The Last 4 Cities

   Wilkommen zurück! I hope you all enjoyed the last two posts, I think I can keep on posting like this at least for a while. So let’s pick back up and finish my fall trip through Northern Germany.

   We start on October 16, while we drive towards Bremerhaven, a harbor-city on the North Sea. It was about a three hour trip from Lübeck, and we arrived quite late. However, we were very lucky to be staying in a very, very nice hotel. We were right on the harbor, with a great view, comfortable beds, and easy access to Bremerhaven’s main attraction: the Klimahaus. We ate dinner at our hotel, settled in for the night, and got some good rest for our first day in Bremerhaven.

   After waking and having a delicious breakfast, we walked from our hotel directly to the Klimahaus, which wasn’t far from our hotel at all. The Klimahaus is a beautiful, modern, flowing building, which houses one of the most interesting museums I’ve ever seen. It’s name means “climate-house”, because the museum is focussed on the climate and environment on our planet. It’s aimed at informing people on their effect on the environment, what climate change is, and what they can do in the future to stop it. It follows the 8th degree longitude across the world, stopping in many different countries along the way, getting to know the environment and the culture.. As you enter the Klimahaus, you begin your journey in Switzerland, complete with a glacier made of real ice, plenty of cows, and the alps. From there we moved to the insect room, the sahara room, the antarctic room, the rainforest room, the ocean room, and finally the North Sea room. Every room was very interesting, and very informing.

         

        

                                                        

        

     After going through the main museum, we headed to the exhibit over climate change and our carbon footprint. It was all very interesting, and the museum was fantastic. After our long day at the museum we explored the harbor area a bit more, and headed to our hotel. The next day we started early and headed back into the harbor, where we went to a submarine museum, and the immigration museum. Both were very interesting, especially the immigration museum. At the immigration museum we followed the journey of immigrants leaving Germany for the US throughout the past few centuries, and the arrival of immigrants from other lands as well.

         

   After having a great day at both these museums, we headed over to the harbor in Bremerhaven. Bremerhaven actually has Germany’s largest port, which was very cool to see.  From there we drove to Cuxhaven for the night.

                                            

   Cuxhaven isn't a huge town, so there wasn't much to see besides the beach and the dock. After quicklime looking around there we got some delicious burgers, and finally hit the hay.

     

      

                          

    The next morning I came down with a bit of an eye infection, so we went to the doctor and got some medicine before heading to Bremen. Bremen is a fairly large city about an hour inland from Bremerhaven, which is known for its cathedral, Freimärkte (fairs that appears around fall every year), and Rathaus. The first thing we did was walk around the Innenstadt a bit and look at the Freimarkt, before visiting a narrow street famous for it's interesting shops.

               

   After spending some time in the city, my host sister and host mom went back to the hotel while I waited to meet up with a good friend of mine from language camp, Sam (not the same Sam I saw in Paderborn). We met up at the Dom and walked to a delicious Mexican restaurant from there. It was the first good Mexican food I'd had in Germany. We then slowly walked the thought the fair and along the streets, catching up with each other. It was really good to see him, and I had a lot of fun.

            

   The next day, Thursday, was our last day of vacation. We started it in Bremen, at an interesting museum that detailed medieval life in the city, through actors that told stories and took on different characters. My host sister left then to go visit her grandmother in North Germany, while my host mom and I drove to Hamburg, our last stop. At Hamburg we didn't have a ton of time, so we took a tour of the harbour and then visited some friends for a while, which was tons of fun.

   And then our trip finally ended, and we headed back towards Köln late at night. It wasn't the end of fall break through, so my friend Sam and I (the Sam in Paderborn not the Sam in Bremen) had planned to have a fun weekend in Köln. We picked him up in Bielefeld and he came back to Köln with us, to stay till Saturday. But I'll cover that in another post. I hope you enjoyed this, and once again I want to apologise for taking so long to write this. Thanks for reading and see you soon!