The Town Musicians of Bremen!
Trip Start
Sep 08, 2008
1
17
40
Trip End
Dec 16, 2008
Bremen,
Bremen,
Germany
Friday, October 17, 2008
We have had quite a busy week back here in Germany, taking many day trips and making short work of many mid-size cities! I`m sure those of you playing along at home noticed the five new map pins I piut up in cities all over Western Germany, and it`s no joke, we`ve really run the gambit of the cities around here. I suppose because of the trade possibilities on the Rhine, many cities have popped up around here, and it is densely populated, so naturally we had to explore each place!
Before I tell about the trips we took, let me just say how FAR our hostel in Köln was from the train station and the city centre! Frustratingly far! Who stays in a hostel that far away? I`ll tell you, it`s not backpackers! It`s groups and families who use buses and cars! Every day was about a 35 minute walk to the centre! It wasn`t as far as Amsterdam, but at least in Amsterdam we were close to a secondary train station we could take when leaving the city on a day trip, etc! Annoying! Plus, the main floor was renovated, but the rest of the hostel looked just as it did in 1981. No joke, that`s when it was built.
Anyways, on Tuesday we went to Bonn, just south of Köln. Those from LFG will be excited to learn that this is the birthplace of none other than Ludwig van Beethoven, Mrs. Colvile`s favourite musician! Anyhow, we visited his birthhouse, which had a very interesting museum inside, with many explanations into Beethoven´s musical genius! It was very interesting and I was a happy musician there! Included in the exhibit were TWO grand pianos made by Broadwood & Sons. One of the snippy museum ladies wouldn´t let me take a picture, though, so you`ll just have to trust me!
However, EVEN BETTER than the Beethovenhaus was Arithmeum... a museum of math! This was naturally a must-see, and it was located right in one of Bonn University`s faculty buildings, so it was pretty high-tech. It was a museum all about counting, calculating and computing from the Mesopotamian era. Lots of hands-on exhibits, I got to try lots of lod calculators! And, they had a giant slide-rule! Very cool! Very contemporarily presented too!
Anyhow, that was an awesome day, music and math! On Wednesday we went to two places, Düsseldorf and Aachen. Both were great trips: in Düsseldorf, we followed a walking tour around the whole city. It´s actually a very cosmopolitan place, with lots of high-end fashion stores and boutiques. The Königsallee (dorkily called the Kö) was the centre of the shopping district. Then we took the train to Aachen, right on the western border of Germany. This place is renowned for its natural mineral springs and baths, so I sought out the Carolus Therman as soon as we got there, which were built on the site of one of those springs and was like a ho´t-springs type place! Absolutely unbelievable! It was like paradise! It was very new and modern; they had one big warm pool in the middle with lots of jets all over the place that went on and off periodically. Then they had several hot tubs, and a hot gotto, with hot waterfalls that you could soak under. Then they had a cold pool as well. Also, they had two outdoor pools, one with a whirlpool and strong current! and the other with lots of little waterfalls all around. All this had lounge chairs and seating areas all around! It was so very relaxing, I had a good long soak for about two and a half hours, and I didn´t waste a minute of it!Anyways, after that we went to the Byzantine stle Dom, which was unlike anything we´d ever seen before! Smaller, but many colourful mosaics all over the ceiling! Plus, Charlemagne´s remains were there. Such an amazing day!
Thursday (yesterday) we left Köln for good and headed north, first to Hanover. Hanover was nicer than we expected, though we didn´t do very much. It was very rainy, so we just got a map and followed a scenic walking tour around town. The funny thing was that the red line indicated on the map (for the tour) was actually painted right onto the pavement too, so you didn´t have to follow the map much, except to read about the sites. most striking was a hollow, destroyed church, a relic from World War II bombings.
After that, we enjoyed a nice train ride to Bremen, the city of the animal musicians! We had booked this hostel ages ago, and expected that there would be no problems. but, when we got there, they didn´t have our booking and didn´t have room for us! So, luckily, they could put us up for one night, we then we had to scramble around today trying to find a place to stay. It was most frustrating! To top it off, a huge festival is kicking off here tonight, and so NO places are free! Every single room in the city was booked.... except one. We got in a very pricey single room not too far from the station. They put in a mattress for us. It´s a nice bright room, but small. Too bad we couldn´t stay at the first place, it was very very nice and very home-y feeling. Bremen is so quaint and beautiful! Sure enough, there are signs of a carnival EVERYWHERE, lots of booths and rides and things. We are looking forward to some good beers and fireworks this evening. We followed another walking tour today, along the map, and it showed us so VERY narrow streets and lots of fun little places! We actually really love it here, despite the frustrating accomodation kerfuffle!
ANYHOW, what a long entry! Tomorrow we are headed to Hamburg for three nights, then we think we´ll do a day trip to Copenhagen, Denmark, and take a night train back, thereby saving us a night´s accomodation. Then, we´ll be off to Berlin, again for three nights.
Good luck with Ghost Tours at LFG, everyone who is involved! I am jealous of you! Oh, also, we checked the election results first thing Wednesday morning, so we are in the know about everything. Even though we couldn´t vote. Damn Brussels hostel.
Take care!
Wayne
Comments
From Francine
Great entry Wayne! Sounds like so much fun! I'll just echo what mom had said previously: hope you're taking lots of pictures! :)
Francine