Here are two tips to travel in Bremen and stay on a budget: 1. Use your semester ticket and travel in a local train from Göttingen to Bremen for free (applicable only when you are a student in Göttingen university) 2. Be a gracious couch surfer, and find those local residents who are kind enough to let you stay with them for free (check out http://www.couchsurfing.com)

And the city-state Bremen won’t dissapoint you with its charming Art Nouveau Böttcherstrasse, imposing old buildings in the Marktplatz, pictures or sculptures recasting the fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm.

The Brothers Grimm fairy tale, the Bremer Stadtmuskianten (Town Musicians of Bremen) was chiseled in bronze by the sculptor Gerhard Marcks (1951):

Bremer Stadtmusikanten

And there are many versions of the fantastic four around the town:

I find this version to be the most lovely:

Other traces of fairy tales can also be found in Bremen. Remember this fairy tale of Rapunzel (the girl who has extremely long hair)?

Rapunzel

Or do you remember the story of Gulliver’s travel in Liliput?

Gulliver in Liliput

If you are lucky, you can also run into the Domtreppenfegen underneath the twin towers of the 1200-year-old Dom St Petri. According to the tradition, an unmarried male at the age of thirty should sweep in front of the cathedral until a female is willing to kiss the male. Then he may stop sweeping.

Domtreppenfegen

Well, a kiss from another male apparently doesn’t count! Keep in mind that it must be from a female 😉

And the Germans must be crazily in love with football. Inside the relatively small Marktplatz surrounded by the imposing ancient buidlings, they still manage to put in a balloon-like football playground. See below:

Marktplatz zu Bremen