Exploring the Schnoor

There are some places that just sound great and fascinating. Zanzibar is one of those. Turns out Bremen’s Schnoor district is another.

Getting to Bremen involved two extremely crowded trains. The second one we were fortunate to get a seat on, even though it meant sitting opposite a man who insisted on talking non-stop in German to both us and his little teddy bears throughout the entire trip.

All those people on the train had to be going somewhere, and Bremen’s complex of Christmas Markets was the place. It turns out that Bremen has a beautiful Rathaus, a quite impressive cathedral, a small and twisty complex of old-town streets called the Schnoor, and a huge, and famous, set of Christmas Markets. For a big city the old town is surprisingly charming, but it’s absolutely heaving with visitors at the moment.

Look, imagine a crowded place. Add another crowd. Then jam in a a few more people. That’s the Bremen Christmas markets. Don’t get me wrong – they are very cool markets, but they without doubt, crowded. There are really two sections of markets, one by the market square which our hotel overlooks, and the other down by the river. The river markets are medieval pirate themed and really very atmospheric. There is a persistent fog which is hard to distinguish from the steam rising from gluwein stalls and food sellers. It’s quite an experience.

But in, case I had failed to mention it, there were a lot of people. Then we had an idea – we retreated to Schnoor. Just far enough away from the markets that we found a cool bar where we could sit – on a padded seat in the warmth – with a drink. Added bonus was that the local carpenter guild was meeting in the bar, all dressed in black clothing and wearing big hats. We had a great chat with some locals once we reassured them that their broken English beat our smattering of German hands-down.

Although Bremen was really just a place to break our journey, it has proved to be an excellent spot to pass an afternoon and evening.