around Bremen is known as the Schnoor, an area of small crooked cobbled streets and the old small houses of fishermen and shipmakers. This area is tied in with Bremen's fishing and seafaring past, though little of this remains apart from the houses and streets. However it is a pleasant area to walk around, though at times very busy due to the small width of the streets in front of densely packed touristic, art & craft shops, restaurants and cafés.
The houses here come in a myriad of designs, from the white walls interspersed with dark wooden beams, to others painted in a plethora of bright colours. What one cannot escape is the feeling of the old Bremen town when the medieval city wall still existed a stone's throw from this area.
This short introduction to the town may well be followed up by specific sights later on. If not, then the next location the author ends up will be done when it is done. Photographs used above are taken by and sole responsibility of the author, who had to endure looking like a tourist.
