After breakfast Peter drove us in our car to the station and we took the train to Bremen then the tram to the old city centre. Bremen has a population of about half a million and Peter and Brigitte moved from the centre about 15 years ago to a small village, Stendorf, north of the city.

We walked around the city centre first . We saw the Glocke which was a church but is now well known as a concert hall with wonderful acoustics. Peter plays the saxophone, flute and guitar and was a former music and sports teacher so was very knowledgeable.

The main St Petri Dom is under renovation but its steeple is the highest thing in the city. It is near to the old Rathaus which is over 550 years old. It has an amazing front with various statues and carvings that are all different. Peter told us a lot of the features would have been symbolic but the meaning of some is now not understood. We could admire the craftsmanship though.

We went in to see a 3D exhibition of the craters on Mars. Some of the views seemed to clearly show the presence of water in the past and also erosion. It was so realistic that you felt you could touch the mountains. It was a free exhibition and even the glasses were provided. We could also admire the old doors in the building although we were told the ones on the higher floors were more impressive but this part is closed off .

The Trades Hall was also very impressive as the whole area dated from the 15th century when the merchants here were very rich and liked to display their wealth. Bremen is also known as Hansseatic Bremen and the Hansseatic towns were those in the area with many merchants and ship owners in the days when the river trade into the city made it a hub for commerce. There is a slogan on the outside written in the local dialect saying 'Inside and Outside Try and Win'. On a newer building there was another slogan ‘Remember the brothers who bear the pain of separation’ dating from the time of East and West Germany.

There was a large statue of Roland which was of more significance to us because of his knees. In the middle of both knees was a cone with a spike which appeared to be for decoration or for fighting. In fact the distance between the spikes gave the official Bremen ella (sp) measurement when cloth etc was sold.

The most important statue was also here –the Musicians of Bremen, a donkey, a cat, a dog and a rooster . Brigitte had reminded me of the basic story but said as she had not grown up in the area it was not ingrained as it would be to someone brought up here. The area has 2 names for locals, one meaning born in Bremen and the other for those who live here but were not born here. The donkey’s mouth was shiny as it is considered good luck to rub it. All around the city you could buy the book, as well as other souvenirs with the 4 animals. For a family occasion Peter, Brigitte, their daughter and her boyfriend had dressed up as the animals and played music, and Brigitte said she had never laughed so much.

We then looked at the original craftsman’s area. It has a number of museums and much was restored after WW2. Stone buildings always seem old to me but of course new buildings are also made of this. I liked the porcelain glockenspiel that Meissen (sp) had installed between 2 roofs but Peter said that it is not in tune.

We were now at the river Wieser which had a few boats on it . There is a harbour at the outflow of the river into the North Sea called Bremerhaven. Peter said the whole area in the north is flat where successive ice ages have receded and rivers run east to west at the old edges. Hamburg is also a Hansseatic city but on the Elbe. The three cities in the area are linked, with Bremen having the key and Hamburg and Lubeck having the lock and building. After we knew this we also saw lots of the keys in the city, including on the manhole covers.

Large tanks of French wine have traditionally been shipped to Bremen and bottled here. In the cellar of the Rathaus and extending under the square are 1000 wine stalls, selling wine from all around Germany as well. No wine is grown in the Bremen area but it does have the local Becks beer. We later had lunch in the cellar restaurant which used to have a wine list of 700, now more like 20. There were huge wine barrels with decorated fronts in the area and also some ornate side booths for the local merchants. They could close the door and talk business in private .

We finished our walking tour in the old residential area, now mainly cafes and souvenir shops, often with living space on the higher levels. The buildings are all narrow and high and most had the date of construction on them. We went into one and were asked to give video greetings to the owner’s daughter who was marrying in August. She was asking people from all different countries.

We found a statue of pigs and asked about the story. The street had been at the back of the houses and in the past all the rubbish was thrown here and pigs roamed eating the rubbish. I was invited to sit and be part of the photo by a local but he was not attractive so I stayed behind the camera.

We then went back to the house for John and Peter to nap while I sat outside and blogged. The temperature was in the thirties and we were told it was the warmest summer for many years. Brigitte said her friends were in Spain for the summer warmth and it was only 25C there .

After 5pm we went for a drive with Peter through the local countryside. When they first moved to the area they had to buy milk from the local farmer but now there are more shops. There were some farms with large fields of crops and others with grazing animals.

We then went past the area that is below sea level and hence is normally boggy and peaty. The roads and the houses are built up on heaps of the sandy soil of the area. Much of the land is protected because it is the nesting area for a number of bird species. In autumn it is often foggy and legend has it that you can see witches (the wise women persecuted by the church in the past). Peat was taken from the area and taken on flat bottomed boats on the canals for sale in Bremen. In winter the canals can freeze as it is very slow moving. It is popular for skating and in the past, before the use of the water raised its temperature, it was possible to skate to the Netherlands. We passed the local mountain which is only 80m high.

We went to a former commune area that was the base for a group of artists early in the 20th century. The group painted ordinary people doing normal jobs and also made items like chairs. The founder spent time in Russia and used much of the money he raised to support the children of communists imprisoned there. The main house is now a museum (which had just closed for the day) but the site still attracts young artists . The craftsman street we had seen in Bremen has a museum for one of the women in the group. One of his themes was symmetry and his can be seen in the house and garden. We also visited the railway station he designed but it was covered in scaffolding.

Peter told us that Worpswede, the village nearby, is now an artistic centre. The light in the area is meant to be very attractive to painters. There is controversy between those who want to continue in the same vein and those who think that art must progress. By coincidence the next morning paper had an article about this as well.

The final place we visited was by a bridge over the river. There is a boat that sails to here from Bremen. The river looked very brown but that is just the peat and it was clean and quite shallow so popular with locals and the people at the nearby camping ground. We had a closer look at the peat boats because they were being used to take people for rides on the river. They are shallow with a sail and also an inboard outboard motor. They used to have roofs but after a fatal accident (they are quite unstable) these were removed.

We had a barbecue tea with Brigitte and Peter under the trees with bread, salad, vegetables and pork but this time made sure we did not talk until midnight.