The Rotenburg Dilemna

So, the other day on the train to Luneburg we saw the map of all the regional train destinations accessible for free with our student IDs, and one of the guys recognized the name of a town that he'd visited when on holiday in Germany with his parents 6 years ago as a really historic place to visit. From his recollection, it was completely authentic Germany, and was untouched by the war and still had a wall around the town from centuries ago. Considering how much fun that could be to check out, it was unanimously decided that we had to go. Later that night when we got back to the dorm, we looked up the times for Monday's trains and the plans were finalized. In the mean time, I did a quick google search  of "Rotenburg, Germany" and kept getting multiple towns named Rotenburg. Now, yes this did create some hesitation in my mind at first wondering if we were truly in fact going to the right place, but I couldn't know for sure. None of them had really advanced pages on popular travel websites like Trip Advisor, and we know how unreliable Wikipedia can be...so it did seem that it would be an adventure, but we'd have to go to truly find out. The only reason I still thought it was worth going to was because none of the other "Rotenburg"s had any mention specifically of a "wall", so who knows? Maybe we were going to the right place.

The morning began like any morning does when you have a group of 6 guys going somewhere by trian, rushed. Our dorm is a 20 minute tram ride from the city center, which is still another 10 minute walk from Hannover's main train station. We knew that we were headed to Platform 13 to catch our 10:21 train, but what we didn't know was whether or not we'd make it in enough time. Considering that I personally didn't wake up until 9:40 (I slept through my alarm), the fact we left our dorm at 9:50 was cutting it close...especially when you factor in the walk to our neighborhood stop and wait the few minutes to catch the next tram. Long story short, we ended up making it with time to spare and were on the train to Rotenburg. When we arrived, it looked bleak to say the least. It definitely wasn't the place we'd hoped we were heading to. The town was pretty boring, especially considering that it was about 11:30am on a Monday in rural Germany. After a few minutes of walking around, we decided it was time to enact plan B: go to Bremen. Now, many Germans suggested it as a potential day trip destination especially considering that its home to the Becks Brewery...so even though we were disappointed with the Rotenburg Dilemna everyone was down to go to Bremen. Luckily, it was only a short 30 minute train ride away, and we hopped on the next one, and were in Bremen by 1pm.

When we arrived in Bremen, it was much more apparent that we were in a town that had actually seen tourists before. After a quick stop by the tourist bureau, we were armed with a city map and determination to see the sights. However, the stop at the tourist office did come with some bad news too, apparently the Becks Brewery tours only happen on the weekend, today was Monday. Disappointed, we still vowed to make the most of Bremen, even though it was becoming readily apparent that today wasn't our day. First stop, was lunch and beer. In Germany, it seems that nearly every meal (except for most breakfasts) is accompanied by some type of beer...the number is variant based on what you expect to do afterwards, but an assumed quantity greater than 1 is routine. We had been walking for quite some time, turning potential eateries down based on numerous factors: too many old people, too commercialized, too American...etc, but finally stumbled upon a place called "Becks Cafe". How could we not stop? The food was marginal, I had the currywurst and fries....a German staple that I'd had before, and I'll be honest this wasn't the best I've had...but I still enjoyed it. Deep fried sausage with a curried ketchup, genius combination!

After lunch, we explored the town center a little bit. We saw some really nice churches, the town hall, and some other municipal buildings and museums. In all, Bremen was a pretty nice city. It reminded me a lot of Hamburg to be honest. Retaining some old architecture in the Alte Stadt "old city" district, but having a modern style in most other places. It was certainly not the type of scenery that we expected en route to Rotenburg, but heck, we're in Germany...everywhere is just another adventure. I can't say that I have any regrets from today, or thus far abroad. Especially in a foreign land, you're bound to make assumptions/mistakes but its all in how you roll with the punches. Thanks to free regional train service and the proximity of Bremen to Rotenburg, I'd say we did just that.

Checkout some photos from "The Rotenburg Dilemna":
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.4008584864613.153227.1580961523&type=1&l=47276721f5