Germany, day 36: The Last Saturday in Bremen

Far too soon, it seemed, came our last Saturday in Bremen. Since returning from Bergen-Belsen the day before, we were freshly aware of how much Bremen had become "home" for us. It was really a mind-opening experience to call a place with a different language and culture "home"; I suppose that is what some immigrants feel, as well.

As is typical to Saturdays, there was a market alongside the Weser, which I have yet again forgotten to photograph. We browsed, looking for something to eat, but also to find the times of the Pannekoekschip. (I believe that is actually Dutch, not "Pfannekuchenschiff", the German, or "Pancake ship", the English.) The ship did not begin serving until noon, about an hour later, and I had not yet eaten breakfast. I took a brief look at the wares on the market, and resolved to do some research before buying a Game Boy Advance game in German.

On the way back from our morning excursion, I saw this lion head, which I had not previously noticed.

After breakfast, I found that GameBoy Advances and DS have no regional lockouts, which had been my concern. I went out to the market, where one could get GameBoy Advence games, and I found that my DS could play European games, as expected. Strangely, none of the Pokemon games had worknig batteries for keeping track of the time of day, so I opted for Final Fantasy 5, which plays in any of English, German, French, Italian, and Spanish. (A few days later, I discovered that it would not save! My guess: the vendor was selling pirate copies.)

At long last, we had supper on the "Admiral Nelson Pannekoekschip", which we had long looked at from our window views. We opted to eat abovedecks, which was a good choice, as the weather was favorable, but some of the atmosphere (and all of the pirate music) was exclusive to the belowdecks eating. The Weser is very calm, except for the occassional wakes from ships, so there was no rocking of the ship. The waitresses dressed in a modern and modest rendition of the "wenches" of pirate lore, and the waiter, whose spoke English well, was more slender and used the occassional pirate word.

A Schöfferhofer Hefeweizen with "The Admiral", a seafood-laden pancake.

I had never imagined anything but jam, syrup, fruits, or berries to adorn a pancake. But now I am clear of my ignorance! I have had a pancake with shrimps and octopus: an unexpected treat, and the most-expensive item on the menu. I could have gotten something like apples and cinnamon, I suppose, but I can get that very readily in the US. Seafood pancakes are much harder to come by, in my experience.