[I originally posted this in April 2018 but have just reposted it to fix the broken image link]
Roland statues date back to the medieval ages and can be found throughout Germany, with them originally being a sign of the town’s trading rights. This is a particularly interesting sculpture as it dates to 1404, replacing an earlier wooden version. It is listed on the UNESCO World Heritage list and also appeared on a German coin in 2010.
[I originally posted this in April 2018, but I’ve just reposted it to fix the broken image links]
It’s always important for me to have a little investigation of a city’s central library, a useful indicator of how important the local authorities value the resource. This library feels modern, is spacious and there are a lot of quiet places, so I’d say that Bremen certainly values its library highly.
The outside courtyard of the library, with seating and a giant chess board.
Themed seating, a nice little book related touch.
A look down at the library’s collection of prints and illustrations.
This is the main entrance area to the library, the rest of the building is a shopping centre with shops and restaurants. It’s all covered and another part of Bremen’s modern looking retail zones.
So many books! Floors and floors of them, all clearly displayed and indexed.
A side view of the library building. All in all, a wonderful resource which importantly wasn’t too loud. There’s a separate area for teenagers and children, with a large selection of books and DVDs in English. There’s also power sockets for computers and laptops and numerous staffed information points around the building.
I noticed this street a few days ago when I was meandering about in London and I wondered about its history and whether there were a few tales to tell. I’m not entirely sure that there are, indeed, the street only took its current name in 1935 as before that it was defined as being an extension of Great Queen Street. The street got its name from James Farquharson Remnant, 1st Baron Remnant, a British politician and lawyer. He was the Conservative MP for Holborn (the area where the street is located) between 1900 when he was elected unopposed until 1928. His great grandson, Philip John Remnant, is still in the Lords as a result of the hereditary Peerage, although he’s one of the elected ones by fellow Peers and he will be removed soon as part of the Government’s changes to the Upper House. I had to look this up, but apparently Remnant comes as a name from the Middle English remenaunt(e) ‘remaining part survivor’ perhaps used for someone whose siblings had died in infancy.
The street is the one in the middle of the image (the unnamed bit to the right of Great Queen Street). This map is from the 1880s and before they built the road known as Kingsway in the first few years of the twentieth century, which is what caused this stub of street to need a name of its own.
Incidentally, we can tell that the street sign is before the 1965 borough changes, the year that Holborn, Hampstead and St. Pancras were all joined together to form the Borough of Camden. As an aside, in 1900 the Borough of Holborn was formed when the below parishes were all merged together:
St Giles in the Fields and St George Bloomsbury
St Andrew Holborn Above the Bars with St George the Martyr
Liberty of Saffron Hill
Furnival’s Inn (part)
Gray’s Inn
Lincoln’s Inn
Staple Inn
And there’s Remnant Street in the middle, looking towards Kingsway (or the A4200 for those who prefer that). There was some excitement in November 1964, when the Daily Express reported that there had been an armed raid on the Post Office on the street, with a motorcycle escape by a gunman who took off with £240. And the News Chronicle reported in 1969 that self-service for postal orders had been introduced in London, at the Remnant Street Post Office. Indeed, nearly every mention of this street in newspapers on-line seems to be in reference to the Post Office. The building still stands, but the Post Office closed long ago and it’s now part of the Centre for Commercial Law Studies.
It’s not really the most exotic of streets, I could have chosen somewhere with a bit more obvious history, but there we go. I had thought that it might have been named as it was a bit of a remnant street, and although that oddly is indeed what it has become, that’s not the reason for its naming. There was some excitement at the other end of Remnant Street in 2018 though when the Co-operative Bank was shut and they opened up a Greggs in its place, but that’s about as far as I can go in terms of shattering stories about the street.
[I originally posted this in April 2018 but I’m reporting it now with the broken image links fixed]
When I had arrived at Bremen Cathedral the little ticket desk to the tower was closed, which I was secretly relieved about as that meant I didn’t have to climb it. I have a habit of always wanting to climb things and then immediately regretting it as it’s often too tiring or I’m reminded that I’m scared of heights.
However, on my way out of the Cathedral I noticed that there was a man in the office ready to take money. So I couldn’t resist, paid the €2 and began the climb.
The good news is that the climb is primarily of steps like this, which are enclosed and in solid condition. The bad news is that there are loads of them and people also have to come down the same steps, so there isn’t a huge amount of space.
There was a platform around two thirds of the way up when I had to change which steps I went up, with a view down into a lower room. Unfortunately the cathedral just seems to be using that as a junk store, but it’d be nice to open it up with a little exhibition.
