Germany (Lonely Planet, 6th Edition) - Andrea Schulte-Peevers [586]
On their first night on the road, they decide to shelter in a house. It turns out to be occupied by robbers, as our heroes discover when they climb on the donkey to peer through the window. The sight of a rooster atop a cat, perched on a dog, which is sitting on a donkey – and the ‘musical’ accompaniment of braying, barking, meowing and crowing – startles the robbers so much, they flee. The animals remain and make their home ‘where you’ll probably still find them today’.
On Sunday from May to early October, this story is charmingly re-enacted (at noon and 1.30pm) in Bremen’s Markt.
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Hoetger’s Haus Atlantis (now the Bremen Hilton) features a show-stopping, multi-coloured, glass-walled spiral staircase ( tours 10am-noon & 2-4pm Mon).
Hoetger worked around the existing, 16th-century Roselius Haus, and the Paula Modersohn-Becker Haus, with its rounded edges and wall reliefs, is his design too. Today these two houses are adjoining museums ( 336 5077; combined ticket adult/concession €5/3; 11am-6pm Tue-Sun). The first contains Roselius’ private collection of medieval art. The second showcases the art of the eponymous painter, Paula Modersohn-Becker (1876–1907), an early expressionist and member of the Worpswede colony Click here.
Outside, the Glockenspiel (carillon; hourly noon-6pm May-Dec, noon, 3pm & 6pm Jan-Apr) chimes while a panel honouring great sea explorers, such as Leif Eriksson and Christopher Columbus, rotates.
Böttcherstrasse is all the more enjoyable for having survived a Nazi destruction order. Roselius convinced the authorities to save the ‘degenerate’ street as a future warning of the depravity of ‘cultural Bolshevism’.
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Schnoor
Over the years, Bremen’s former maritime and then red-light district transmogrified into a quaint maze of restaurants, cafes and boutique shops. It’s a honey-pot for tourists, but its restaurants are also popular with locals in the evenings.
The name ‘Schnoor’ is north German for ‘string’, and refers to the way the 15th- and 16th-century cottages – once inhabited by fisherfolk, traders and craftspeople – are ‘strung’ along the alleyways.
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Beck’s Brewery
Germany has well over 1200 breweries, and about half of these are found in Bavaria, not the north. The beer of one brewery in particular, though, has long washed beyond the shores of Germany to establish itself as an international brand. You can see where the wares come from during a two-hour tour of the Beck’s brewery ( 5094 5555; Am Deich; tours €9; 2pm & 3.30pm Thu & Fri, 12.30pm, 2pm, 3.30pm & 5pm Sat Jan-Apr, additionally 11am & 12.30pm Thu & Fri, 9.30am & 11am Sat May-Dec). Take tram 1 or 8 to Am Brill. Prost!
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Museums
Bremen has a strong aerospace industry, and space buffs will enjoy the eye-catching, oyster-shaped Universum Science Center ( 334 60; www.universum-bremen.de; Wiener Strasse 1a; adult/child €18.50/12.50; 9am-6pm Mon-Fri, 10am-7pm Sat & Sun), where you can make virtual trips to the stars, as well as to the ocean floor or the centre of the earth. Take tram 6 from the main train station to Universität/NW1 stop.
The Übersee Museum (Overseas Museum; 1603 8101; www.uebersee-museum.de, in German; Bahnhofplatz 13; adult/child/concession €6.50/2.50/4.50; 9am-6pm Tue-Fri, from 10am Sat & Sun) takes you to all continents of the world and offers an insight into natural evolution with its dazzling collection of exotic artefacts, brought together in the tradition of a Hanseatic city. It can call on about 1.1 million objects, including African art, tropical plants and gold from South America.