Bremen, Germany - Great Visit with Paula Audet

Another wonderful German winter day and made even better by visiting a new little city and seeing my best friend from childhood for a few hours. Paula got her this afternoon from Boston via Munich where she was stuck for a few hours due to snow. I arrived in Bremen around 11:00am and took the public tram to her hotel which is about 15 minutes outside the small city center area and next to their very impressive university. In fact the science department with a incredible observatory is in front of the hotel. What  makes the observatory so unique is the architecture, it looks like a massive shimmering silver oyster partly open (that's where a row of windows is) and sloping upward. It's really fantastic so I'm glad I got to see it and everyone is so friendly a college student made sure I got off at the right stop on the tram and then when I looked a little confused as to which direction to walk, left or right, a nice man stopped and pointed me left as if he could just tell I was a little confused. In fact the whole day from my trip to Bremen all the way to Berlin where I had several train changes had me encountering such incredibly helpful people. Some even carried my suitcase up and down stairs for me.

But back to my visit with Paula. She arrived at the hotel around 2:00pm which was perfect because I figured I'd wait until 2:30pm and then go since she was most likely snowed in somewhere like Frankfurt or London where they had cancelled flights all morning. But as luck would have it she arrived in the nick of time and we had such a lovely, lovely time walking around the old, historic part of the city and then having lunch at a German restaurant, Edelweiss which was right in front of the train station so perfect for me to head back through Hamburg where I had left my suitcase with the hotel and then off to Berlin on the regional train.

Bermen is a much more interesting city then I would have thought and although the outskirts is filled with large corporate offices like Paula's (a big German pharmaceutical company with an office in Boston.)

Paula told me that her colleagues mentioned having to see the sculpture depicting the "The Town Musicians of Bremen" (German: Die Bremer Stadtmusikanten) which is a folktale written by the Brothers Grimm. So Paula and I thought we'd found it so we took a picture of us each by the sculpture as you can see in the pictures. Since neither of us had heard of this fairytale, I looked it up online and discovered the famous sculpture was in fact a different one, bronze with the four animals stacked on top of each other. We actually saw that one but didn't stop take a picture as there were others looking at it. So I copied the picture from online so you could see the true sculpture although I think the one we posed with is more animated and fun. So here is what I found about the story and all very intereesting. "Despite the title of the fairy tale, the characters never actually arrive in Bremen. In Aarne–Thompson classification it is a folk tale of type 130: "outcast animals find a new home". The Plot - In the story a donkey, a dog, a cat, and a rooster, all past their prime years in life and usefulness on their respective farms, were soon to be discarded or mistreated by their masters. One by one they leave their homes and set out together. They decide to go to Bremen, known for its freedom, to live without owners and become musicians there. ("Something better than death we can find anywhere.") On the way to Bremen, they see a lighted cottage; they look inside and see four robbers enjoying their ill-gotten gains. Standing on each other's backs, they decide to perform for the men in hope of gaining food. Their 'music' has an unanticipated effect; the men run for their lives, not knowing what the strange sound is. The animals take possession of the house, eat a good meal, and settle in for the evening. Later that night, the robbers return and send one of their members in to investigate. He sees the Cat's eyes shining in the darkness and thinks he is seeing the coals of the fire. He reaches over to light his candle. Things happen in quick succession; the Cat scratches his face with her claws, the Dog bites him on the leg, the Donkey kicks him and the Rooster crows and chases him out the door, screaming. He tells his companions that he was beset by a horrible witch who scratched him with her long fingers (the Cat), an ogre with a knife (the Dog), a giant who had hit him with his club (the Donkey), and worst of all, the judge who screamed in his voice from the rooftop (the Rooster). The robbers abandon the cottage to the strange creatures who have taken it, where the animals live happily for the rest of their days. An alternate version involves the animals' master(s) being deprived of his livelihood (because the thieves stole his money and/or destroyed his farm or mill) and having to send his animals away, unable to take care of them any further. After the animals dispatch the thieves, they take the ill-gotten gains back to their master so he can rebuild. Other versions involve at least one wild, non-livestock animal, such as a lizard, helping the domestic animals out in dispatching the thieves. In popular cultureTown Musicians of Bremen, 1969 Soviet animated film. The tale has been retold through animated pictures, motion pictures (often musicals) and theatre plays. Jim Henson produced a version with his Muppets called The Muppet Musicians of Bremen."