My first reaction was that it was very windy. So windy that it was hard to even hold my phone, with the gusts of wind being enormously strong and rather never-ending. Fortunately, the edges were well protected with wire and netting, although that took away from the photos a little.
One of the circular windows in the tower, which look rather small when viewed from ground level.
Two things occurred to me here. One is that people are leaving money in some strange and inaccessible places which are in danger of blowing onto the heads of people below. The other is that I’ve discovered where the city centre McDonald’s is.
The other end of the cathedral. It was certainly worth the money to climb up to the top and I was fortunate that it wasn’t at all busy, it’s almost a mystery why so few people wanted to go to the top on a windy and rainy day…. There were two visitors I did encounter at the base of the steps, but fortunately they had only climbed up two steps so they went back down again.
I’m slowly, but steadily, working on my project to visit every pub in the Good Beer Guide. This building, located on Carey Street near to the Hunterian Museum, is thought to have been built in 1602 although the bar is mostly Victorian. There’s no shortage of history to the pub, which was originally called the The League of Seven Stars in a nod towards Dutch geography (the Seven United Provinces of the Netherlands). I didn’t go up to the toilets in the pub, but they are noted for their steep stairs and a sign which requests customers not to swing on the rail. It’s located near to the Royal Courts of Justice so they are treated to a considerable amount of trade from the legal profession.
A range of Greene King and Adnams beers is not what I was hoping for as they’re so common in East Anglia, but it’s something perhaps slightly different for London. I went for a pint of Broadside which cost £6 and was well kept and tasted as expected. There are some reviews which mention, quite grumpily, that the pub doesn’t offer tasters and that is highly unusual. Anyway, the service was friendly and engaging, so the atmosphere felt inviting.
The slightly infamous pub cat visible in the background. It’s said that Shakespeare might have visited the building given that his plays were performed at Middle Temple, although that’s perhaps a little fanciful. More likely is that the pub was used as the inspiration for The Magpie & Stump featured in Pickwick Papers. The building is listed in CAMRA’s list of outstanding interiors of national historic importance and they note:
“The frontage bears the date 1602 but the building itself probably dates from “only” the 1680s, and was extended into the building on the right in 1878. The core of the pub is the part with doors embellished with etched and gilded glass, declaring ‘private counter’ (on the left) and ‘general counter’ (right). These names are probably unique, certainly in the experience of the writers, and correspond to the more commonly used ‘private bar’ and ‘public bar’. So there were evidently two separate areas fronting on to a common servery and divided, no doubt, by a timber screen. The counter (a plain affair) and bar-back are Victorian and the coloured advertising panels in the head of the latter are typical of the period around 1870-1890. The pub further expanded into the building on the left hand side in relatively recent years to form a cosy drinking area called the ‘Wig Box’.”
A rather better cat photo than my efforts.
I did try though.
I couldn’t quite understand these chairs, as one customer tried to sit on them and nearly fell off before meandering to one of the tables. The tables have table-clothes on so it wasn’t entirely clear to me whether drinkers were allowed to sit at them. The pub is primarily food led and there’s a blackboard which is chalked up with the daily menu. I must admit, the whole arrangement felt a little uncomfortable so I wouldn’t want to linger, but it’s a popular venue. Most surfaces were sticky which made it a little challenging to find somewhere to stand and not stick to something, but the food is very well reviewed and I’m sure it’s marvellous. Anyway, another Good Beer Guide venue ticked off.
I suspect my two loyal blog readers thought that this Tallinn series would never end. Well, whilst I was trying to be decadent in the lounge, Bev was having a lovely time judging by this photo that Steve sent. I didn’t say anything.
We were all reunited once again, at least for a short while. Bev and Susanna, who are quite upmarket, had paid for the posh bit of Ryanair and we were separated via this glass screen. I think Bev rather enjoyed being with the elite, but I’m used to being in the poor section.
And ready to board, aircraft EI-DHX, not an aircraft that I’ve been on before (although as I’ve mentioned before, my records are a little incomplete). The aircraft is 19 years old and is a Boeing 737. Anyway, slightly geekiness aside.
The flight itself was uneventful, I was fortunate that although the flight was busy I had no-one next to me so the whole arrangement was suitably comfortable. I’ve had plenty of trips with Ryanair recently, but although their reputation isn’t always great, I’ve found no issues with them. We got delivered back in the satellite terminal which delayed matters somewhat and because Susanna and Bev dithered we had to wait for them after the border. Ross rushed off to get his train, we didn’t see him again…. I sat at the back of the shuttle and it’s mildly entertaining to watch it go along, like a DLR in reverse.
