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Bremen

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The last time I went on a train in Germany was May 1976 – Munich to Athens as part of my gap-year adventure, so 50 years ago!

Anyway, Jo had a midnight to 2.00am call – that’s what happens when everyone else is on Pacific Standard Time – and so needed a late morning and a quiet day working from the apartment. Added to that a grey and drizzly day forecast, I headed to the station, and made it to Bremen.

Eileen isn’t here, and so absolutely no planning has been done. So headed to the Tourist Information who were great.

Explored the old town

Town Hall

Guild Hall

Parliament Building and Cathedral

Hmmmm

Then had a tour of the Town Hall – 29 Germans and me, so I got my own tour in English (fascinating and we took 90 minutes compared to the 45 advertised).

Here’s Pierre in the great chamber

And their prized possession – a huge whale jaw bone from the 1690s, without which history here would have been very different.

Lunch at Greta’s again (see Sunday) and more sightseeing

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The Apartment

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Jo did an amazing job finding the apartment. Here you go

Plus the view when sitting on the balcony

I’m writing this on Tuesday – so far it’s been sunny and warm, which means the balcony has been well used. And it was a really good job I brought a hat and sunglasses – a bit unexpected for northern Germany in early March.

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Minor German Gripes

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We arrived on a Sunday. It is German law that large shops (supermarkets) are not allowed to open on Sundays. We did find a shop in a nearby petrol station where we got beer, milk, coke, chocolate and crisps. Fortunately restaurants are allowed to open so we did manage to eat.

But very shortly after 7.00 on Monday morning …

And top of the list was dry shampoo – as you can see from the picture, badly needed!!!

And while I’m on little gripes:

    The instructions to get into the apartment were in German. Google translated into “the apartment is on the 2nd floor”. Having tried the key (unsuccessfully) in all 6 apartments on the 2nd floor, a very nice German woman was able to translate properly – 1st floor. Could Google, by any chance, be American???
    The toaster blew the fuse, and we lost WiFi. Got it back, though.
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Bremerhaven

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Jo is working in Bremerhaven, and I’m along for the ride.

8.00 on a Sunday morning for an extremely cramped flight – mercifully only just over an hour.

Found an amazing little cafe near Bremen railway station.

And Bremerhaven was looking lovely on our first day.

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That was Quick

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Just a week, and we’re back.

Not a lot to add apart from the photos – the first is the full moon, the second a misty morning sun.

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Just Chilling

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Just to show that even experienced travellers can make mistakes. Managed to book an electric hire car by mistake. The company supplied it but expressed surprise due to the lack of public charging points in the region. And when I asked how we could possibly return it fully charged they simply shrugged. So charged me for a “downgrade”!

Apart from that the food has been surprisingly good on the whole, and the pictures (when the sun is out) are great.

Total food miles – about 2 metres for the lemons and 4 for the oranges!

And just occasionally we do venture out a little bit.

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Sunday

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Fantastic villa.

So when it’s sunny, there’s little point in going anywhere else.

Little bit vexed when looking at the weather forecast. Sitting on the terrace where the forecast is showing wall-to-wall sun now, but actually looking at heavy low cloud. Such can be the frustrations of a privileged existence! Spent the day in Malaga instead, which reminded us of what we like about it.

But it’s Sunday as I’m writing this and the sun has reappeared.

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Nerja

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After Mexico we felt we needed/deserved(!) a holiday. So we booked a villa in Nerja – actually a bit inland nearer Frigiliana – for a week.

What a lovely place to enjoy our morning coffee.

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The End

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Made it. As far as we can calculate, about 22 hours door to door. Everything worked as it should have done, although it does bring home the absurdity of changing in the US. You have to queue (only about an hour or a bit more) to get through security – although the stress levels in the queue are probably correlated with how long people have to get their connecting flight. Then you immediately have to queue to get through security to get your flight.

Anyway, wonderful view of Monte Alban as we left Oaxaca

And a very welcome drink in Dallas

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Nearly the End

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In fact I’m writing this as we’re waiting for the taxi to Oaxaca airport. We have a 3 hour flight to Dallas, then a change (allowing 3 hours🤞) followed by an overnight back to the grey and miserable Heathrow. So a bit tentative, but everything is now out of our hands.

Anyway, back to Oaxaca. The tour on Thursday to Monte Alban was “padded out” with other stuff, which was OK but not especially memorable.

Mezcale tasting – tried the one with CBD band the one with worms, but they didn’t have the scorpion flavour …

Alebrijes factory

And so on. But I think I’ll finish with lots more nice pictures.