08 | August | 2016 | The Cannon Family's travel blog

The crazy winds that blew all night began to subside this morning but the grey skies and somewhat blustery air did not scream “get on your running gear” to me. Add to that the fact that we figured out that we had no soap for the shower and the thought of being cold and sweaty really didn’t appeal. Oh, and we only had instant coffee. Frank was having none of that. So off to the shops we trooped – before breakfast or showers! – to get coffee and soap.

Thus adequately equipped, we started our morning routine: showers, tea/coffee, and breakfast. Bacon rolls! Well, sandwiches for me on the amazing Genius bread. Frank struggled with the induction hob cook top which took far longer to fry an egg than it should have but it’s something we can figure out. The flat is actually quite nice: two bedrooms, two baths, a small kitchen that we are slowly figuring out, parking right out in front with a gate to boot.

Then off to visit mum. She had just gotten back to her room in the care home after getting her hair and nails done so we whisked her away to visit Jean and Jimmy for our annual cup of tea. We visited for a while before deciding that lunch was in order and we headed out to The Highland Gate – a chain-type pub of which I am normally not very fond but which pleasantly surprised me. It had a very nice gluten free menu (including the aforementioned Genius bread) and even had a dedicated fryer for the chips! A lovely lunch was had by all and we made a quick stop at Sainsbury’s so that Jimmy could pick up a set of keys he’d dropped off to be cut. I thought I’d pick up some sugar since what I grabbed late last night turned out to be a mix of sugar and sweetener (ugh) and in the process of making my way to the till, there was an announcement for everyone to immediately leave the building for an emergency evacuation! It’s the first time I’ve ever been evacuated from a grocery store before!

All the excitement really wore mum out so we dropped her off and got her settled in bed and then headed into town. We had a very important goal: replace the charity shop cardigan that disappeared in Helsinki. We hit about half a dozen shops and found a few lovely things but no cardigan (but there is still tomorrow!). We headed to youngest brother’s house for a quick visit and had a lovely time chatting with everyone – and trying to explain American politics. Not easy to do without alcohol! We couldn’t stay long as there was one more brother and family to visit so it was along the road to Bannockburn for a quick visit and make plans for the next day. It was getting late and we hadn’t yet had dinner so off to Tesco for cheap wine and ready meals. Because really, what says holiday more than cheap French rose and chicken with bacon, leeks, and cheese sauce? A cup of tea and some gluten free HobNobs – milk and not dark chocolate but who cares! – and we can put the first day in Scotland in the books. You can definitely tell we have a car for transport as we were just shy of 10k steps (9,667) today. Does it count if many of them involved pushing a wheel chair? Maybe a run is in the cards for tomorrow.

Our final day of the wanderlust part of the holiday dawned grey but dry. We got up and started about the day, excited to be in a room with ample space for two, that didn’t rock, and that had a coffee maker! Frank went about trying to figure it out – Tassimo isn’t a big brand in the US – while I got in the shower. He started complaining pretty quickly that the machine didn’t seem to be working properly when all of a sudden a large POP (or small BANG depending on your perspective) issued from the coffee maker and all the lights in the room went out. {sigh}

We called the front desk to explain and were told that someone would be right with us. Five minutes later, a lovely young woman came to deliver more coffee pods. Apparently we hadn’t made ourselves understood properly. When we pointed out the darkness in the room, she quickly nodded and sent someone else to see us. He stood on the bedside table, moved one of the ceiling panels, reset the circuit breaker, and the lights came back. Not quite how we expected to start the day!

We had a lovely breakfast in the hotel and then packed up, checked out, dropped our bags at the desk and set out to see more of the city. We’ve noticed a couple of things about Bremen: while it definitely has a busy tourist trade, it does NOT cater to languages other than German. Which is really my way of saying that no matter where we seemed to look – menus, placards, tourist maps, museum signs, etc – there was little if any English to be found. Don’t get me wrong – just about everyone speaks English but we definitely had a hard time trying to figure things out ourselves because there were few places where there was any explanation other than German.

A second thing we noticed is that Bremen is actually pretty small. We walked around the entire city this morning in less than two hours. And I’m being literal, not figurative: we walked the entire perimeter of the city where the old wall used to be in about an hour and a half. Not something that the guidebooks suggested necessarily but a really interesting way to see more than just the market square. That’s how we stumbled upon the German Folding Bike Open race this morning where dozens of bike with tiny wheels and eccentrically dressed riders where gathered for their own Tour de Bremen.

By this time, the sun had broken through and it was time to see what there is to do on a Sunday. We wandered through the Market Square – where MORE hen parties were taking place! – and off to the Schnoor quarter, an adorable part of the city with buildings from the 15th and 16th centuries. They used to be houses but now most of them housed shops and cafes. Even though there are strict laws in Germany dictating what businesses can be open on Sundays, there was plenty of places open for business. We may have ducked into a shop or two and picked up a few items to bring home. We may have sat in the sunshine and enjoyed a drink. We may have watched a parade of local football supporters march through the town on their way to a friendly match with Chelsea FC – and then we might have run into the Chelsea supporters waiting for the team to board the bus.

As it was now well into the afternoon, we wandered back to the Weserpromenade along the river to have lunch. We stopped at the Pauliner restaurant for beer and bratwurst – well, that’s what Frank had. I had a wine spritzer and veal sausages which were very yummy. And then it was time to start thinking about the next transition: the RyanAir flight to Edinburgh. If you’ve never flown RyanAir, I can’t describe the experience adequately in a few sentences. We always swear that we won’t fly them again and then it turns out they are the only ones who go where, or when, we want to fly and we steel ourselves and take the plunge.

Even though I knew that the Bremen Airport was very close and very small, we figured we should leave plenty of time for disasters given our track record so far. After retrieving our bags, we caught the number 6 tram from outside the hotel to the airport which took all of 17 minutes. Because we were two hours early for our flight, there was NO ONE in line to check in or go through security. We checked the bags, went through the scanners (with our shoes on!) and proceeded to…. wait.

And wait. And wait. The flight was an hour late but eventually we were herded aboard, listened to the sales pitch for everything from ham and cheese paninis to make up to scratch off lottery tickets, and then landed 90 minutes later without incident. The bags arrived on the same plane we were on and the hire car was waiting for us as expected – same kind as last year: a three cylinder white Ford Focus that whines every time Frank tries to pick up speed.

We hurried to Sainsbury’s for necessities before they shut, grabbed some fish and chips as they were closing and headed to the flat. In the dark. Where we couldn’t read the numbers on the houses to know which one was ours. Imagine us wandering up and down the road, in the dark, carrying fish suppers, trying to figure out the numbering scheme so we can find 9A. We’ve stayed on this road before – twice! – but never realized that instead of having the even numbers on one side and the odd numbers on the other, the houses were numbered sequentially: 1 – 6 on one side and 9 – 14 on the other. We eventually figured it out and enjoyed lovely greasy fried food with some warm cider before a hurried cup of tea and then off to bed.