Havenhostel, Bremerhaven: We're staying and we got a room...

August 25, 2013

We appreciated camping in the back yard of the hostel, but we decided to get a room and stay a second night. We need to finish the journal and do some research for the next part of our trip to Denmark. Good internet connectivity is rare, so we are reluctant to move on. Washing our clothes is also a big priority - it is hard to keep up with these things when cycling long days, so today will be a "home" day.

Accomodation in the city of Cuxhaven was completely booked out. We paid 5 euros to camp in the back lawn of the Bremerhaven hostel and could use all the facilities of the hostel including free high speed wi-fi.

The owner of the hostel had bought this lighthouse(?) to turn it into a restaurant. He is missing the bottom part and as a result it is sitting in the parking lot

Camping was interesting here - a family was also staying here and the children seemed a bit bored - thus we were their entertainment. We quickly tired of their attention and curiosity about the inside of our tent and bike. This led us to asking about a room for the second night - happily we were able to move in to a room at 8 in the morning.

The Hostel is very well equipped with lounges, billiards, food, etc. It is interesting that historically it was used as a facility for the military for training and housing. After the war, the American army were here. The building was recently set for demolition and the owner has beautifully restored this historic building to be welcoming and comfortable. Best of all, it is truly a Bike and Bett facility, with a large, locked shed for bicycles.

One of the lounges in the Havenhostel in Bremerhaven.

The Hostel supports a local hockey team. We imagine that there may be Canadian lads playing here.

Across the road, we saw tables being set up for a market. We wandered over and were surprised to find that it covered a huge outside area, as well as a building filled with antiques, washing machines, etc. Stores, by law, are closed here on Sundays - so this market had a captive audience of shoppers.

Dinner at a local Italian restaurant in Bremerhaven - shared pizza and special Italian salad. Their tradition is to offer a free liquer as a sign of hospitality - we both had flaming zambuca. A surprising thing for us this year in Germany is discovering the Italian element for dining - reasonably priced and excellent food, but best of all are the "eis" (ice cream) shops. Freshly made ice cream for very little cost is available in every town and village. Last year in Bavaria, we didn't see so many Italian eateries and ate mostly at Gasthauses and had traditional German food.

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