Exquisite in Bremen

We arrived here...

... at half past twelve to a blue sky and perfect spring weather.

Vegesack is a district of Bremen, located 20 km (12 miles) north of the centre of the city at the mouth of the river Lesum, beside the river Weser.

It was established long before the 14th century, the name "Vegesack" was first used in 1453. The source and the meaning of the name is unknown but might be derived from the pub "Thom Fegesacke". In its long history Vegesack often changed hands. In 1648 it became Swedish, 1712 Danish, 1802 Bremish and 1810 French. In 1850 Vegesack received town privileges and in 1939 it became again part of the city of Bremen.
(source Wikipedia )

It's one of these typical small, picturesque places with darling old houses, small alleys and cobblestone pavement. For the first time on this tour we actually felt like being on a holiday.

Our stay for the night was Pension Weserblick, a cute little hotel located directly at the waterfront. Attached to it is the restaurant Goden Wind with a maritime feel and menu (that will not only make fish lovers happy though [note from Stefie: and fish haters...ahem...]).

The only slight little problem with that place is: they don't have an elevator. We had to haul up our bags to the 2nd (3rd, for all you American readers LOL) floor, using a narrow wooden stairwell .

Not sure if we had made it, if the super friendly hotel guy hadn't helped us with the heavy stuff. A huge thanks to him!!

Before exploring the sights of Vegesack, we checked out the venue for tonight, Cafè Erlesenes ("erlesen" = exquisite) and it tuned out to be a Cafè Exqusit later on indeed. This is what it looked like before the stage was set up:

A bit like Granny's living room, right? In the most positive meaning of the word. Sarah from PA later mentioned their delicious Frankfurter Kranz cake and we made a mental note to come back tomorrow and check it out.

Typical sight in Vegesack: little cute individual shops like this one, that carried antiques.

Taking a relaxing stroll along the river Weser

But they also have a full blown shopping mile. Totally unexpected for us. When we saw the sign "shopping mile" for the first time, we both thought it would consist of 5 shops at the most. Yeah. It did not. With the result that Stefie spent some serious bucks (and me a few) in a clothes shop ;-) (Note from Stefie: thanks to Mr. N. Othold, for being an excellent advisor.)

Doors of the café opened at 6:45pm and we found a good spot close to the tiny stage, right next to Jennifer, whom we've met through one of Lee's shows last year, and her hubby. If you're reading this: it was nice to see you there! ;-)

It was a sold out show and many people were obviously not only first time visitors of the cafè but also first-timers when it comes to Lee and Paper Aeroplane shows. And surely left as new fans ;-)

The owner of the café welcomed us all and introduced PA and Lee before they came out to play which added a very personal touch to the whole event. Before the show and during the breaks there was table service, even little snacks could be ordered. (Their warm prezels are wonderful!!)

Lee came out 2nd again that evening... and I'm sure no one realized that he had a serious cold (just like Rich from PA). There was no way to tell from his performance, which was - with the help of two big cups of hot tea with lots of honey, provided by the friendly café people - as flawless and entertaining as ever.

Set opener was Hindsight for a change, followed by

Joanna
London In The Summer
All The Wrong Places
This Is My Story
Star Hotel
You're Not Her
Clint Eastwood/Prince of Bel Air/Rock me Amadeus/MfG/Billie Jean mashup
Stay
Falling In Love For The Last Time
Smile

The usual question, if there are any Muttis in the house, was anwered by Jen who said she had two kids, Lee said "three?!", Jen corrected "TWO!" and Lee apologized, saying "her husband just wondered how that happened".

For the following unplugged session he was weaving carefully along the tables in the café, walking to every back corner of the room.

There was the usual big applause for him after the last song. Hasn't been any different anywhere.

When PA came out for the last two songs, it got a wee bit crowded on the tiny stage with the three of them, but somehow it all worked out. But due to limited space they didn't come down to perform Newport Beach unplugged.

This was surely a very unique concert location but a one of a kind experience at the same time. Can't get any more up close & personal than that. We loved it!