This trip to Bremen wasn’t my first. I came here in 2019 and also went to Hamburg. I haven’t posted about that trip as it was ruined by someone I thought was a friend.

I’m not going to go into detail about it but I decided enough time had passed that I wanted to do the trip again – so this is that trip. A 2019 do-over.

This trip is the last one where I will have to stay at the airport overnight too. National Express have resumed coaches from Peterborough to Stansted Airport. The coach leaves at 03:05 and gets to Stansted at 04:45 – this will usually give me enough time for flights that depart from 07:00 onwards. Actually, I may have to do the last train the night before if the flight leaves pre 07:00. This flight left at 05:55 so I wouldn’t have had enough time had I got the coach.

The night was uneventful and quite boring. I was restless though. I just wanted security to open so I could go through to the departure lounge and just wait. I finally got to depart from a different gate this time round. We had to get a bus to the plane. I was just glad to be on and heading out. This was a nice and short flight. It was just under an hour so I was getting to Bremen quite early and this would give me the whole day that I landed to do some touristy stuff.

I was near the front on this flight and I had an aisle seat which meant I could just get off quicker than usual. Turned out well since I needed to relieve myself.

Bremen

Bremen Art Walk

  • I finally got out of the airport by about 10. One of the things I like about Bremen is that you can get a tram from the airport to pretty much anywhere in the city. I love when cities think of this and make the airport and city accessible without having to change a thousand times to get where you want. Bravo, Bremen.

    I knew I had to go to Hauptbahnhof as the hostel was close to it. I checked and the tram went to the city centre and then to the central railway station so that was a win for me.

    I got off and the train station and had a quick look at the map and found where I needed to go. What I didn’t realise was the way I went was the long way around. Oh well, all in the name of steps and miles… right. It turns out had I just walked straight back after I had gotten off the tram I would have walked for about 90 seconds rather than the 7 minutes I did. I call this scouting out where to go for the rest of the trip. Ha.

    I got to the hostel and said I knew I was early but was there any way they had the bed ready as I was shattered. I had finished work the evening before and didn’t really get any sleep before I left for the airport and didn’t really get any sleep at the airport. Anyway, I digress. They looked and said that the bed wasn’t free and that if I came back at 14:30 or guaranteed by fifteen o’clock (yep, they said it like this). They allowed me to leave my luggage and I then headed out for a quick walk around and then to the tram.

    I found a park and one of the statues caught my eye – it was a guy that was pushing a trolley. I thought someone had put the trolley there but when I looked it was bolted to the ground. I also saw a #MOIN piece. Apparently, they use Moin in Bremen and Hamburg as a hello. I didn’t recall seeing this last time I was here and I had a little walk around and didn’t recall any of it. I thought for sure if I had been to this part of the city before I would recognise it. As I didn’t recognise it I was almost certain I hadn’t seen it back in 2019.

    I hopped on the first tram that came and was looking out to see if I could see anything that caught my eye. Something did so I got off and had a look around. I then waited for the next tram and got on and just sat on that until the end of the line. This is how tired I was: I fell asleep a couple of times on the journey. I don’t think it was more than 40 minutes in total from when I got on until the end of the line. I got off and there was a train station and some fields. I didn’t recognise any of this either.

    By this time, I was super tired and hungry so I decided I would head back to the hostel and it would get me there for around 14:15 so I thought by this time the bed might be ready.

    On my way back I did a little more walking around and happened upon a tram and bus stop that was named after me!

    I then jumped on the tram (I was too tired to walk) and headed back to the hostel to see if I could check-in. I got there around 14:00 and they said the bed still wasn’t ready. They had a look and found another bed for me and checked me in. I went and got my luggage and went to the room only to find that the bed hadn’t yet been made up. I went and let reception know and they said they’d get housekeeping on it and I could wait there for about 10 minutes. I asked for the nearest McDonald’s and went and had food. It was expensive man. €10 for a 6-nugget meal. I’m not sure if the prices were inflated because it was at the train station. I wasn’t impressed. I finished the food and went to the hostel to go to the room.

    The bed still hadn’t been made up so I went back down and told reception. They were very apologetic and said that housekeeping said someone had already claimed the bed even though they shouldn’t have. They had me wait whilst they looked for another bed in another dorm. After about 10 minutes they said they were upgrading me to a private room. They didn’t have to but it was very welcome as I was super tired. They gave me the room key and I asked if it looked out over the railway and the station and they said it did and asked if it was an issue. I told them it was the perfect room and there wasn’t any problem at all. I got my luggage from the old room and went and had a nap for a couple of hours and then had a shower and headed back out.

    I got the tram from the main station and decided to go to the end of the line and just look for places that I might want to go and see again. I found a couple of places so decided that on the way back to the hostel I would get off the tram and get off and have a look around. I found a place right by the river and there were some boat races going on. I didn’t hang around here too much as it was too people-y for me. I got back on the tram and went to the market square and just had a wander around there to see if anything looked familiar. A couple of things did. I found the statue for the Town Musicians of Bremen (you can read about that here). I remember seeing it back in 2019 but I must have approached it from a different route as I didn’t remember it being where it was.

    I carried on walking around the square. I noticed a lot of Ukranian flags too which was cool. After I was done walking around here I went for another tram ride to see where that went and then headed back to the square to look around some more. I got some food and went to the Schnoor area and just sat there enjoying the peace and the sounds of the trams and just relaxed before heading back to the hostel.

    One thing I noticed on the way back was a level crossing. I decided to walk to it to see how busy it was. It was fairly busy even at 21:00. I enjoyed just standing there watching the trains go by. I made a mental note to go back there sometime and just watch the trains go by. I loved how close the hostel was to the railway. The sounds of the trains helped me sleep.

    I got back to the hostel and had a look at some of the leaflets they had and I found one that was an art and sculpture tour so I picked it up and had a look at it and decided that I wanted to do it and that since a Sunday is less busy I would just do it then. The trams are generally only every 20 minutes so it was a perfect time to do it.

    I looked at some of the pictures from 2019 and it turns out some of the stuff that was unfamiliar I had seen back in 2019. I think it was a good thing that I didn’t remember as it made this trip a fresh trip.

    All in all, today was a good day and I enjoyed the tram rides and being this close to the station and railway.

    Total steps: 21,249

    Total miles: 10.61

    Below are some pics from today

Today I checked out right at 11:00 and just decided to get some food and head straight to the airport. I only had like 3 hours between checking out and flying so I wasn’t too fussed about doing anything else.

The flight back was nice and short again, just over an hour. I landed and got through the border in about 20 minutes. I was just rushing past people as I don’t people very well and just wanted across the border and go sit and wait for the train. I had just under 2 hours to wait for the train so I settled into the waiting room and had food and drink.

I got back to Peterborough and home 40 minutes before my shift started. Talk about cutting it fine! I wouldn’t do it any other way though.

All in all, Bremen was a fantastic trip and I would recommend visiting!

Total steps: 86,258

Total miles: 42.25

View all of my Bremen pics here