After finishing our 9pm to 3am shift we then had a couple of hours drive to our hotel in Bremen, in fact by the time we found the hotel, unpacked and showered my head finally hit the pillow at 6am! Taeko and I are not sure what to say to each other as we head off to sleep - is it ‘good morning’ or 'good night’ - We are getting all confused.

Most of our hotels have been on the outskirts of the bigger cities, so to be in central Bremen was a treat and I got myself up about 1pm so I could have a look around the Markplatz, one of Europe’s most impressive market squares. I come from such a young country, New Zealand compared to the wonderful history that surrounds these European cities. I love the architecture of the buildings and my mind just drifts back all those 100’s of years ago to what might have gone on in and around those buildings.

Bremen has a famous folktale attached to the city and they have a statue of a Rooster, Dog, Donkey and Cat in the Markplatz. According to the fable the quartet came to Bremen to seek fortune, but their music and singing was so bad that it caused a band of robbers to flee in terror thus saving the town so they became famous - I got a nice photo beside this famous bronze quartet in the Market Place.

Also had a photo taken outside the Town Hall known as the Rathaus, in the basement is the Ratskeller which is German’s oldest town hall restaurants and when it opened in 1408 it was agreed only wine would be served there, a ban on beer still exists today.

We start the 3am to 9am shift tomorrow so won’t get to see much more during the day for the next four days as we will be sleeping so I was glad to have this opportunity in Bremen.