Cotton candy, wurst, beer, and Schmalzkuchen-- the smell of a good evening.
Ohhhh boy, what a week. Where to start? Let's start with Tuesday.
Monday was the tour of the Rathaus (town hall), one of the oldest buildings in Bremen, and then a tour of the key areas of the old city. Bremen, like most cities, has one part that's much older than the rest, marked off in some way-- in Bremen's case, the old part of the city is separated from the newer parts by the river and the old wall/moat. Within this oval of land are most of the oldest historic landmarks Bremen has to offer, as well as a number of tourist attractions all in one place. I'll talk about the big ones here.
The Roland
In the middle of the old Marktplatz there is a statue of Roland, known as the idiot who was too brave to call for help and ended up getting the entire rearguard of Charlemagne slaughtered in The Song of Roland. Logically, dying fantastically and needlessly made him into a medieval hero. (Okay, that's really simplified, but I took a class where we read the whole epic poem and my professor's discussion of the symbolism of the spears is something I can't avoid mentioning when talking about it in depth because he brought it up ALL THE TIME, so I'm going to spare you that.) The statue is pretty enormous and is a symbol for Bremen's freedom and so on. It's said that Bremen will remain free as long as the Roland stands, so during WWII Roland was walled up to protect it. That's probably one of the only reasons it survived the war, since a number of the buildings surrounding the Marktplatz were leveled when Bremen was bombed.
The Rathaus
We had a separate tour to see the interior of this building. It was built in the early 1400's-- only the cathedral and the Roland are older than it, I think-- and had an addition for extra office space and so on added in the early 1900's. The basement of the building, the Ratskeller, is the oldest wine cellar in all of Germany-- but I'll get to that later. The oldest part of the building, the council chamber, is what impressed me the most. Every year Bremen hosts an enormous dinner in February, where only a select few politicians, ship captains, and citizens are invited to dine together. It's one of the biggest events in Bremen.
The Cathedral
The cathedral is just across the Marktplatz from the Roland and the Rathaus. As far as cathedrals go, I like it quite a lot, although it's been through quite a few renovations and restorations after it took some damage in WWII. One of the coolest/creepiest things about the cathedral is the Bleikeller, which is a display of extremely well-preserved bodies from the 1600's. A little unsettling, but very fascinating.
The Bremen Musicians
This is the statue of the musicians from the Brothers Grimm fairytale-- a chicken standing on the back of a cat standing on a dog standing on a donkey, just like in the story. People hold the front legs of the donkey and make a wish. This tradition was described by our tour guide in a completely awesome way: "If you hold the front legs with both hands, close your eyes, keep your mouth shut, and wish very hard, then maybe your wish will come true. I keep no promises. And if you hold one leg with one hand, you have two asses shaking hands."
There are more, but I don't want to write a novel about Tuesday alone. :P
Wednesday I had free until the evening-- then we met at the Ratskeller for dinner. It's a Dickinson program tradition to start and finish the year with a dinner there, and as the Ratskeller is the oldest wine cellar in Germany, naturally we did a little wine-tasting too. And by a little I mean quite a lot, since we were all there for about four hours or so. I drank nearly a bottle myself, and it was some of the best wine I've ever had, though my experience is admittedly extremely limited. They also had excellent fish, and I used my New Englander skills to eat every bit of meat and leave the skeleton intact, while the others ended up with a plate of broken fishbones. Dessert was also delicious-- a really rich chocolate mousse with fruit and vanilla cream, and a cappuccino for me. I'm definitely bringing my family there when they come to visit.
Thursday wasn't anything special-- more orientation meetings, really, though that evening I met up with a few Dickinson students to go out and explore the bars and so on.
Friday was a tour of Beck's brewery. Overall it was interesting, but there were some guys there who were already drunk and were therefore quite annoying. It was only 2 pm, too, which I don't get-- but I suppose that could be blamed on the fact that Friday was the beginning of Freimarkt. Freimarkt is the oldest fair in Germany and runs for 17 days. It's kind of like a state fair meets Oktoberfest, to be honest. Lots of rides and games and delicious, delicious greasy food-- and beer. Lots and lots of beer. I won't be going to Freimarkt every night, since my wallet (and likely my digestive tract) can't take it, but I'm definitely going back.
Today was Bremen v. Freiburg in Fussball-- and Bremen won, naturally~ I need to get some Werder Bremen gear. And I went back to Freimarkt today, and had much delicious food. I probably won't go back for another week or so, since I plan to take Sunday and Monday off to generally relax and clean up my rooms so I'll have something nice to come back to after Amsterdam.