And to my great delight: luxury of luxury, Susanna had parked her car in the posh part of the airport so we could just walk there. I had tried to take us to the shuttle bus just assuming we were in some cheap car park. I was fortunate that everything went to time as I had only three hours before I got back to work, but Susanna dropped me off with at least a little time remaining. All told, this was another quite marvellous trip and I’m pleased to report that the group is next year going to what is likely Ljubljana and Slovenia, so I’d better start planning that. And thanks to Susanna, Bev, Steve and Ross for their company, I have many happy memories of Tallinn and look forwards to returning. I’m also pleased to report that the whole adventure went very well as Bev managed to catch the plane this time and there were no issues at the end like in Gdansk when Susanna and Bev slept in after their wild night out. Once again, Steve and I were inspirational, but we don’t like to go on about it.
There were numerous things that I still wanted to post about, I might get around to adding them in some sort of special feature, but now it’s time to start another exciting series of posts 🙂
[I originally posted this in April 2018, but I’ve reposted them to fix some broken image links. That chicken is making me hungry….]
As it started raining I thought it’d be a sensible decision to get back in the warm and dry. They have a big beer garden area that I’m sure is very desirable during the summer, but rather less so on a rainy April lunch-time.
As luck would have it the building I randomly chose was a rather nice pub, with a friendly welcome being offered to confirm my very sensible decision. Although my photo looks like there was no-one inside I did that to avoid taking a picture of people eating, and it was relatively busy.
I was also pleased to see that the pub (or bierhaus really, but I’ll call it a pub) was having a chicken Wednesday, so it felt just like being back in Wetherspoons. My German is good enough to read the special of the day was half a roast chicken (they had a whole chicken but I didn’t want to look greedy) with French fries (or some salad options that I didn’t translate) and a curry sauce. Quite lovely.
One problem I have with beer overseas is that I never know what they have, but my request for Dunkel was understood with happy acceptance, which meant that challenge was over.
Ooooh, that chicken was excellent. Crispy skin, tender meat and a curry sauce with a rich and deep flavour. A big of portion of chicken too and I discovered that they were roasting them in-house. This was a good lunch choice, although I noticed that they had some really decent value lunchtime meal offers going as well where you could get a main course and dessert for €7.
All that excitement meant only one thing, it was time to investigate the city’s central library (I know how to live…..).
[I originally posted this in April 2018, but I’ve reposted it after fixing some broken image links]
Since my foot is fully working again I thought that I’d embark on a mini river walk. Just as I started the walk it began to rain, so I have stopped off in the pub.
But the walk I did looked very lovely.
[I originally posted this in April 2018 but am reposting to fix some broken image links. It reminds me that I haven’t been to Vapiano in years]
Vapiano were my favourite European fast food chain for a while, although I keep forgetting to go to them. Their expansion seems to have slowed down a little, but there’s a centrally located one in Bremen so it seemed an easy place to visit. The welcome offered seemed genuinely friendly, with the staff member being personable and explaining her favourite dishes.
Vapiano have an interesting ordering system that they give you a payment card when you enter, then you just go up to different counters to order pizza, pasta, salad, drinks or desserts. It’s all very efficient and makes it easy and quick to order additional items at any time. They also grow herbs in trays that you can take from to add to your food at the table.
It’s not the nicest looking pizza with the toppings all over the place and it’s not very precisely cut. However, it tasted rather lovely, particularly with the crispy base and the toppings were also of a decent quality.
A little blueberry cheesecake and there are also free gummy bears at the desk for when customers leave.
Using my new Priority Pass card, I thought I’d pop into the lounge at Tallinn and risked trying to get in over three and a half hours before my flight which is earlier than they need let passengers in.
The staff member was helpful and didn’t query my early arrival, but when I entered I could see her logic in thinking that the lounge would cope with the numbers. Lots of power points and chairs of various heights, although I would have preferred more high tables.
The range of sandwiches, yoghurts and croissants.
Salad elements were available as well. The on-line reviews are mostly positive although some people weren’t entirely surprised and delighted by the lack of hot options in the morning. It all felt sufficient to me, although I do prefer cold breakfasts to hot, so I might be biased on that. I enjoyed this lounge and it was clean, comfortable and it all felt well managed.
Thanks to this haven of tranquility, I emerged refreshed, rejuvenated, and ready to face whatever the rest of the day threw at me. And what was waiting for me on the other side of those frosted glass doors? Ah yes, the motley crew of Bev, Susanna, Steve, and Ross, who had been faffing about in the airport cafe. I can only imagine the horrors that they had witnessed. The stale pastries…. The overpriced coffee…. The lingering smell of despair…..
