Berlin to Bremen to Bremerhaven

Headed west to Bremen on a midday train. Berlin Hauptbahnhof, the main train station, is an awesome, huge, efficient, modern, glass facility, with multiple levels of platforms and a shopping mall inside. Berlin is "arm, aber sexy" (poor, but sexy; their motto, not ours) because of their investment in facilities like these.

Easy travel.









En route to Bremen we passed massive wind turbines amidst small scale agriculture. These are the biggest wind turbines currently being made. The tower stands 120 meters. To get a sense of scale, look at the high tension wire tower in the foreground. (technical information provided by stephane eisen, dong energy)

Video:
What a scene. these turbines, unlike most turbines we are familiar with, are direct drive (i.e. no gearbox) which explains their dreamy, slow rotation.

We head to Bremen because it is from where some of our family emigrated to the States, including Joe's maternal great great great grandfather Robert Ganz (from Hesse, Germany) in the late 1850's and Joe's paternal great grandfather, Josef Safranek (from Pisek, Bohemia) in the early 1900's. It is believed that Josef's wife Agnes came over at the same time as well, perhaps on the same boat. There is a good chance that other family members left from Bremen as well given that over 7 million people emigrated from there between the 1830's and 1970's.

We arrived at the information office in the Bremen train station to learn that when it is recorded that a passenger sailed from Bremen, they in fact sailed from the port of Bremerhaven located 70 km north of the city.

Ticket, coffee, pastry, back on the train.

*We just want to give a shout out to the German train system here. When plans change, and your German language skills are limited, it is easy to switch gears using their automatic ticket kiosks and online schedules. We think the DB is BA. And check out these sweet luggage/bike conveyer belts besides the stairs, come on!*









We found a lovely boarding house in the center of Bremerhaven that was inexpensive and run by one amazing, older woman who has been accommodating workers and tourists alike for decades. The place seemed unchanged from the '50's and fit our requirements perfectly.












We spent too much time in an internet cafe and were stuck trying to find dinner at 10:30 in very sleepy Bremerhaven. It was between McDonald's and La Bodegas (think Chili's meets TGIFriday's meets McDonald's in sleepy port town). We opted for Bodegas because they serve beer and ordered nachos and a burger and fries. This was by far the worst food we've had thus far.

"Guacamole" sauce under cheese












That's a big burger












Les here---silver lining? Our waitress was lovely, having just returned from visiting her sister and brother-in-law in Baltimore. We swapped stories about the U.S. and learned more about Bremerhaven. The town is trying to revitalize itself after the U.S. military base closed down 10-15 years ago. They are building a modern hotel conference center and in 2007 opened the award-winning Die Auslander Museum...