Bremen

I’ve been feeling a bit antsy, so this weekend I headed up to Bremen, home of those famous animal musicians. It was a cool city, huge, with lots going on. Here’s a photo of the marketplace at night.
The Dom St. Petri in the photo above is known for its Bleikeller, which is apparently home to eight mummified corpses in open coffins including a soldier, a student from 1705, and a Swedish count. I thought about it for a long time, and couldn’t decide if I was woman enough to go down there. Luckily I didn’t have to decide since it was closed for the winter. This link shows some photos if you’re up for them. I swear, I keep coming across things here that I think I would last about ten seconds in the U.S. before some kind of protest or lawsuit would shut them down. Interestingly enough, Amnesty International was holding a protest on the church steps against Guantanamo.

My favorite part of Bremen by far was Böttcherstrasse, a tiny, long alleyway with all kinds of Art Deco/Art Nouveau buildings. The alley was constructed in the early 19th century, and survived a “degenerate” art Nazi destruction order, although a lot of it was destroyed during the war and had to be restored. Many of the buildings have impressive spiral staircases, like this poetry-in-a-lightboard one in the Paula Becker-Modersohn Haus.

This photo of the northern entrance shows a cool piece called, “Lichtbringer,” which depicts Archangel Michael fighting a dragon during the Apocalypse.

Here’s an outside shot of the Robinson Crusoe Haus, and Haus Atlantis. The bright box in the lower left hand corner of the photo is a fish tank.