Well, we are now back safe and sound in our little house in Glossop after a stonkingly good trip around Deutschland. It really is becoming a home away from home. In the last few days of our trip, we stayed near to Bremen, scouting out the retro and vintage goods around there and up to Bremerhaven. Bremerhaven was a bit like Morecambe…

 Bremen itself was fantastic. We didn’t get to see too much due to the driving-around-like-maniacs-whilst-looking-for-pottery aspect of the trip, but from what we saw it’s a place I could quite happily live in. True Mid Century design sprung up from every corner. The pizza place above caught my eye because of the giant Scheurich pot in the window. I assumed it was some kind of retro shop; slightly surprised when I realised it was just a takeaway.

It looked out onto a square, also demonstrating some Mid Century design and sculpture:

I like to imagine that inside each of these flats is a dark, wooden flooring; Scandinavian furniture and some ’50s ceramics. Unfortunately, I think the truth would be far from that vision.

Another amazing building we spotted was this church. We couldn’t go inside for a look-around, but Aidan did take some hasty shots for me, without the ‘Pin-hole’ setting that I played around with for the previous pictures:

We found some good things in Bremen and Bremerhaven, not just some retro design to ogle but objects to keep as well. My favourite place was a junk shop we stumbled upon in some back street that was run by a quite mad old lady, who happened to have a good eye for spotting more things we might like. Unfortunately, most of what she picked out for us was chipped or cracked… didn’t stop her barking ‘Funfziger Jahrer!’ at us and then laughing like mad when we smiled at her. Anyway, amongst other bits and bobs, we got these:

A J.H. Lynch print of ‘Tina’, which we already have a copy of, but was a bargain. And… a Scheurich 279 in a gorgeous ORANGE Lora glaze. It was cracked slightly, but for five Euros, I really didn’t care. It can sit next to my other one and help to look after the baby 414s.

On our final full day in Germany, Sunday, the weather was atrocious in the morning. So we made a quick decision to drive down to Cologne, where a 50s-70s festival was being held. All I can say is: heaven. It was amazing. Every single stall was like something out of my dreams and we were beside ourselves with joy.

You can see Aidan is eyeing up the wares here! Unfortunately, the prices were a bit higher than what we’d been paying, so we only bought a few pieces: tiny Otto and a few Scheurich 50s vases. We ummed and aahed about a pair of gorgeous teak, Danish chairs but then decided we didn’t have anywhere for them to go, nor could we really fit them into Wanda the Van-Car by this point. The festival was a lovely finishing point to the holiday though and set us up happily for the long drive back to Glossopdale.

Today, I was supposed to be unpacking Wanda but this plan has been thwarted by being unable to find the car keys! I should probably get looking for those now…