Bremen includes the city of Bremerhaven, which lies directly at the North Sea, the state of the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen. Bremen itself is connected to the North Sea through the river Weser. Both cities are situated some 53 kilometres apart each other and are divided by an area actually belonging to Lower Saxony.

On 419 square kilometres live around 655,000 people. Amongst them some still speak Low German, whilst a High German with Low German linguistic influences in articulation and vocabulary prevails. 

Bremen won worldwide fame with the fairy tale „The Town Musicians of Bremen“ by the Grimm Brothers. Those days still prevail in many Renaissance and Baroque buildings at the market place, where numerous patrician's houses still tell tales of past craft art and oversea trade.

Whilst the old town with the Böttcherstrasse and the Schnoor reflects picturesque impressions of old days, it contrasts the city’s harbours where today mainly containers and passenger cars are seen.

In more than 1,000 bars, cafés, bistros and restaurants you can enjoy the kind hospitality of Bremen’s inhabitants as well as a dish called Labskaus whose appearance of minced meat dark red in color due to beetroot juice and various other ingredients might not be everybody's taste – but it indeed is very delicious!

A great place to party is the „Schlachte“ at the shore of the Weser where bars and restaurants line up next to each other. In summer it’s the beer and summer gardens and the long days of northern hemisphere that lure to stay.

Fans of the fairy tale „The Town Musicians of Bremen“ can admire a sculpture of the quartet, a donkey, a dog, a cat and a cock, at Bremen‘s market place at the city hall’s west side. Another landmark of the town is, however this time from the sober world of the science, the Fallturm, a tower where in 146 metre height research and experiments are carried out on the subject of weightlessness.

Photo: Bremen, pixelliebe/Shutterstock