A day packed with typical Bremen Activities

Thursday was my first full day in Bremen. I was staying with Regina in the northern part of the city in an area called Vegesack. This day was jam packed with typical Bremen activities. It started with a trip to the library with her friend Petra. It was quite interesting (and amazing) how many books they had in English. You'd be hard pressed to find many books written in German in my library!

After the library we had cappuccino at Petra's house before strolling through Vegesack's pedestrian zone and Farmers' Market. It was cold, but so interesting to see all the different foods and things for sale.

We returned home in time for Regina's daughter's return from school and we ate delicious baguette sandwiches from a shop just next door. After a brief Skype call with my husband back in the States, we had an enjoyable hour playing a driving game on the Wii! Boy was I bad at that! I think my German friends might be afraid to ride in my car after that performance.
Regina's husband returned from work a short while later and he drove us all to a new mall called "Waterfront." On the mall grounds was a small Christmas Market, but it was raining and cold so we didn't really stop to see it. We just ran through it to get to our real aim - an Ice Sculpture Exhibit. The exhibit was incredible and amazing but also incredibly cold. We later saw a piece on TV about how difficult it is to carve in ice because you can't see shadows on it like you can with wood, stone or metal.
Here is a sampling of some of the amazing pieces - the photos don't do them justice.
After this chilling experience we actually found it felt much warmer outside than it had before. The ice hall was kept at below zero and it felt bitterly cold in there.

Our last stop for the day was for a typical Bremen specialty - Kohl und Pinkel. This dish was prepared just for me by Regina's mother and it was a highlight of my trip so far. The table was covered with platters and bowls filled with smoked pork loin, sausages, boiled potatoes, Grünkohl (Kale) und a special stuffed sausage called Pinkel. You have to take some of each of the meats and cut them up on your plate along with the potato. You top it with a big ladle full of kale and then spoon out some of the Pinkel from the casing on top. It was a wonderful dining experience and boy was I full afterwards. Traditionally people take a long walk in the winter weather before eating this meal and this event is called a "Kohl and Pinkel Fahrt." I probably needed the walk to work off the calories, but after that cold ice hall, I was glad I didn't have to "walk for my dinner."

The PinkelThe pork loinMy filled plate!!! Yummy