Germany (Lonely Planet, 6th Edition) - Andrea Schulte-Peevers [595]
Succulently fresh fish is served at the many restaurants of the remodelled Schaufenster Fischereihafen (Fishing Harbour) complex. (There’s also an aquarium and puppet theatre; the on-site tourist office can help with details.) Between Fischereihafen I and Fischereihafen II of the Fishing Harbour, near the Comfort Hotel, is one of Bremerhaven’s better fish restaurants, Natusch ( 710 21; www.natusch.de, in German; Am Fischbahnhof 1; mains €16.50-25.50; closed Monday). Take bus 504 south to Fischbahnhof or 505 or 506 to Schaufenster Fischereihafen. Connoisseurs of delicious smoked fish can head for the family-run Räucherei Herbert Franke ( 742 06; Am Pumpwerk 2; small/large baskets €5/15; 7am-4.30pm Mon-Fri, 7am-1pm Sat), where a long tradition of hand-smoking makes this another culinary highlight. Cats will be following you around for days afterwards.
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Getting There & Around
Frequent trains connect Bremen and Bremerhaven (€10.60, 52 minutes), but consider buying a €20 return Niedersachsen Single ticket.
Travelling by car, Bremerhaven is quickly reached via the A27 from Bremen; get off at the Bremerhaven-Mitte exit. An alternative is a leisurely boat ride from Bremen (see Getting There & Away, Click here).
Within Bremerhaven, single tickets/day passes cost €2.10/5.60. From the train station, buses 502, 505, 506 and 508 stop at Havenwelten, near the Alter Hafen and Neuer Hafen. Buses 504, 505 and 506 also go to Schaufenster Fischereihafen, in the other direction.
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WORPSWEDE
04792 / pop 9450
Worpswede was originally a settlement of turf diggers, but from 1894 an artists colony was established here by the architects and painters who became associated with Bremen’s Böttcherstrasse. Today it is a cute artisans town that lends to mooching around in sunny weather. Outside Germany, the community’s most famous member was the poet Rainer Maria Rilke, who dedicated several books to this pretty Niedersachsen village. Other major names involved include Paula Modersohn-Becker and her husband Otto Modersohn, plus the future designer of Böttcherstrasse, Bernhard Hoetger, architect and painter Heinrich Vogeler, and, the first to move here, painter Fritz Mackensen.
Today, not only can you visit their buildings and view their art in some seven museums, but you can also shop for porcelain, jewellery, posters, soap made from moor products and other trinkets. Throw in plenty of opportunities to stop for coffee and cakes, enjoy a spa, or go hiking, cycling or canoeing, and Worpswede makes a pleasant outing for anyone.
The tourist office ( 935 820; www.worpswede.de; Bergstrasse 13; 10am-5pm May-Oct, 10am-5pm Mon-Fri, 10am-2pm Sat & Sun Nov-Mar) can provide more details, but one highlight is the stroll to the 55m-tall Weyerberg dune, less than a kilometre from the centre, where Hoetger’s Niedersachsenstein sculpture looms like a giant eagle. A memorial to the fallen of WWI, it’s a controversial beast for both the way it ‘spoils’ the natural landscape and for its original purpose as a victory column.
Even easier to reach is the revamped Grosse Kunstschau ( 1302; www.grosse-kunstschau.de; adult/concession €4/3; 10am-6pm mid-Mar–Oct, 10am-5pm Tue-Sun Nov–mid-Mar), designed by Bernhard Hoetger in 1927. It is part art deco and part tepee, has a round skylight that complements wooden floors and, like most things in Worpswede, has attractively curved forms. Its permanent exhibition is a who’s who of the artists’ colony, but there is also a regularly changing exhibition, included in the admission. Part of the complex is a cafe known locally as Cafe Verrückt (Cafe Crazy).
The creative heart of the colony was the Barkenhoff ( 3968; Ostendorfer