Bremerhaven - Sunday
We spent the morning in the Historischesmuseum to give us an overview of where we are. BH is such a new city, compared to the rest of Germany. It was only started in 1827 as a port for Bremen after the Weser River began to silt up, threatening their shipping economy. BH has always been part of Bremen. Before 1827, it was a marshy area at the mouth of the Geeste River. (The first syllable is pronounced halfway between "geese" and "gaze"). We spent 2 hours and could have stayed longer but the rest of the city beckoned.
I lost my pen in the Schiffahrtmuseum (Marine/shipping museum), but the kind cashier gave me on from a bundle she had behind the counter. This was a great museum, especially the part about the sailing ships where the exhibit descriptions were in English as well as German. Sailing ships still carried cargo cost-effectively until the 1930s!, although some of the more recent sailing ships had steam engines as well. The exhibit had models and drawings of various ships plus exhibits on their construction, cargoes and detailed info on life aboard. One slightly disgusting subject was how to treat your food when it was infested with maggots: whack it on the table so they fall out, dip it in liquid so they float out, or soak it in rum so they don't get in there in the first place. Of course, the simplest technique was just to eat them - extra protrein! urp...
The museum is very proud of the Hanse Kogge of 1380 - a ship ruin that is under partial restoration - you can see it but there's much steel and supporting beams in the way. Found in 1964 downstream from the harbor at Bremen, this is the only actual example of the favorite ship of the Hanseatic cities. The museum calls it "the most important exhibit," comparable to the Swedish warship Wasa from 1628 and the 9th and 11th century ships in Denmark.
The little cog shipped everything (fish, beer, grain, salt, weapons) around the Baltic and North Seas, even as far away as the Mediterranean. Some say that the development of the cog enabled the Hanse to prosper, but sources at the museum say not so: it was the partnering of inland areas with seaports that provided both goods and markets. It was all laid out in a treaty in 1161.
The museum also includes nearly 50 actual ships, some of which float on a small harbor and are boardable. We went into a U-boat from 1944, quite tiny inside and living must have been difficult for the 58 men who constituted the full crew. And the English brochure reminded us that the sole purpose of a U Boat was to destroy enemy ships during war.
We picked up a brochure at our hotel about a Windenergie tour and I was quite disappointed to find that the tour wasn't going while we were in BH, which is a center for off-shore wind energy. I would have liked to hear about it. But there's always the internet!
We used the bus for the transit links when we didn't walk. Easy to use, once we got the Fahrplan from our hotel, and inexpensive (2.20 euro per trip).
Happy hour at our hotel! Yay! But it goes from 10-11 PM! too late for us.
I lost my pen in the Schiffahrtmuseum (Marine/shipping museum), but the kind cashier gave me on from a bundle she had behind the counter. This was a great museum, especially the part about the sailing ships where the exhibit descriptions were in English as well as German. Sailing ships still carried cargo cost-effectively until the 1930s!, although some of the more recent sailing ships had steam engines as well. The exhibit had models and drawings of various ships plus exhibits on their construction, cargoes and detailed info on life aboard. One slightly disgusting subject was how to treat your food when it was infested with maggots: whack it on the table so they fall out, dip it in liquid so they float out, or soak it in rum so they don't get in there in the first place. Of course, the simplest technique was just to eat them - extra protrein! urp...
The museum is very proud of the Hanse Kogge of 1380 - a ship ruin that is under partial restoration - you can see it but there's much steel and supporting beams in the way. Found in 1964 downstream from the harbor at Bremen, this is the only actual example of the favorite ship of the Hanseatic cities. The museum calls it "the most important exhibit," comparable to the Swedish warship Wasa from 1628 and the 9th and 11th century ships in Denmark.
The little cog shipped everything (fish, beer, grain, salt, weapons) around the Baltic and North Seas, even as far away as the Mediterranean. Some say that the development of the cog enabled the Hanse to prosper, but sources at the museum say not so: it was the partnering of inland areas with seaports that provided both goods and markets. It was all laid out in a treaty in 1161.
The museum also includes nearly 50 actual ships, some of which float on a small harbor and are boardable. We went into a U-boat from 1944, quite tiny inside and living must have been difficult for the 58 men who constituted the full crew. And the English brochure reminded us that the sole purpose of a U Boat was to destroy enemy ships during war.
We picked up a brochure at our hotel about a Windenergie tour and I was quite disappointed to find that the tour wasn't going while we were in BH, which is a center for off-shore wind energy. I would have liked to hear about it. But there's always the internet!
We used the bus for the transit links when we didn't walk. Easy to use, once we got the Fahrplan from our hotel, and inexpensive (2.20 euro per trip).
Happy hour at our hotel! Yay! But it goes from 10-11 PM! too late for us.