From the sculpture we saw the town hall and the other famous sculpture of Roland.  "The Bremen Roland is a statue of Roland, erected in 1404. It stands in the market square (Rathausplatz) of Bremen, Germany, facing the cathedral, and shows Roland, paladin of the first Holy Roman Emperor Charlemagne and hero of the Battle of Roncevaux Pass. Roland is shown as protector of the city: his legendary sword (known in chivalric legend as Durendal) is unsheathed, and his shield is emblazoned with the two-headed Imperial eagle. The standing figure is 5.47 m tall, and stands on a 60 cm rostrum. A supporting column, crowned by a baldachin, brings the combined height to 10.21 m. The statue was carved in limestone from Elm, and was commissioned by the city fathers to replace a wooden one burnt in 1366 by Prince-Archbishop Albert II. It confronts the church as a representation of city rights opposed to the territorial claims of the prince-archbishop. Statues of Roland appear in numerous cities of the former Holy Roman Empire, as emblems of city liberties, Stadtrechte. The Roland statue at Bremen is the oldest surviving example. From Bremen the symbol of civic liberty and freedom spread to other cities and has become a symbol of the new Europe. In July 2004, along with the town hall, the statue was added to the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites. According to legend, Bremen will remain free and independent for as long as Roland stands watch over the city. For this reason, it is alleged that a second Roland statue is kept hidden in the town hall's underground vaults, which can be quickly installed as a substitute, should the original fall."

Next we went into the Cathedral which is said to be over 1200 years old and although it has been damaged and rebuilt several times and seen many wars and has a very interesting history. "When the construction of a new church started, the church was given a Romanesque style, with two stubby flat-topped towers on the west side and a flat timber ceiling. Romanesque architectual style is also known as “Norman style”, from the way the Normans used to design their buildings; functional, compact and minimalistic. In order to get the church up as soon as possible, they cut some corners and used parts of the city walls as building material to reduce the costs. This proved to be a major mistake, as the short-sightedness resulted in Saxons sacking and the Bremen Cathedral city in 1064. To put it simple; the city of Bremen - and its churches in particular - have had some rough times."  The classic Bremen Cathedral, also known as St. Peters Cathedral from the saint Peter, has a lot to offer. The bells - During the Middle Ages the towers had eight bells. Today however, the towers house  Bremen Cathedral 's four bells. The north tower has three bells whereas the south holds a single bell. The oldest surviving bell is the "Maria Gloriosa cast in 1433 by the famous bell maker Ghert Klinghe. The other bells were removed and melted down for the war effort in World War II. In 1951 two bells, "Hansa" and "Felicitas", were donated to the cathedral by former residents living abroad. In 1962 a prominent Bremen family donated a fourth bell, the "Brema", which hangs in the south tower.

Bleikeller - Bremen Cathedral is known for its long history of fine organs and music. Besides the large organ, another important attraction is also the lead cellar, known as “Bleikeller”. This basement is located beneath the nave which, even before the Reformation, had a reputation as an excellent place to preserve the bodies of the dead in amazing form. Today, eight mummies in glass-topped coffins can be seen down there. The crypt has become the cathedral's most visited attraction for more than 300 years. The cathedral also houses a museum was constructed in one of the side chapels in the 1970s cathedral restoration. The Cathedral Museum displays various items discovered in the tombs under the nave. Local tradition - Twos interesting traditions with connection to Bremen Cathedral is that when a man reaches the age of 30 and is not married, he must sweep the cathedral steps until a young lady gives him a kiss which then releases him from his duty. When a women who reach their thirtieth birthday unmarried, she must polish the cathedral doorknobs in the company of friends and family until they all are released by the kiss of a young man. If you pay Bremen Cathedral a visit and happen to see a man in his 30ies, sweeping the steps or a woman in her 30ies, polishing the doorknob; release them from their duty!"

I love that idea maybe they should have something like that for women over 40 although the man should just have to propose to the women to move things along and skip all the formalities.

So after that we just walked along the town and into a few shops and then along a park which turned out to be the park along the river but the river was completely covered in snow making it look more like a part of the park then actually having running water beneath. Good thing we didn't decide to take a short cute and walk across it.

After lunch I showed Paula where the Tram #6 was to go back to the University stop and said goodbye. It's so funny how you can know someone so well that being in a foreign country felt like spending a day walking around a New England town. It just felt normal but so, so, so nice to have her here and catch up on life. My beautiful Goddaughter, Paula's youngest daughter Amelia is doing great in school and loves it and is also taking skating lessons and gymnastics. My nephew, her son, just turned six in December and is a huge sports  fan like his parents and plays soccer and hockey and has recently gotten into Lego's so he has been spending  lots of time enjoying the worlds best toy.

So here I am in West Berlin in my wonderful hotel which is a budget hotel but you'd never know it. They gave me this huge room here at Hotel Aldea Novum Berlin with a sofa and all and my view is of the back of several apartment buildings but there are little parks or backyards so it's actually very nice to look at and very quiet. I just can't believe how great it is for only $29.00, yes, that inexpensive but of course it's the middle of January and cold so that is to be expected I suppose. And the hop-on-hop-off bus stop is only about a 10 minute walk along the main shopping street so tomorrow I'm looking forward to that.