Germany (Lonely Planet, 6th Edition) - Andrea Schulte-Peevers [575]
Behind the Schloss is the sprawling English-style Schlosspark. The neoclassical building you see across the square from the Schloss is Die Neue Wache (1839), once a city guardhouse but now part of a bank.
Just across the bridge, the revivalist Augusteum ( 220 7300; Elisabethstrasse 1; included in Landesmuseum ticket; same hours) was built in 1857 in the style of the Italian Renaissance expressly as Oldenburg’s first art gallery. Today it showcases European paintings – with a strong focus on Italian and Dutch masters – from the 16th to the 18th century. The gallery also features changing exhibitions. The third in the Landesmuseum triumvirate is the Prinzenpalais ( 220 7300; Damm 1; included in Landesmuseum ticket; same hours), which focuses on German artists, beginning with Romanticism and neoclassicism of the mid-19th century and culminating in post-1945 artists such as Ernst Wilhelm Nay (1902–68) and Willy Baumeister (1889–1955), and GDR artists popular in the 1980s, like Bernhard Heisig (b 1935). Damm runs southeast from Schlossplatz. Both of these are near the corner of Elisabethstrasse (take bus 315 to Staatsarchiv stop).
Another highlight of Oldenburg is the Landesmuseum Natur und Mensch (Natural History Museum; 924 4300; www.naturundmensch.de, in German; Damm 38-44; adult/concession €5/2.50; 9am-5pm Tue-Fri, 10am-5pm Sat & Sun). Covering the ecology of Lower Saxony’s various landscapes, its most famous exhibit is a huge chunk (or wall) of peat bog, with three niches containing bodies from the Roman period originally found preserved in surrounding moors in the 1930s and ’40s.
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Sleeping & Eating
DJH hostel ( 871 35; http://oldenburg.jugendherbergen-nordwesten.de; Alexanderstrasse 65; dm under/over 27yr €18.90/21.90; ) It is highly advisable to book ahead for this large and rambling hostel. Drawbacks are that it closes at midnight and is also closed for check-in between noon and 5pm. Staff, though, is helpful and it is about 20 minutes by foot north of the Hauptbahnhof, or take bus 302 or 303 to Von-Finckh-Strasse.
Hotel Tafelfreuden ( 832 27; www.tafelfreuden-hotel.de; Alexanderstrasse 23; s €63-75, d €90-100, apt €129; ) This interesting hotel changes concepts every couple of years. One time its rooms were styled on the theme of countries, more recently it takes the theme of colour (and mostly food), with things like ‘vanilla’, ‘chilli’ and ‘lavender’ providing the inspiration for tones. Rooms are mostly a good size, and the atmosphere is chirpy, enhanced by a large glass-enclosed seating area and an outdoor terrace. The menu of the restaurant downstairs also changes considerably, but always offers two meat and two fish mains, plus a vegetarian dish and pastas (mains €12 to €25). Take bus 315 to Humboldtstrasse stop.
For eating options simply cruise along pedestrianised Wallstrasse, north of the Markt.
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Getting There & Around
There are trains at least once an hour to Bremen (€7.10, 30 minutes) and Osnabrück (€19.40, 1¼ hours). From Oldenburg, there are trains north to Emden (€15.20, 70 minutes) and beyond.
Oldenburg is at the crossroads of the A29 to/from Wilhelmshaven and the A28 (Bremen–Dutch border).
Single bus tickets (valid for one hour) for the entire city cost €2; short trips are only €1.50, and day passes €5.60. Buy your tickets from the driver. Fahrrad Station Oldenburg ( 218 8250; Hauptbahnhof; 6.30am-8pm Mon-Sat) rents out bicycles for €7 per day.
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EMDEN & AROUND
04921 / pop 51,700
You’re almost in Holland here, and it shows – from the flat landscape, dikes and windmills outside Emden to the lackadaisical manner in which locals