Bremen Audio Tours

The Bottcherstrasse is a 100-meter alley transformed between 1922 and 1931 into a showcase of expressionist architecture by coffee magnate Ludwig Roselius. The red brick facades, sculptures, and towers are deliberately fantastical. The Paula Modersohn-Becker Museum at number 6, dedicated to the pioneering German expressionist painter who worked nearby in the artists' colony at Worpswede, is the cultural highlight of the street.

The Schnoorviertel is Bremen's surviving medieval quarter, a neighborhood of narrow lanes and small cottages dating from the 15th and 16th centuries that was originally home to fishermen and rope-makers. Today it houses cafes, restaurants, galleries, and small shops. It is the most atmospheric walking neighborhood in the city and easily reached on foot from the Marktplatz.

The bronze donkey, dog, cat, and rooster statue, created by sculptor Gerhard Marcks in 1953, stands on Obernstrasse on the west side of the Town Hall. The donkey's nose has been polished smooth by generations of tourists who rub it for luck. The story, collected by the Brothers Grimm, ends with the animals never actually reaching Bremen, which locals find appropriately ironic.

Labskaus, a sailor's hash of salt beef, beet, and herring with a fried egg on top, is the traditional Bremen dish and an acquired taste that locals are proud of. The fish market along the Schlachte embankment has fresh North Sea fish. Bremen also has a strong coffee culture, partly owing to Kaffee HAG being invented here, and there are excellent independent roasters in the Viertel quarter.