St Petri Dom, Bremen

Today was designated a pootling-around-Bremen day. J suddenly realised she hadn't seen much of the city, what with having been out at carnival, over to Worspwede, and in Bremerhaven. (I could have told her that Bremen is a lot nicer than Bremerhaven in winter, but hey, it was good to visit "the seaside city-on the-moon", as I now call it).

We walked towards Schnoor, the old district with uneven lanes. Visited a Christmas shop (yes, really!) and discovered that Bremen has a fantastic Christmas market. Note to self...

J wanted to go into a Viennese-style cafe. I was very happy to rediscover Grog (rum and hot water) and apfelstrudel. Reminded me of my days in Zlin, Czech Republic, when I lived there between 1992 and 93. After more wandering, we ended up at the market , and then the indoor market hall which was full of delightful food stalls. Next stop was the Lutheran Cathedral, St Petri Dom, which I have blipped above. I also blipped the outside of it on 25 February 2019. This shot is better, I hope! 

I absolutely love the simplicity of the interior, as I did last year. Feeling rather tired and flu-ey, I stayed sitting on a bench contemplating the windows, while J zipped around the museum. I was just thinking about my own links with the Lutheran church in Latvia (long story, but one involving my ex and the Lutheran Archbishop of Riga, which culminated in my visiting Latvia in 1990, pre-independence), when J popped back to my bench and said that she'd just been chatting to the Lutheran archbishop of Havana!  

Archbishops, eh? You wait ages for one to turn up....

Afterwards we went to the Art Gallery and bought some postcards, because time was running out to start viewing actual paintings. I'd been inside the exhibition space last year, and I'm sure I'll be back. We carried on back to the Quarter, via the ice cream shop (peanut for me) and when we got back, Kim and J went straight back out to get some takeaway food. I refused to go, on the grounds that I was exhausted, but stayed behind and saved Kim £25 on a UK train fare by visiting a ticket-splitting site.  Hurrah! I'm still good for something, even if I have a light case of the flu).

After we'd eaten Sri Lankan and South Indian street food for supper, with M, Kim's daughter, we went out the wine bar round the corner, where we were joined by Kim's new ballroom dance partner. She's great fun, as we had discovered at the Schlachthopf on Saturday night. We decided to try the Bremen micro-brewery beers, while M, the dance partner regaled us with stories of her career as a model for Japanese TV adverts in the early 1980s. Strange days! We danced out of the bar, when they decided to close most unreasonably, and wended our way home all the way round the bend. 
A memorable last night. Thank goodness I had done my packing first! I shall miss Kim, M and M and of course Bremen too, and The Quarter, where Kim lives.

Oh, and for the record, mine's a Bremer BioStadt Bier. Organic, practically a health drink....