Zweite Woche
Der Dom
Beck’s
Badeinselregatta
We woke ourselves bright and early on Saturday, July 20 to go to Church. Now I feel obligated to tell the caring CRC parents that this was a Lutheran church, but it was just a tour, so worry not.
The church has a long fascinating history. I forgot most of it to make room in my brain for the last Engineering test. (Which I think deserves a blog entry of its own). “Der dom” is 322 feet tall, making it the 99th tallest church in the world. We saw a crypt, bits of which were over 500 years old. The main sanctuary is vast, and heavily decorated. Here are a few pictures to help explain it.
We climbed up in the tower, a total of 260 some odd steps, giving us a broad view of the surrounding city.
There were many schön sights, but my favorite was either this artist’s rendition of the first day of creation:
or the posted prayer request that read “Dear God, 20 million please.”
So after our vertigo had worn off from the first trip, we decided to get it back again by touring the Beck’s-Haake Beck brewery. We learned many valuable lessons about the engineering processes of mass food production. Including, but not limited to, heat transfer, the recycling of waste materials, and how to bottle beer the 19th century way.
So after we learned how to turn everyday cash crops into popular beverages we saw a brief video history of Beck’s (The beer with the key) and Haake-Beck (The regional beer which supports its community…more on that later.) After the quality of their brand had been thoroughly ingrained in our psyches, we were taken to the reception room to enjoy some beverages. Here we met Russians, Germans around our age, and Fins who like Canadians much more than Americans.
Postwards it was back to the Teerhof for a nice relaxing night of homework.
...
The highlight of the following day (Sammstag) was the Haake-Beck Badeinselregatta. This is a perennial festivity thrown by the aforementioned local brewing company. The shores of the river Weser (VAY-ser) were packed with people all hoping to watch 200 Bremers paddle up the river in little inflatable rafts. This was quite impressive as they were swimming against the flow of the river, and the water is pretty dirty. The Teerhof provided front row seats, so we enjoyed ourselves quite a show. Regard the following pictures as a visual explanation:
Following the aqueous nonsense there was a large party where “Fury in the Slaughterhouse” played a kicking set. Interesting thing: the band spoke in German, but sang songs only in English. The audience was alright with this and still sang all the songs. The longer I am in this land, the more I am impressed by these people’s multilingualousityness
Ask questions and I/we can elaborate.
More updates to come. That is, when the homework dies down, and the inspiration dies up.
-Ian
Next entry: Berlin and Wittenberg
Previous entry: Our New Favorite Car