Flat plains drifter…Germany #5

The journey yesterday wasn’t too bad,lots of changes en route and the obligatory mess up by DB.I’m convinced they now do it on purpose to give us punters something to moan about…we were 45 mins late and as quickly as I found a seat I was turfed out of the seat by the reservation holder( they had messed those up too) as German is not my language I was in no position to argue and after a fruitless search of two carriages decided to stand by the door in the corridor.Bremen was the next stop under an hour away so no big deal and as an added bonus I was next to the toilets so could fart at will and blame it on the bogs…every cloud eh?

As my hotel is right opposite the Hauptbahnhof it was fine.It’s a weird set up as the reception is on the 6th floor so the first thing you do enter via Star Trek like sliding doors into a lift lobby and nothing else,eventually the frazzled brain works it out.The lads on reception were great.I wondered if there was a bar in the hotel but they just laughed and said “ no sir,just rooms,hundreds of rooms “ which made me laugh too…anyway all is good.The room is comfortable and it’s nice to have a bathroom especially when you get to a certain age and there’s various nightly visits…

Found myself in a little bar around the corner called Die Fliege ( The Fly) It’s one of those one room dark smoking bars that northern Germany seems to specialise in complete with buxom landlady and four or five pissed up locals who seem to have been there since the place was founded.To be fair they were very friendly and did a passable rendition of The Backstreet Boys song that came on the jukebox…

Another glorious day.Having a stroll around Altstadt Bremen and had forgotten how beautiful it is.A hark back to the 17th/18th century when it was an integral part of the Hansiatic League ( Surely the best league in the world) it is of course a city state and is thus the smallest state( I think) in Germany…that’s it,that’s all the history I have…

I am of a certain age when the metric system came into our country when I was about 12 years old and as we all know after that age it’s almost impossible to learn anything new…to be fair I can’t recall our teachers going too deep into teaching us properly,it was a case of “ Right then we used to measure in units of twelve but now we measure in units of ten.Get on with it”  For any American readers the UK is still in the halfway house between Imperial and Metric.I suppose once all the old people die out we will go fully metric but until then confusion reigns…

I still deal in miles rather kilometres but also use centigrade rather than Fahrenheit.My go to measurement is feet & inches.Strangly I know I am 80kg in weight ( or 40 bags of Tate & Lyle sugar) but have no idea what I weigh in stones & pounds…we still drink pints in the pubs but buy a litre bottle of lemonade in the shops and drugs have always been bought by the gramm( so I have been told) All this came to me when I got up at 9-30am thinking “ oh it’s 8-30 back home” and I wondered why I do that…life is indeed a mystery.

Today is a day to be in the shade especially as a Brit.Currently having a coffee in Schnoor,which is a cutesy tourist trap in Bremen.It’s lovely but also easy to spend a shed load of money around here.Think I will head off to Viertel soon.My favourite part of the city with it being a bit of an alternative lefty area…

Currently in Litfass In Viertel.A nice little bar I frequented a few times last time I was here.Most people are outside but it’s too hot for my sensitive skin…I know the sun helps but Bremen seems pretty busy for a monday.Many folk milling around doing their thing.Meanwhile I’m happy chilling in a chill bar doing my thing…

Will see you all sometime tomorrow hopefully…tschüss.