As I mentioned in the first post Walking, cycling and drinking in Berlin, we’d arranged to spend an evening in Bremen as well as Berlin, so we could fit in a second Pavement gig, during Germany trip.

After three days in Berlin, we caught a busy but efficient pair of ICE trains to Bremen, changing at Hamburg. Arriving at attractive Bremen Hauptbahnhof station, still feeling a little hung over, we headed over to our perfectly acceptable but dated hotel, the Best Western Hotel Bremen City. It was definitely a comedown from the easyHotel in Berlin, which was hardly luxurious!

The hotel was just a short walk from the station, passing under the elevated road Hochstraße Breitenweg. Thankfully, our rooms faced onto Bahnhofstraße, rather than the elevated road, though it was still quite noisy with people and trams passing below.

After checking in and dropping off my bags. I went out to find a phone charger (managed to leave mine on the train) and have a wander.

Wandering round Bremen

One good thing about the hotel was that it wasn’t far from the centre of Bremen. It was a just a short walk, passing Wallanlagen, the park made from the old city fortifications to get to the old town.

First impressions of Bremen was just how attractive it is, particularly around the old town. With many compact, pedestrianised streets, it’s really quite walkable, and so wandering round is a really pleasurable experience.

There’s plenty to see as you walk round, such as the many beautiful old buildings and artworks, like Schweinehirt und seine Herde (swineherd and his flock), which is one of many. By Bremen sculptor Peter Lehmann. It stands on Sögestraße, at the location where many pigsties probably once stood.

Walking round to Bremer Marktplatz, you’re greeted by many historic buildings, with the Bremer Rathaus (City Hall) probably the most important. This dates back to around 1400, though has been heavily modified over the centuries. In 2004, it was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

With views of Marktplatz, the arched arcade at the front is a popular spot to watch the world go by, and admire the other beautiful buildings in the square.

Next to Bremer Rathaus is Bremen Cathedral, St. Petri Dom Bremen. This is another stunning old gothic building, with the current building dating back to around 1000. The striking towers dominate the square and can be seen for some distance.

In addition to these very special buildings, there’s many other beautiful buildings in Bremer Marktplatz. This makes for a very picturesque backdrop to a popular, bustling public space. We’d return here later in the evening, when there was a concert and festivities taking place and lots of people enjoying themselves.

Pavement gig

Later in the day, I met up with my friend and we headed out for food and drinks before the evening’s gig. After a few beers, we headed to Schüttinger brewpub for something to eat, sampling the Bremer Knipp, a flat sausage, that looked more like a burger, with potatoes and gherkins. This was very tasty and really quite filling!

After dinner, we made our way to venue for evening’s gig, Aladin Music Hall. This wasn’t the original venue for the gig, it was due to be at Pier 2, which is located on the other side of town, in a waterfront development, next to a shopping mall. Thankfully, we didn’t choose to stay near the original venue, something the band did, who sounded less than impressed by the location.

Aladin Music Hall is located about 6 km out of town, so we got the tram there. The trams were modern and efficient as you’d expect. Though it wasn’t immediately obvious where to get a ticket from. It turns out not all the tram stops have ticket machines, but they have them on the trams themselves.

Arriving at Aladin Music Hall, I was struck by how intimate the venue was. We’d previously saw Pavement play at Manchester Apollo, a few weeks earlier, which is much larger.

Support for this gig and Berlin was Katy J Pearson. To be honest, I wasn’t that aware of her music, other than the odd song played on BBC 6 Music, but at both gigs, she was really fantastic.

After Katy J Pearson, Pavement came on and delivered another absolutely superb set, with the odd bit of chat between songs. This included a description of spending time at the previously mentioned bland shopping mall.

After the gig, we hopped onto another tram back into the centre, opting to head back to the hotel for a relatively early night. I think maybe that Bremer Knipp had done us in!

Cycling round Bremen

The next morning I was up early and decided to find a bike to ride and go exploring. It was another cold, but sunny autumn day, perfect for a bike ride.

The bike share scheme in Bremen is called WK-Bike, which is powered by nextbike, itself owned by TIER. Unlike Berlin, there’s relatively few bike share bikes available in Bremen, so it took a little time to find one.

After finding a bike, I set off on a short tour of Bremen. Being a Saturday morning, it was relatively quiet in terms of motor traffic. The streets in the old city tend not to have any dedicated cycling infrastructure, though they’re mostly free of traffic.

Going out of the old town onto the bigger streets, I was surprised to find a relatively decent network of protected cycle paths. By no means is it up to Dutch standards, but still pretty good.

Heading beyond the old town, I passed over the River Weser on the Wilhelm-Kaisen-Brücke bridge and over to the south side. This was my first view of the river, since I’d been in Bremen, as I cycled along the protected cycle path on the bridge.

Cycling along the south side of the river, the cycling infrastructure continued on Osterstraße. I took a right onto Langemarckstraße, then left onto Am Deich. This took me along the riverbank and past the Beck’s Brewery, which originates from Bremen, with the logo featuring keys from the city’s coat of arms.

After the Beck’s Brewery, I turned right onto the Stephanibrücke bridge. This bridge consists of two decks, with the upper deck carrying the Bundesstraße 6 motorway, and a walking and cycling path on the lower deck. The walking and cycling deck is quite wide and has great views looking east.

Once across the bridge, I turned right and continued along the north side of the river, which has a much more developed riverfront. There’s with a wide path along here, which is overlooked by many new apartments. It’s quite different to the greener and tree-lined path on the south side.

At this point, I headed back to the old town and parked the bike up, so I could explore on foot. Wandering round, I took in the wonderful Böttcherstraße, with its unusual Brick Expressionism buildings, dating back to between 1922 and 1931.

Böttcherstraße was constructed by Ludwig Roselius, a coffee merchant and founder of the Kaffee HAG company. He was initially a sympathiser of National Socialism, but later joined the German Resistance in 1942. Much of the street was destroyed during the war, but was later rebuilt by Roselius’s coffee company, Kaffee HAG.

Böttcherstraße contains several art museums, arts and crafts workshops, bars, restaurants, shops and a hotel. Unfortunately, I didn’t have time to explore any of those, as we had a train to catch.

Carrying on, I needed to make sure I stopped by Die Bremer Stadtmusikanten (Town Musicians of Bremen) statue, probably Bremen’s most famous attraction. This statue by Gerhard Marcks is based on the Grimm Brothers’ fairytale of the same name, about a donkey, a dog, a cat, and a rooster.

After stopping for a selfie, like any self-respecting tourist, it was time to get back on a bike and head to the train station. This involved riding across the old town, and along Herdentorsteinweg, passing Wallanlagen and the old city moat.

Approaching the elevated road Hochstraße Breitenweg, things got worse from a cycling perspective. Approaching the junction, the protected cycle path turned into a suicide painted lane, mixed with multiple lanes of motor traffic.

Unfortunately, this is something I’d see often in Germany, with safe cycling provision disappearing where it’s needed most, at junctions and large junctions in particular.

After passing under Hochstraße Breitenweg, there was another big junction to navigate, before I arrived at Bremen Hauptbahnhof. I found an appropriate place to park the nextbike and went to meet my friend, to find our train back to Berlin.