Bremerhaven radar tower and the Dalek Hotel

So here we are (J and I) in the largest working port in Germany apart from Hamburg. Why are we here?

I blame J. At the time of our planning this holiday, I had just finished planning a trip to Sorrento for May this year, which had taken a few days. I was sick of travel guides and websites, so I threw the Rough Guide at J and asked where she wanted to go, apart from Bremen. She chose Bremerhaven.

I had a vision of Gourock, or Greenock, in the 1970s. It's a port city, after all. (I have now discovered from the map that there is a Grimsbystrasse. Of course: North Sea, fish, a bit windy...) On arrival by train from Bremen, the architecture reminded me of East Germany. Once we'd located our small hotel (and I'd had a long lie down) , we went out to explore the the waterfront. By this time, it was clear that a massive redevelopment programme had taken place, with an impressive, but bizarre, Dubai-style hotel dominating the skyline, alongside more the more traditional Radar tower and high rise apartment blocks.

We crossed a huge indoor bridge into a covered shopping complex and food court. A brilliant Thai Red curry and a Tsingtao beer later, we were off to explore the town some more. The state theatre and concert hall look original, but much of the rest of the town centre is postwar architecture. Not hard to imagine the reason why.

Now we're back in the hotel, planning an early night. We did not explore any of the museums today on account of my heavy cold/flu. No one wants to be seen sneezing in public right now. Plus, I'm not feeling too bright.