Hi Mom!
Today Katharina took me on a day trip to Bremen. 
Of course we went by train. Here you can see the main station of Bremen:
The day before our trip Katharina had a look at wikipedia and decided what to visit. As Bremen is only about 70km of where she lives she has been there many times, but this time she looked for the most interesting things to show me.
On our way from the train station to the city center we came by a lovely little park with nice trees and flowers and a little river.
After having crossed the little river we saw a real windmill and a field of flowers. I thought that's what the Netherlands have to look like, but Katharina said that there are also other places without windmills. 
A little way from the nice windmill we saw a group of pigs on the street with a shepherd. They weren't very talkative because they are only statues, but Katharina said the pigs are famous. Well, if she says so...
Bremen has many old and historical buildings. Near the city center we saw these houses:
Then we searched around the Town Hall for the most famous animals in Bremen - even more famous than the pigs in Sögestraße. And finally we found the statue of the Town Musicians of Bremen! 
If you touch the legs of the donkey it's supposed to bring good luck your way. But only if you touch both legs at the same time!
After Katharina touched the donkey's legs we went around the town hall to the market place where we saw Roland:
Both the Town Hall and the Roland statue are UNESCO WHS.
We only had to turn around 180° to see the next sight: the Bremen Cathedral. It's a very impressive building!
On the other side of the Town Hall we saw these 2 guys:
And just opposite we saw a statue of Bismarck. Otto von Bismarck became the first Chancellor of a united Germany after the 1871 Treaty of Versailles. He was a famous German politician in the 19th century.
Apart from so much history we also saw a nicely decorated gully cover:
The key is an important symbol of the city of Bremen. It can also be found it in the coat of arms. Katharina taught me a German saying: "Hamburg is the gate to the world, but Bremen has the key."
On our way to Böttcherstraße we took a slight detour to see the weigh house of Bremen. In former times (from the Middle Ages to the 18th century) it was where all goods merchands wanted to sell had to be weighed.
After that we finally reached Böttcherstraße.
It has a lot of unique achitecture and art sculptures and we took several pictures there.
We also found the plate on which the legend of the Town Musicians is verified because the leg bone of a donkey was found in a basement.
These are the windows of a little manufacture for hard candy in Böttcherstraße:
You can watch the people work inside. It was very fascinating to observe.
And we found an old blue mailbox. Usually all German mailboxes are yellow nowadays, but there are a few old ones left. Those are much nicer decorated than the plain yellow ones.
We also saw a plate commemorating the first non-stop flight Berlin-New York of the "Condor", a heavier-than-air craft. The plane was built in Bremen. On its way to and from New York in August 1938 it made two record flights.
On our way from Böttcherstraße to the river Weser we saw this nice painting of the Bremen skyline:
After walking all through Böttcherstraße we went to the river Weser.
Along the river we went to another famous part of the city: the Schnoor.
It's a very old part of Bremen with very small alleyways and lots of cobblestone.
At the beginning of the Schnoor district we saw a souvenir shop selling different translations of the story of the Town Musicians of Bremen:
Just walking around the Schnoor we came to an end of the district and walking along the street for a couple steps we saw a shop selling Christmas stuff all year round:
I found it a little bit crazy to see Christmas decorations in September, we overheard some people talking about how they wanted to buy something for the upcoming (in 3 months mind you) Christmas celebrations. Well, to each their own!
On our way back to the train station we came by this memorial:
It's a piece of the Berlin Wall. Here in Bremen it is the Monument against War and Violence.
The last thing we saw before walking back to the train station was the Übersee-Museum (overseas museum). It is a Natural History and Ethnographic museum right beside the train station.
It was a wonderful day in Bremen (we had really nice weather too) and we saw soooo much of the city. *phew*
I'll show you another German city next time I'm writing, mom. Katharina said we'll be visiting a friend of hers soon!
Yours Scritches
