November 24th:
(Happy Birthday, Davie)
I woke up this morning and knew today was the day "to do" Bremen. Perhaps it was the pictures John brought back; but no. My back only vaguely protested; my incision was humming but not yodeling, and my thighs and legs didn't hurt. To me that was the "green light" to go. This is one weird recuperation. I'm either "all go," or completely "down for the count." Peculiar.




Today the sun was shining as we took a taxi to Schnoor. Schnoor is the oldest part of Bremen,the part that didn't get bombed during WWII. That's why Bremen isn't considered one of the "older" cities in Germany. What's here really isn't that old compared to other parts, for more than 3/4 of it has been rebuilt since the last war. The Germans are very polite and discreet in how they refer to it when speaking with us.











This morning, the cabbie wanted to know if we wanted to go shopping, or go sight-seeing. We said sight see-ing, and he said, "Oh, you want Schnoor. It has pretty litle cobblestone streets, and tiny, picturesque houses that are very old. Very nice. You like Schnoor!" Well, we'd heard that Schnoor was the place to shop! Both were right. I don't think we've hit all of Schnoor, but what we did see was indeed just what one would imagine old "tourist" Germany to look like. We found yarn shops...but no local yarn. Noro, Italia, Guatamalan, and English yarns...but no German yarn. I opted for a Peruvian Scarf and a couple of Grandma Books and a baby t-shirt on the Musicians of Bremen.







Then we made our way to St. Peters Cathedral. Now, THAT's where my heart lies. I love old Cathedrals. I love the architecture; I love the reverence one finds there; I love the history; I love the smell of the stone; I love the cloisters. I love the graveyards, too. But I didn't find one in Town Square. BUT, I did find a glorious Cathedral. We entered the cathedral, and took a few minutes to examine all monuments in the front, and we wound our way around to the back of the cathedral.










We sat down to get oriented, take a few moments to express to God our profound appreciation for all He's done, and Lo! Behold! The organist of the Lord played upon us!!! I kid you not. He played one, and only one, song. But it was for me; I just knew it. So I sat there and blubbered for a few moments at the glory of it all. Then we moved on. We wandered the Town Center, which is now looking like a circus of gypsie wagons and boughs of evergreens.


They're getting ready for the Christmasfest, and evidently, it's quite the show. We will be here fo the beginning of it, and if the signs of what we see are any indication, it's going to be grand!








Hans with the Golden Hands is coming to my hotel room tonight. What a blessing He has been. He's so jovial, so skilled, and very informative, as well. Tomorrow Stenum is sending a taxi so I can go back for a check up. What a place to "recover." It's really very wise.






One gets so caught up in the sight-seeing, or the fancy hotel, that you are distracted from the aches, pains, and other issues of recovery. John has been doing his best to deplete Brenum of its Jevers stock. Hans said it was even better than Becks. I don't know. But I can attest to their High Tea.