An easy drive of a little over 3 hours took me to Bremen. It's quite a pleasant city, not too big, nothing spectacular also. The old center still is its heart, which this time of year results in a big Christmas market on the old marketplace. The people of Bremen (and a lot of foreign guests) were clearly amusing themselves by drinking Glühwein, eating Bratwurst and shopping for Christmas decorations.

I was most interested to see the Roland statue: a real phenomenon of Northern European culture. There's a Roland in Riga (Latvia), where I was earlier this year. Bremen's Roland is supposed to be one of the best, but today it was almost hidden between the Christmas stalls. Difficult to get a good look at him this way, but some details do stand out. He has very pointy knees for example!

There's some discussion about the worth of this site as a WHS. The old Town Hall survived the Middle Ages (and WWII) quite intact, which is remarkable for German monuments. Its architecture though is very common in The Netherlands and Belgium. And poor Roland: not much of him is original. Even his head was replaced in 1983.