Saturday 11 December 2010

Winter in Bremen

Well Winter has well and truly arrived over the last couple of weeks with the start of the snow.  It hasn't been as bad here as I hear it has at home so no snow days but it has made the city very christmassy!

In the Market Square in Bremen

Icicles on the car!

The frozen Weser

Saturday 4 December 2010

Rachel's Visit

Rachel's visit last week coincided nicely with the start of the Christmas Market here in Bremen.  I had been to the Christmas Market here when I lived in Oldenburg four years ago but barely made it out of the section that surrounds the main station - I really missed out.

Rachel arrived on Thursday evening (very early so that nobody was there no meet her - thanks Ryanair!) and we went to a little restaurant near the flat before having an early-ish night.  Then after work on Friday we headed to the market and also met up with Linda. 

Here we are with the special Christmas Musicians

   
And here's Rachel with the regular ones
We had lunch in the market - after discovering a range of vegetarian options that I never knew existed, we settled on a delicious fried cheese selection!  Nice and warming and filling before we started on the Gluehwein.  Before we got to that however, there was another essential stop for any visiting vets - especially those who work on a farm:

After this we met up with Linda and enjoyed a couple of Gluehweins.  We headed down to the Schlachte where the best part of Bremen's Christmas Market is.  There's even a medieval section with all kinds of things including magic wines (that help with memory and eyesight for example!) soaps, incense (to cover up ancient drug smells probably, Mum) and spices.

We also had a Gluehwein down here where the Pfand cup (where you pay a bit extra for your drink and get the extra back if you take the cup back or have a nice little souvenir if you don't) was the cutest little boot ever so Rachel kept hers.  I will be going back for mine later and post a picture then.

Rachel made a friend