Deutschland (Bremen, Germany)

Simon surprised me a little over a month ago with tickets to go to Germany.  They were super cheap- 30 pound returns per person (that is a little less than $50 per person).  Germany was on our list to visit during Christmastime so we could see the Christmas markets.  It just so happened that the cheapest flights were to a city that Simon spent the last 6 months of his mission, Bremen!  I was super excited to see where he served.  We only went for a short trip (it is the way we prefer to travel to keep costs down and see more places) so we left Thursday early afternoon and came home Saturday morning.

I LOVED Germany.  Of all the places we have been so far, I think it was my favorite.  I may be a little bias because I love Christmas time and everything was so festive there.  Plus I had Simon for a tour guide who loves Germany, was fluent in the language, and knew where to take us.

Our first stop off the plane was a walk through the Christmas markets on our way to the hotel.  After we dropped off our stuff at the hotel, we went back to the markets to get some food, wander around, and shop.  Here are some pictures from that first evening:

Getting off the tram right in the city center- the cathedral to the right, Simon was so happy to be back

Bratwurst Stall

Mushrooms- people would get a plate of mushrooms with white cream sauce on them.  I personally thought it looked gross, but I don't like mushrooms.

This was genius.  A huge rotating grill filled with steaks.

 

Simon of course opted for bratwurst

 

I opted for the steak sandwich, yum!

I had to get a treat of course, so I got some schmalzkuchen.  It is basically fried dough with powdered sugar sprinkled on it.  So delicious!

The market square was really well decorated with Christmas lights.  They labeled the more popular Christmas market streets with lights.  Here is one photo:

This is called the pig street!

So there is this street in Bremen called the pig street because they used to take pigs down this street. Simon said this is the way they would take them to get to market.  Pigs were my favorite animal as a child (I know kind of weird) and I would like to have a pet pig one day, so of course I loved this street and the statues they had.

By the pigs

Simon and the pigs

The pigs during the day

In the city center they also have this huge slide people can go down for free and a push yourself merry go round.  I had to try the merry go round...

It really wasn't as fast as this picture makes it seem

Happily riding along

In some of the store shops they had some window displays.  It reminded me of some of the window displays I saw last year when I was in NYC just before Christmas.  Some of them were a little creepy...

This is the one I thought was creepy!

After the markets that first night we went to Lidl, a grocery store that Simon said he shopped at while he was a missionary.  Of course we had to buy some treats, most of them we brought back with us but we did try some while we were there.  For some reason I couldn't get the pictures of our treats to be added properly, but it included the likes of Haribo and Ritter Sport with some assortments of biscuits.

The store Simon shopped at as a missionary

A huge delicious orange I bought at one of the market stalls

Another thing I loved about Germany was men's fashion!  The clothing for men was amazing!  They definitely know how to dress.  I was obsessed with the sock options you could find in the department stores so I had to take some pictures:

These are women's socks, but I still loved them

One of the sock walls, this store had about 5 sock walls

This is just random, but they sell moon boots everywhere- even for little ones!

On Friday we started the day by going to the train station and then to Simon's old mission flat.  It was neat to see where he served.  I would love to take him to see my mission sometime in the future.

The train station Simon went to often as a missionary

A huge Christmas pyramid at the train station

Simon said he would get on this train all the time

The street Simon lived on as a missionary in Bremen

Budderstrabe Street

In front of his flat

In front of the building

Simon wanted to do some door knocking, ha

After seeing where he lived as a missionary, Simon took me to this beautiful park he said that they would cut through all the time to get places.  We only saw part of the park because it was huge.  It was so beautiful and peaceful.

Der BurgerPark

One of my favorite pictures we took at the park

They had an awesome playground and Simon tested it out

The new park train conductor

Us at the park

While walking around Bremen on Friday, we came across a lot of different things.  Here are some more pictures:

One of the canals we passed with extremely dirty water

German houses

A school- called a gymnasium

An awesome elephant statue we walked by, it was huge!

Windmill

Windmill

A globe in town

Bremen Roland, constructed in 1404.  He is considered a protector of the city.

The side of the cathedral

The front of the cathedral

Bremen is also famous for a folktale called "The Town Musicians."  It was recorded by the Brothers Grimm.  There are statues depicting this tale everywhere.  We also bought the book.

The story is about a donkey, dog, cat, and rooster

Simon by another one

The most famous statue of it in the market square by Gerhard Marcks

The actual book- we bought it in German

A page from the book

Here are a few more pictures from our walk around the city.  We went to a street called Schnoor which is known for having some really tiny streets and we walked down by the river.

One of the small streets in Schnoor

Schnoor

By the river

By the river

By the river

Simon and I

By the river

Simon's lunch, something he said he ate often as a missionary (Doner)

Lunch

A pretzel we had for breakfast before we left

Thanks RyanAir for cheap flights!

I would love to go back to Germany one day.  I told Simon I really want him to teach our kids German.  While we were there I made him teach me the alphabet and some vocab words.  Such a beautiful place with friendly people.