Bremen

After we went to Bergen-Belson, we drove up to Bremen. Once we got to our hotel, we walked over to the Marktplatz. We passed a huge windmill on the way. The Marktplatz was a beautiful main square with several gabled houses. The Rathaus, or Town Hall was gorgeous. It has a Renaissance facade that was built in 1405. In front of the Rathaus is a statue of Roland, the nephew of Charlemagne and the town's protector. It was built in 1404 and symbolizes the town's independence. There is a large church next to the Rathaus that was built in the 11th century. We happened to be there right when the carillon of bells started playing. It was beautiful. But the most popular feature of the Marktplatz was the small statue of the "Bremen Town Musicians" from Grimm's Fairy tales. It is a statue of a donkey, dog, cat, and rooster all standing on top of each other like they did to defeat the robbers in the fairytale. Supposedly if you make a wish as you rub the statue it will come true.

After taking some pictures we headed down Bottcherstrasse. It is a medieval lane where the coopers in the town lived. There was a little square and there was large crowd gathered and everyone was looking up. We stopped to see what they were looking at and realized one of the buildings had a carillon as well. The bells were playing a series of tunes to narrate a huge metal turntable in one of the stone pillars. It told the story of the "Victors of the Sea" with a different plaque representing famous people who had crossed the ocean. When the bells stopped and the story ended, we continued down the medieval alley. We picked out a couple souvenirs, bought some pastries for the next morning, then headed back to the hotel.

The next morning, we headed to Kunsthalle Art Museum. It was a fairly good museum with several famous paintings from all of the big names. There was no photography allowed, so we didn't take pictures inside. After the museum, we headed back to the hotel, checked out and then drove the two hours back home. It was a quick weekend trip, but a lot of fun.