Hanover - Germany

We took the 8.20 train from Bremen to Hanover.. only to realise that it was raining! What a contrast to the sunny Bremen we experienced the day before. But still it was interesting coz it Helsinki is so cold that it only snows and never rains.. =) But despite the rain.. Hanover is still a nice place.. and the coolest thing is this thing called The Red Thread.

We found our way to the tourist info place to get some maps and brochures etc.. and this lady told us to follow The Red Thread. We assumed that she meant following some signs so as to see the major sights in the city. Turns out The Red Thread is a red line painted on the ground! Just walk along the line.. i was the happiest coz it meant that i didnt have to be the navigator for the first time during the trip =).. So i kept my map and waited for the rest to tell me what were the places we were walking past.. Nice..

The Red Thread

Hanover Hauptbanhof

Breakfast was some nice pastry thing with jam inside. Very nice =)

Random gold polar bear along the street

Notice that this church has no roof..

.. Allied bombing during WWII

The Opera House

Kawaii shot with Town Hall in the background

Naked Archer pointing us toward the Town Hall

Town Hall

Miniature representation of the city in 1945.. effect of bombing..

A moat surrounding the old castle/city walls.. an old part of the city
1 of the 3 Nanas (a popular contempory public art installations)
Can you figure out what the nanas mean? haha.. i think Nanas means Asses


Market Church in the background

This is apparently some important fountain.. some Renaissance influence or something.. but i dunno la.. haha

Curry Wurst for dinner.. =)

Having ice cream in the cold/rain for dessert

How pirated can u get

We even had time for shopping! As mentioned before.. things in Germany are much cheaper than in Helsinki.. i was tempted to buy groceries and toiletries.. i couldn't resist la.. The 2 Zara tops cost only 19 Euros together.. My biggest buy was the sleeping bag.. 29 euros.. a S$60 sleeping bag.. sigh bo pian.. i'll need it la.. Ritter Sport has many interesting flavours also..

Oh for those wondering.. you can spell Hanover either with 1 N or 2 Ns =)

Bremen - Germany

As mentioned, my weekend trip to Germany included 3 cities... Bremen, Hanover and Hamburg. Bremen was my first destination and also my favourite =) But i have to start telling the story from the beginning.. which is our journey there..

Train ride to Tampere

Everything went well.. right until we arrived at Tampere. Upon arrival, we realised that the train station we intended to stay overnight at closes at 1am. Not only that, i was only prepared for Germany weather and not Tampere night temperatures! So we frantically went around looking for a 24 hr place where we can hang out till 5.15am (where the bus is supposed to take us to the airport).. nothing was open.. not even the police station.. haha yes we tried..

So we found a multi story carpark and hid in the stairwells.. it was a truly miserable way to begin our trip.. We couldn't sleep at all coz it was too cold to sit down for long. Thats not all.. we arrived at the budget terminal only to realise that we were 1/2 hr from opening time.. So we stood outside the closed airport doors in the freezing cold.. sucky morning.

So you can imagine how happy we were when we finally arrived in Bremen! The sun was shining and it was positive degrees. I never did realise i miss the sun so much.

You can tell you're in Germany once you set foot outside the airport. It was exactly how i expected Germany to look like. Audis, BMWs and Mercedes Benz's all around =) And we saw a sign that said "Bremen, City of Trams".. Clean Green, High Tech, Efficient.. We're in Germany!

Bremen Hauptbahnhof (Central Railway Station)

When in Germany... eat Sausages!

And Huge Pretzels

We put our barang barang in our cosy hostel.. which had a nice lounge (where they had this Jason Mraz poster)

Bremen is a really charming little place.. its possible to walk from the railway station and cover the sights in a day or so..

A park between our place and the City Centre

Trams - the main mode of public transport besides bicycles and walking

A l5 min walk and we arrived at the Market Place.. very old and nice.. =)

St Peter's Cathedral

Roland the Knight

The Town Musicians

Entrance to the Bottcherstrasse Street.. a nice alleyway of small shops and restaurants.. lined with public artwork

The street led us from the Market Place to the Waterway..

From the Waterway we headed to this place called the Schnoor.. which was the oldest part of the city.. with little narrow streets and houses.. restored and converted now into nice shops and eating places..

We had traditional Bremen Food (we asked wikitravel).. and of coz.. i had to have my first German Beer.. which was good!

We made our way back after dinner and walked through the city centre again.. here we see the Cathedral at night..

I really like the fact that Bremen isn't too busy or touristy.. the city itself is small enough to cover in a day or 2.. the people are so nice and interested to help you and tell you more about their city.. Oh ya.. not to mention things are so cheap compared to Helsinki!