Bremen has some beautiful buildings around its central square and we spent a few hours seeing the sights. Charlie is now so used to being tied up outside buildings while we pop our heads in, and nine times out of ten there’ll be someone cooing over her when we get back!
The city is famous for its beer (Mmm, Becks!) and the musicians from the Brothers Grimm fairy tale – the donkey, the dog, the cat and the cock. There’s a statue of them in the city’s square, stood one on top of the other, and it’s traditional to hold the donkey’s legs and make a wish. David tried this but he’s still not the 6th member of Take That!
One of the city’s more curious attractions, if it can be described as such, is in the Bleikeller (lead cellar). Eight mummies including a Swedish general, a careless roofer, and a student killed in a duel have been gawping up at visitors from their glass topped coffins for over 300 years. Creepy!
We then had three fantastic days taking in Germany’s second city, Hamburg. The city has a great feel and there’s plenty to occupy tourists for a few days while remaining a big working city and one of Europe’s largest ports.
Many of the historic buildings in Germany’s towns and cities were destroyed during the Second World War but most have since been rebuilt. The St. Nikolai Church in Hamburg however has been left a ruin as a memorial to all who’ve died as a result of oppression and war.
The small museum in the old crypt features some pretty startling pictures and facts about the destruction, not just in Hamburg, but Warsaw in Poland and Coventry in the UK.
All that remains of the church is the blackened spire and a glass lift now takes you up the centre of it for some great views out over the city, the lakes, the river Elbe and the docks.
During our time in Hamburg we managed a boat tour of the waterways, a trip up another church tower for the views, the Elbe tunnel, and a couple of nights out. We also took a stroll down the famous red-light district, the Reeperbahn, but the prostitutes seemed more interested in the dog than us!
It’s hard to describe the gob-smacking excitement on entering Miniature Wonderland. So hard, that it’s perhaps best just to take a look at a few photos and the promotional video - none of which really do it justice.
It’s named quite appropriately, and having calmed down a little after being there for a couple of hours it was amusing to notice that every visitor was wearing a grin from ear to ear!
It’s billed as the world’s biggest model railway but it’s so much more than that, with lorries that speed along the roads and an airport complete with planes which take off and land.
We loved our time in Munich and Cologne last year but we’d have to say that Hamburg beats them both. We’re now very much looking forward to tackling Berlin in the autumn.
From Hamburg we moved onto Lübeck, one of the few German towns not to be completely destroyed during the war. It has a beautiful Alstadt (old town), with towering green spires on its churches and a particularly impressive town hall.
Marzipan is big business here; in fact they claim to have invented it. One slightly bizarre attraction is the Marzipan Salon above the Niederegger Cafe. The life-sized marzipan statues are particularly (and unintentionally) funny!
We’ve heard that Scandinavia can be eye-wateringly expensive, so we took the opportunity to stock up while in Germany. It was quite a job to fit it all in and we’ll probably be fishing cans of kidney beans out from behind the water tank for months to come!
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