Don’t go to Bremen, they said – It’s an industrial scheiße-stadt, they said

I don’t remember who “they” were. Perhaps it was a collection of travellers over the years; a disgruntled salesmen who had been covering Northern Germany for too long; or maybe it was from an actual Bremener I’d met in my travels. Who ever it was, they added to be the voice in my head that said don’t go to Bremen.

I was travelling between Groningen and Hamburg on a Eurail Pass. This required three trains to make the trip, one of which was a transfer in Bremen.

I had about an hour and a half wait in Bremen for the next train to Hamburg, so I figured I may as well have lunch and see what the city has to offer.

On my wander beyond the Hauptbahnhof I was looking for a bratwurst stand and I wasn’t expecting to go sightseeing. A sign at a park between the train station and central Brenen didn’t bode well for an interesting old town experience.

[Bremen in 1945.]

I reached the old town and to my surprise I found a cluster of old buildings around the old town hall, which happens to be a UNESCO World Heritage site.

[Old Bremen.]

I had no idea that I was going to see this. My 90 minute lunch break now seemed like an inappropriate amount of time. I was aware of not wandering too long incase I miss my train. Sometimes not doing your homework on a city can be a good thing.

I found my Welcome Back To Germany Wurst and walked back to the station, happy that I had made the detour.