All right, so look for my Amsterdam post some time next week! :)
Monday was the tour of the Rathaus (town hall), one of the oldest buildings in Bremen, and then a tour of the key areas of the old city. Bremen, like most cities, has one part that's much older than the rest, marked off in some way-- in Bremen's case, the old part of the city is separated from the newer parts by the river and the old wall/moat. Within this oval of land are most of the oldest historic landmarks Bremen has to offer, as well as a number of tourist attractions all in one place. I'll talk about the big ones here.
The Roland
In the middle of the old Marktplatz there is a statue of Roland, known as the idiot who was too brave to call for help and ended up getting the entire rearguard of Charlemagne slaughtered in The Song of Roland. Logically, dying fantastically and needlessly made him into a medieval hero. (Okay, that's really simplified, but I took a class where we read the whole epic poem and my professor's discussion of the symbolism of the spears is something I can't avoid mentioning when talking about it in depth because he brought it up ALL THE TIME, so I'm going to spare you that.) The statue is pretty enormous and is a symbol for Bremen's freedom and so on. It's said that Bremen will remain free as long as the Roland stands, so during WWII Roland was walled up to protect it. That's probably one of the only reasons it survived the war, since a number of the buildings surrounding the Marktplatz were leveled when Bremen was bombed.
The Rathaus
We had a separate tour to see the interior of this building. It was built in the early 1400's-- only the cathedral and the Roland are older than it, I think-- and had an addition for extra office space and so on added in the early 1900's. The basement of the building, the Ratskeller, is the oldest wine cellar in all of Germany-- but I'll get to that later. The oldest part of the building, the council chamber, is what impressed me the most. Every year Bremen hosts an enormous dinner in February, where only a select few politicians, ship captains, and citizens are invited to dine together. It's one of the biggest events in Bremen.
The Cathedral
The cathedral is just across the Marktplatz from the Roland and the Rathaus. As far as cathedrals go, I like it quite a lot, although it's been through quite a few renovations and restorations after it took some damage in WWII. One of the coolest/creepiest things about the cathedral is the Bleikeller, which is a display of extremely well-preserved bodies from the 1600's. A little unsettling, but very fascinating.
The Bremen Musicians
This is the statue of the musicians from the Brothers Grimm fairytale-- a chicken standing on the back of a cat standing on a dog standing on a donkey, just like in the story. People hold the front legs of the donkey and make a wish. This tradition was described by our tour guide in a completely awesome way: "If you hold the front legs with both hands, close your eyes, keep your mouth shut, and wish very hard, then maybe your wish will come true. I keep no promises. And if you hold one leg with one hand, you have two asses shaking hands."
There are more, but I don't want to write a novel about Tuesday alone. :P
Wednesday I had free until the evening-- then we met at the Ratskeller for dinner. It's a Dickinson program tradition to start and finish the year with a dinner there, and as the Ratskeller is the oldest wine cellar in Germany, naturally we did a little wine-tasting too. And by a little I mean quite a lot, since we were all there for about four hours or so. I drank nearly a bottle myself, and it was some of the best wine I've ever had, though my experience is admittedly extremely limited. They also had excellent fish, and I used my New Englander skills to eat every bit of meat and leave the skeleton intact, while the others ended up with a plate of broken fishbones. Dessert was also delicious-- a really rich chocolate mousse with fruit and vanilla cream, and a cappuccino for me. I'm definitely bringing my family there when they come to visit.
Thursday wasn't anything special-- more orientation meetings, really, though that evening I met up with a few Dickinson students to go out and explore the bars and so on.
Friday was a tour of Beck's brewery. Overall it was interesting, but there were some guys there who were already drunk and were therefore quite annoying. It was only 2 pm, too, which I don't get-- but I suppose that could be blamed on the fact that Friday was the beginning of Freimarkt. Freimarkt is the oldest fair in Germany and runs for 17 days. It's kind of like a state fair meets Oktoberfest, to be honest. Lots of rides and games and delicious, delicious greasy food-- and beer. Lots and lots of beer. I won't be going to Freimarkt every night, since my wallet (and likely my digestive tract) can't take it, but I'm definitely going back.
Today was Bremen v. Freiburg in Fussball-- and Bremen won, naturally~ I need to get some Werder Bremen gear. And I went back to Freimarkt today, and had much delicious food. I probably won't go back for another week or so, since I plan to take Sunday and Monday off to generally relax and clean up my rooms so I'll have something nice to come back to after Amsterdam.
All right, so look for my Amsterdam post some time next week! :)